Andrew Cuomo

Andrew Cuomo just announced he’s creating a new position in his office to fight intellectual property theft like pirating movies,which Cuomo called the “new high-tech form of organized crime in the State of New York.”

At a press conference in his Broadway office just now, Cuomo said, “It is theft of a work product. It is widespread. It is growing. It is organized. It costs New Yorkers jobs and money.” Cuomo said the problem costs the state $2 billion and 140,000 jobs per year.  read more »

A person attending Reform Day in Albany called just now to relay a few remarks made there by Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith.

“Joe Bruno, your time has come -- reform is on its way,” Smith told the audience of more than 150 people, according to the attendee.

Smith went on to say that he will push for campaign finance reform and nonpartisan redistricting, the attendee said.  read more »

Unlike most public officials, New York’s hard-charging attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, doesn't keep a written daily schedule.

That's according to his office, which, after two separate Freedom of Information requests from The Observer, finally said that Mr. Cuomo simply didn’t have any pre-existing documentation of his day-to-day professional and political activities that he could make public.

It's the nature of his job, an aide explained.

"The vast majority of the attorney general's time each day is spent working on and being briefed on our cases and investigations," said Benjamin Lawsky, a special assistant and deputy counsel to Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. Cuomo’s office eventually did provide a reconstituted outline of his public schedule between January 2007, when he took office, and April 2008. It is five pages long, listing press conferences, public outings and political events. They said it includes everything of a nonsensitive nature.  read more »

Dan Squadron is trying to unseat fellow Democrat Marty Connor for state Senate, in the district that represents lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

But more interesting than the people on the ballot are how Demoratic power brokers are lining up in that fight. Schumer is supporting Squardon, his former aide, against Connor, who didn’t support Schumer in his 1998 primary for Senate.

But as the invitation for Connor’s May 8th fund-raiser at the Ritz Carlton shows, he's got a good chunk of the rest of the party establishment.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo just announced the names of two lawyers who will serve as advisers to his investigation of state police: Robert Fiske and Michael Armstrong.

According to the press release, Fiske "served as Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation from January to October 1994." According to the bio on his firm's web site, he also represented Exxon during investigations of the Arthur Kill oil spill. The press release does not mention this.  read more »

Councilman Tony Avella wants Andrew Cuomo to investigate the City Council’s former practice of funneling money to fake organizations as part of a budget mechanism to ‘hold’ taxpayer money for future use.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo’s office just released two letters related to the Troopergate investigation.

The first, dated yesterday, is from Albany County District Attorney David Soares to David Paterson's office, asking that the governor waive privileges to documents related to Troopergate. (Soares is expected to issue his second report on the effort to smear Joe Bruno later this week.)  read more »

Blair Horner is leaving Andrew Cuomo's staff and returning to his work with N.Y.P.I.R.G.

Here's the statement:  read more »

New Yorkers have high expectations for David Paterson, a new Quinnipiac poll shows, with 75 percent believing that he will govern effectively, 46 percent holding a favorable opinion, and only 3 percent having an unfavorable opinion. (The data was collected between March 16 and 18, and one pollster is quoted as saying opinions shifted slightly after news broke of his affairs).

The poll also shows that, given four choices, New Yorkers overall like Michael Bloomberg for the next governor. He earned 29 percent to Paterson’s 27 percent, although Paterson leads Bloomberg among Democrats. Andrew Cuomo was in fourth place, with 11 percent. The third most favored choice was Rudy Giuliani, who took first place with Republican voters.

Here's the release:  read more »

On the agenda for David Paterson today…a lot of smiling.

From his schedule, which the governor's office just sent out:  read more »

So what does it mean for Andrew Cuomo if (when?) Spitzer goes?

Cuomo ran for governor once already and, as attorney general, never really took his eyes off the possibility of higher office, according to people who know him.  read more »

Some of the reporters scrambling to report on Eliot Spitzer right now are also facing a major rewrite job on the Inner Circle Show, an annual charity event where New York City reporters make fun of elected officials.

It's taking place Saturday in Midtown, with a dress rehersal on Friday. 

A high-ranking Inner Circle source said,"There's an Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer number, but now, it's going to be totally rewritten."  read more »

As he said this week on NY1, Russell Simmons told me today that he is angry that Eliot Spitzer has failed to reform the Rockefeller Drug Law sentencing guidelines—one of his campaign pledges.

“Not only will I campaign against him," Simmons said over the phone. "I’m going to campaign for a change in those laws and he is going to have to stand up and explain why he promised the state of New York that he is going to make this change and when he got in office, he pushed it to the side.”

“We know Eliot Spitzer has to be our target," he added.

When I asked Simmons about his plans for 2010, the hip-hop mogul said, "Is he going to run again? He ought to step down.”

More after the jump.  read more »

So Russell Simmons has put out a statement explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for president.

It's not necessarily a natural choice for Simmons, given how involved he has become in New York State politics. He previously endorsed Andrew Cuomo for office and made numerous trips to Albany during George Pataki's governorship to reform the Rockefeller drug sentencing laws.

In his endorsement, Simmons writes, "I have great respect for the accomplishments of Senator Clinton and I have personally worked with Senator Clinton successfully on issues concerning education, prison reform and poverty."

But in the end, Simmons, who brought rap music from the predominantly black audience into middle class consciousness with groups like Run D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and solo artists like L.L. Cool J, says he’s supporting Obama because the Illinois senator “has and will continue to transcend race in America.”

Although Obama has a wide lead in the world of hip-hop endorsements, Hillary Clinton does have her supporters, including Darryl McDaniels, a.k.a. D.M.C. of Run D.M.C., and Timbaland.

Full statement after the jump.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo announced he’s conducting a major investigation of the healthcare industry that could explain why healthcare costs are so expensive.

According to Cuomo’s office, insurers have low-balled the cost of medical treatment, pushing off a majority of the expenses to customers. The companies being investigated include UnitedHealth Group, Ingenix and others.

Here’s an example of how the scheme worked, according to a public statement from Cuomo’s office:

United insurers knew most simple doctor visits cost $200, but claimed to  read more »

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Here are the latest fund-raising numbers for Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo.

Spitzer raised $3,246,526.82, and spent $1,810,720.60. At the moment, Spitzer has $2,914,230.93.

During that same 6-month period, Andrew Cuomo raised $531,275.34, and spent $193,837.78. Cuomo has $1,141,321.30 on hand.

In a quick scan of contributions, it appears that Spitzer is adhering to his self-imposed contribution limit of $10,000. Cuomo’s limit is slightly higher for his contributors, at $12,500, with some exceptions.

Steve Roth, Aby Rosen, Michael Fuchs, Carl Icahn all gave Cuomo $25,000 (which Cuomo’s people have said is acceptable because half is eligible for the primary and half for the general election).

Andrew Cuomo wins another one for the little guy:

STATEMENT FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDREW CUOMO

“It has come to our attention that Ticketmaster had restricted sale of tickets for the upcoming New York Giants versus Tampa Bay Buccaneers football playoff game to be held in Florida this weekend. The Ticketmaster restriction allowed only Florida residents to purchase tickets.

We believe Ticketmasters’ restriction raises significant legal issues and was causing consumer frauds in schemes to circumvent the restriction. We contacted Ticketmaster about our concerns.

 read more »

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has proposed legislation to cut the wait time for developers who submit plans for new co-op and condo projects.

The legislation would increase funding for the Real Estate Finance Bureau (REFB), the group in the attorney general's office responsible for approving encyclopedic offering plans detailing everything from floor plans to certificates from architects before a developer can start advertising or pre-selling any apartments. In the past five years, the REFB has been inundated with 300 percent more condo and co-op conversion applications, according to the press release issued by Mr. Cuomo's office Thursday.

The legislation, which is currently in committee in both chambers of the New YorkLegislature, would also increase the cap from $20,000 to $30,000 on filing fees for projects over $5 million for the first time since 1989 to cover the cost of additional REFB staff.

Eliot Spitzer and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced a plan today for reforming the management of the $154 billion state pension fund.

But they did not recommend putting the fund under the control of a board of trustees. (Currently, the state comptroller’s office manages it alone). After DiNapoli's predecesssor, Alan Hevesi, resigned over alleged misuse, it reawakened a long-standing debate about the safety of the fund in the hands of one official.

Andrew Cuomo, who is investigating Hevesi, seems to be reserving judgment. From a statement:

"We agree that the Comptroller's Office needs significant reforms and will comment on them at the end of our ongoing investigation concerning that Office."

It looks like Andrew Cuomo has had enough of a self-imposed $10,000 limit on individual political contributions, a cap he originally created "to show solidarity" with Eliot Spitzer's similar self-imposed limit.

This invitation to Cuomo’s January 15 fund-raiser at the Mandarin Oriental hotel seeks contributions of up to $25,000.

When I reached Cuomo 2010 spokesperson Amy Dowell for comment, she said she would call me back. She has yet to do so.

UPDATE: A source close to Cuomo just told me, "Initially, we had said we'd adhere to 10 [thousand], but once the campaign finance agreement was announced, we agreed to 12.5 [thousand]. But at some point we're going to need the clarity of a real campaign finance law." That limit is still being met because half of the $25,000 would go to the primary, and the other half to the general election.  read more »

It hasn’t taken long for the Andrew Cuomo-for-governor storyline to re-emerge.

Prior to the last few weeks, it had last been seen by the light of day in 2002, when he ran a disastrous primary campaign against then-Comptroller Carl McCall, only to withdraw shortly before the vote to avoid what would have been a lopsided defeat.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo will unveil his long-anticipated Project Sunlight tomorrow.

The Internet database will track New York State "donors, lobbyists, special interests, state contracts, and elected officials--and the links between them.”

Spearheading this project for Cuomo is N.Y.P.I.R.G.’s former Albany activist Blair Horner, who Cuomo hired shortly after taking office.

Any predictions about what this is going to turn up?

Are the reckless and irresponsible owners of the Indian Point nuclear plant finally going to be held accountable for their sloppy stewardship? The executives and board-members of the $10 billion, New Orleans-based Entergy Nuclear Corp. have managed for several years to get away with third-rate oversight of the trouble-plagued plant while their shareholders count their profits.

The good news?  read more »

Over the weekend, the Rudy Giuliani billing scandal that has been dubbed both the "Shag Fund" and Judygate played on, with both national and local press seizing on angles to further the story.

The New York Post reported that, in addition to the mayor himself, one of Giuliani's top aides also spent at least one summer night in the Hamptons on the city's dime, while the Daily News added that, in addition to chauffeuring Judith Nathan around, the N.Y.P.D. apparently took her to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, and occasionally even walked her dog. According to CBS, her family got to ride around with the N.Y.P.D. as well.

ABC News reported that Ray Kelly doesn't think Giuliani's story adds up and Michael Bloomberg's girlfriend says she has never had her own security detail. David Seifman calculated that the breakup of Rudy's marriage to Donna Hanover also cost the city a whole bunch of money.

In commentary, Michael Goodwin wrote that Giuliani's personal life is his last hurdle to the presidency, Josh Marshall explained why, contrary to intuition, Giuliani isn't guilty like Alan Hevesi, and Gail Collins just thinks, "Rudy is one of those people who doesn’t handle power well."

More after the jump.  read more »

So Nick Paumgarten's New Yorker piece on Eliot Spitzer just came out.

An excerpt:

As for Cuomo, he may as well have announced his candidacy for governor in 2010. Cuomo, the son of the former governor Mario Cuomo, who was a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton Administration, ran unsuccessfully for governor five years ago. It can be dangerous to ascribe envy or covetousness to a man without being able to know his mind, but people do so to Cuomo all the time; they also surmise that it rankled him that Spitzer declined to endorse him in the attorney general’s race until after the primary. As an Albany lobbyist told me, “We all expected Cuomo to do something like this, but thought he’d maybe wait two and a half years.”

Although New York Democrats, for now, profess to consider the idea sort of outlandish, the Cuomo-for-governor stuff is already beginning to pop up, with or without prompting from Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo just announced he is joining with eleven other state's attorney generals in suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for "denying the public access to information about toxic chemicals in their communities."

"The EPA’s new regulations rob New Yorkers - and people across the country - of their right to know about toxic dangers in their own backyards," Cuomo said in a public statement.

The politics of suing the federal government for a New York attorney general right now are pretty simple: with Democrats here and a Republican in the White House, it's a safe move. It might be a harder call if a Democrat takes over the presidency next year.

UPDATE: An interested reader emailed to note that Cuomo is not joining the other A.G.’s in this lawsuit, but rather, leading them, as it says the press releases sub-headline.

So, the Assembly Democrats are together for the next three days in Brooklyn. In addition to setting legislative priorities, they get to break bread with statewide elected officials, at least one of who seems to have taken a clear political lesson from Eliot Spitzer's string of setbacks at the hands of the legislature.

When asked how things are going, one attendee at the event said via email, “I'm still recovering from the ass kissing the Assembly got from Andrew Cuomo. He spoke to us at lunch. He talked about the great stuff he's been doing and how great the NYS legislature is especially Shelly.”

I'm still waiting to hear back from Cuomo's office.

If anyone has any other inside accounts from the conference, please let me know.

Here's what Larry Levy, the Newsday columnist and executive director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra, has to say about the idea of Andrew Cuomo running for governor in 2010. (The New York Post floated the idea in a package on Eliot Spitzer's tanking poll numbers.)

“People around Andrew want to see him get a little more aggressive. I’m talking much lower level people, people who were around Mario for a long time and are still around.”

But, he said, precedent suggests that it would be tough. “Pataki used to fall to the thirties in approvals, after he’d get the hell beat out of him for going Medicaid or school aid, or whatever it is he would try to do. And as a Republican in a Democratic state, he would bounce back enough to win re-election easily. So, Spitzer is a Democrat in a Democratic state. It’s very hard to unseat an incumbent governor, even if your name is Andrew Cuomo.”

In an interview last night on Inside City Hall, Eliot Spitzer seemed to shrug off the notion that his political troubles will lead to Andrew Cuomo challenging him for governor in 2010, a possibility the New York Post mentioned in its coverage yesterday of Spitzer's miserable poll numbers.

When asked about it, Spitzer smiled and said, “Political chatter is fun. It’s like a card game. You reshuffle the deck and deal them each time a new. that’s what makes it interesting. I don’t’ think for a moment that game or reshuffling and dealing new cards is ever going to stop.”

And about Bloomberg running for governor in 2010?

More after the jump.  read more »

John Sampson, a Democratic state Senator from Brooklyn who is often aligned with the party establishment there, says he's sure the Democratic Party will be able to avert any Spitzer-Cuomo showdown in 2010.

“I don’t think Cuomo is going to do that,” Sampson just told me when asked about Cuomo possibly challenging Spitzer for governor. "There is not going to be any internal fighting. We remember what our purpose is. We’re going to be able to deal with any internal feuds.”

The purpose he was referring to, he said, was reforming Albany and taking over the state Senate.

“You look at the record, there is no controversy," he said. "Eliot is the governor. Andrew Cuomo knows he’s the Attorney General. I’m quite sure he’ll be running for re-election for Attorney General.  read more »

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who the New York Post named a "winner" today because Eliot Spitzer's freefall means a "2010 gubernatorial run becomes more likely," just released the following statement:

"Governor Spitzer today did the right thing by listening to the public’s concerns and setting aside an issue that had become increasingly divisive. New York has many pressing issues that the Governor intends to address and which require his focus.  read more »

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Here's Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo at a press conference earlier today about subprime mortgages. In this clip, they evince amusement at professional Loud Guy Jim Cramer's harsh remarks about them.

Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo walked into the conference room in the governor’s midtown office together, along with a few elected officials, to discuss the state’s strategy for dealing with the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Spitzer said one in five sub-prime mortgage loans in New York State ended in foreclosure, making it a widespread crisis.

Spitzer announced he would push for new state legislation, invest $100 million in a refinancing program for eligible borrowers, invest $2 million in financial education for lenders, and lobby lending institutions to improve their practices.

Spitzer side-stepped criticism from his one-time friend, CNBC financial commenter Jim Cramer, who denounced such actions because they would make it harder for people to get a loan.

A New York Times reporter brought up the fact that Cramer also referred to Cuomo as “a Communist.”

“He said it in a nice way,” Cuomo said.

Citing Cramer again, the reporter said: “He also said he was getting tired of the New York State Attorney General being the most important man in America.”

“I think he mentioned you too, by the way,” Cuomo joked to Spitzer, who obliged by laughing.

“Jim said this? I’ll call him. I’ll straighten him out,” Spitzer responded.

He added, “The feds have failed to act. And in the absence of federal action, we must step in.”

Andrew Cuomo will introduce Scott Stringer at a fund-raising breakfast tomorrow in the Time Warner Building, according to an item in Crain’s today.

(The event is tomorrow morning, at 8 a.m. at Landmarc.)

Stringer, right now the Borough President in Manhattan, hasn’t said what office he’ll be seeking in 2009. He's term-limited in 2013 [updated].

According to a Quinnipiac poll released today, Eliot Spitzer’s approval rating is 47 - 34 percent, down slightly from 48 - 28 in July.

By a 78 - 17 percent margin, voters in the survey said Spitzer should testify under oath about what he knows about his aides plan to use the state police to create records of Joe Bruno’s use of state aircraft. 56 - 25 percent, voters believe Spitzer knew what his aides were doing.

Voters approve 62 - 17 percent Andrew Cuomo's handling of his job overall. When asked about Cuomo's handling of the investigation into Spitzer's office, the approval rating dips slightly to 52 - 21 percent. (55 - 27 among Democrats, and 47 - 39 among Democrats).

It’s also worth noting the six-day survey by Quinnipiac (September 24 to 30th) was started on the day the Albany County District Attorney released his report clearing Spitzer’s aides of any criminal wrongdoing.

As Eliot Spitzer finished telling the state Democratic Party here at the Garden City Hotel what a productive nine months they’ve had since taking over every statewide office, Andrew Cuomo walked into the room and sat in the front row.

 Spitzer finished his speech, left the stage and exited the room. Cuomo sat smiling, unacknowledged by the governor who was assailed in the attorney general’s July 23rd report on the use of state police to track Republican Joe Bruno’s use of state aircraft.

Then, after a brief introduction, Cuomo took to the stage and with a preacher’s bravado in his voice, asked, “Are there any Democrats here?”

Outside the room afterwards, I had the following exchange with Cuomo:

Me: “Were you surprised that Eliot walked out as you were walking in?”

Cuomo: “No. One speaker finishes and another speaker starts."

Me: “You guys didn’t shake hands, didn’t say hello. You were right in the front row. It seemed like a missed opportunity for you guys to publicly show that whatever people might have read into any kind of rivalry...”

Cuomo: “I don’t think people read into a rivalry. I don’t think there is a rivalry. So, I don’t think you’d have to compensate for one because I don’t think it exists in the first place.”

Two thirds of New York voters think Eliot Spitzer needs to be more forthright his involvement in the plan to use the state police to create records on Joe Bruno’s use of state aircraft, according to a poll being released today by Siena College.

By a margin of 70-19 percent, voters want Spitzer to testify publicly, according to the poll.

Spitzer’s favorability rating dropped from 59-28 in July to 56-26 now. 44 percent say he’s doing an excellent or good job, but 49 percent say he’s doing a fair or poor job.

Pollster Steven Greenberg had this interesting piece of analysis. “Unlike most statewide Democrats, Spitzer appears to be strongest Upstate and not among the traditional Democratic base of  New York City voters.”

And in a fun hypothetical scenario in which Andrew Cuomo challenges Spitzer in a gubernatorial primary, Spitzer beats Cuomo 47 to 24.

So, here’s a little background on that much-loved investigatory tool, the Martin Act, which Eliot Spitzer used in his anti-fraud cases and Andrew Cuomo will use in his probe of Alan Hevesi’s alleged pension scam.

The person who blew the dust off the long-forgotten provision of state law is Eric Dinallo, who worked with Spitzer in the Manhattan DA’s office and is now the superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department. In 1926, a court ruled the Act had broad powers and didn't require prosecutors to prove "a willful decision to commit misconduct."

According to Brooke Master’s biography of Spitzer:

“Unlike other applicants, Dinallo had actually read the entire text of New York’s general business law, known as the Martin Act for its long-forgotten Republican sponsor, Louis M. Martin. Though that 1921 statute was considered weak when it was enacted, Dinallo focused on later amendments that had strengthened the act and given the state attorney general unusually broad power to investigate and crack down on those who commit financial fraud. While the Mahattan DA’s Office had been limited to using the Martin Act’s criminal side, the law gave the attorney general a whole range of civil powers: he could subpoena documents, haul brokers and investment bankers in for public questioning, and, unlike his federal counterparts t the SEC and the Justice Department, he didn’t have to specify up front whether he was going to seek criminal charges or file an easier-to-rove civil case. An equally obscure 1926 court case, People v. Federated Radio Corp., had further strengthened the attorney general’s hand by holding that the Martin Act did not require proof that securities sellers made a willful decision to commit misconduct.”

So, if his current investigation turns out to be productive, Cuomo owes one to Dinallo.

The Albany County District Attorney, David Soares, slammed this morning’s Times Union story about his investigation into Eliot Spitzer’s office, saying:

A recent press story that my office planned to negatively critique the Attorney General's report is wholly untrue and we will continue our good, ongoing relationship with the Attorney General.

To date, our assessment of these materials is not complete, and no findings have been made. To draw any conclusions before reviewing all evidence would directly contradict the principles of our process.

It’s a sign that Soares is breaking with an Albany tradition of leaking condifential details to reporters (as Andrew Cuomo‘s office has been accused of) or defending himself to a favorite news outlet (as Spitzer’s office has done with the Times).

Maybe things are changing in Albany.