Personality
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
There’s a clown running for Congress! No, George Santos isn’t trying to make a comeback (yet) – we mean a real clown, with a painted face and red nose. John McDairmant of Rochester is challenging Rep. Claudia Tenney in a Republican primary. He’s in on the joke – “I am not the first clown to run for Congress, but I do hope to be the first clown to win a congressional seat,” he told Oswego County News Now – but says he’s for real. For more political laughs, read on.
Nicole Malliotakis -
When we made Rep. Nicole Malliotakis a loser in January, we said Staten Islanders won’t give up without a fight. And fight she did, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Malliotakis scored a SCOTUS knockout against Democrats trying to obliterate her Staten Island/Brooklyn district and is now out of the danger zone. Malliotakis likely took Rep. Dan Goldman’s breath away, though, as Goldman now enters the ring against Brad Lander.
Janno Lieber -
The “patron saint of challenging projects” strikes again. New York’s congestion pricing program has overcome a major potential stumbling block, with a federal judge deciding that the Trump administration’s lawsuit to kill the first-in-the-nation tolling program is illegal. The legal challenges to the year-old program aren’t wholly over (perhaps they never will be), but maybe now Lieber can focus on the 10 other intractable projects on his desk.
Melissa Aviles-Ramos -
Some professional news! The former New York City schools chancellor took a new job at HMH, an education company that has made millions of dollars contracting with the city. Aviles-Ramos had reportedly wanted to stay on as chancellor, but got the boot when Mayor Zohran Mamdani chose Kamar Samuels instead. At least now with a title like “executive in residence for innovation and analytics,” you know she’s making the big bucks.
Sid Rosenberg -
Right-wing radio personality Sid Rosenberg seems to have a line after all – at least in the face of widespread backlash. He recently apologized for calling New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “America-hating, Jew-hating, Radical Islam cockroach” and a “jihadist,” admitting that his overarching point could have been made without the name-calling. Mamdani’s response? “Time will tell how sincere of an apology it is.”
Bruce Blakeman -
If you’re going to create your own mini militia, you’d better make sure that you vet members very well. Otherwise you might end up in a situation like Nassau County Executive and likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman. He made headlines when he created a controversial provisional deputy squad of civilians, but it turns out some had arrest records and others have close ties to Blakeman. But at least the double-digit lead Gov. Kathy Hochul has on him shrunk just a little bit, right?
Amir Bassiri -
All eyes are on state Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri and other top health officials as President Trump’s administration launches a probe into Medicaid fraud in New York led by TV’s own Dr. Oz, now the head of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Plus, there’s an imminent lawsuit expected from the Department of Justice against Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Health Department over concerns about bid-rigging and an improper $11 billion home care contract. Headaches abound for the state’s Medicaid director this budget cycle.