L'etat C'est Moi.  That's No Way to Run the Empire State.

By Henry J. Stern
January 7, 2005

The dust in Albany is settling after Governor Pataki’s 11th State of the State address and the preview of rules changes to be adopted next week by the Senate and the Assembly.

The press reaction to the governor’s speech has been a mix of boredom and mild derision, with a pinch of incredulity. The public and the press believed him when he promised reform in 1995, but 10 years later, skepticism is the best reaction he can hope to elicit for recycled promises. The fact that he used the adjective “bold” 21 times, in a speech that was anything but bold, gives the address an Orwellian cast. It is as if he thought that saying something will make it so, without his doing any of the hard work or personal negotiation needed to achieve the political result.

Friday morning on television we saw the governor in a commercial about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and all that he has done to restore lower Manhattan. He looked good, but his message was irrelevant. September 11 was three years and four months ago, but it is being milked for whatever emotions can still be summoned up from the tragedy. The spot reminded me of Russia, where President Putin controls the press and uses it towards political ends. The practice provides an enormous advantage for a national or state incumbent to be seen frequently, especially in uncontroversial roles. Who, after all, is against downtown Manhattan’s recovery? You don’t have to make news if you buy airtime.

Billboards are displayed all over the state with various agency messages. The name that appears the most on these signboards is George E. Pataki. The names of relevant commissioners used to be on signs; for example, on anti cigarette-smoking commercials, we saw Antonia G. Novello, M.D., the health commissioner, as well as the governor. Somehow her name has been dropped. Some of the typefaces used imitate a signature, as if the busy governor had signed the billboard as a personal message to his constituents. Dear leader, Kim Jong Il, could do no better.

The irony here is that Mr. Pataki did not start out this way. At the New York State border with Connecticut on Route 84, westbound vehicles entering the state used to read signs that said, “Welcome to the Empire State, Mario M. Cuomo, Governor.” In 1995, after Mr. Pataki was elected, the governor’s name was dropped from the sign. A welcome change.

Of course, if anyone were entering the state for the purpose of meeting the governor, and at the time did not know his name, the old sign would have been helpful. But it is hard to believe that many drivers would be thus motivated and yet so uninformed. Last I saw, the sign just gave the name and the nickname of the state. (The state motto is “Excelsior.”)

Self-aggrandizement is surely not the most important issue in state government today. But it illustrates the attitude of an administration. Take any advantage you can, in any way you can, of public resources. This is an unhealthy approach. It does not build public confidence in government institutions. But just as a sign is a symbol, the use of signs and the abuse of press and broadcast is a symbol of self-serving public officials.

In Friday’s New York Times, Michael Slackman wrote:

“One complaint has been that Mr. Pataki is surrounded by a team of well-meaning, if not highly capable aides. It is something no one wants to say publicly, primarily because it is such a small world many people have worked together at one time or another. But the result, even some supporters of the governor said, was something akin to an aging rock star trying to sing a hit tune with a third-string backup band.”

For the Times, that is very rough stuff about a sitting governor.

A poor workman blames his tools, and a poor politician blames his staff. It reminds me of the Jews in Russia who believed that it was not the tsar who was anti-Semitic, but his wicked ministers, who unleashed the Cossacks for the pogroms that killed thousands of Jews. “If only the tsar knew,” they thought, “this would not happen.” And that belief comforted them in their time of sorrow.

Anyone who believed that story would also think that it was Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell who were responsible for Watergate. Fortunately, there are tapes to disprove such misconceptions.
If the staff is less than perfect, why are they there? Who selected them? They did not come from a temp agency; the governor selected them. And, if they were working in different circumstances, they might be much more effective, because their professional credentials are sound.

New York State is now engaged in a dance around the hourglass as the sands run out on the third term. The governor must decide whether to run again. In recent New York history, there are six precedents: Governor Rockefeller and Senators Javits and Moynihan won fourth terms. Governor Cuomo, Senator D’Amato, and Mayor Koch were defeated after three terms. Mayors LaGuardia and Wagner, facing great political obstacles, did not seek fourth terms. From this superficial survey, the odds are twice as good for legislators as they are for executives. But each election is unto itself. By the time the fourth quadrennial, or for senators, sexennial, lap comes around, the horse is usually pretty sore. Of course, if he hasn’t been galloping but merely coasting, he may not be winded at all.
Judging from history, the governor will postpone his decision as long as he can, because the day he announces that he will not run, he becomes a dead duck. (That phrase morphs lame duck with dead meat.) The mortuary countdown will begin as politicians in both parties turn their eyes to the succession. The governor may run for re-election even if the job bores him, faute de mieux, because he wants to keep hope alive in his 30-year quest for the White House.

President Bush could be most helpful here by giving the governor a respectable federal job (homeland security, maybe, to replace Tom Ridge). Ambassador to Hungary probably wouldn’t do it, Italy or Ireland might. Before this happens, the Republicans would have to decide whether they want Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue to become New York State’s first woman governor.

Unlike the vice president of America, the lieutenant governor of New York cannot be replaced midterm. If Ms. Donohue were to be sent back to the New York Supreme Court, or were she to resign, next in the governor’s line of succession is Joseph Bruno, 74, state senator and majority leader. Republicans might also consider sending Ms. Donohue back to the bench and filling the lieutenant governorship with someone who might gain advantage from the head start of incumbency in a race against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. There are four lively state congressmen who are worth watching: Susan Kelly of Westchester, Peter King of Long Island, Thomas Reynolds of western New York, and John Sweeney of Hudson Valley. And of course there’s Rudolph Giuliani, who would be the Republican’s strongest candidate if he were to decide to run.

With the leadership situation as uncertain as it is, the problems of closing the $6 billion budget gap, dealing with the court mandate to spend additional $5.6 billion on education, and stanching the loss of jobs from a high-tax state, will be even more difficult to resolve.

This article appeared on the editorial page of the New York Sun on January 10, 2005.


YES, THE NEW YORKER
 
The New Yorker carried an article Monday by Rebecca Mead about the travails of Bernard Kerik and other notables, in which I was occasionally quoted.  They write very well at The New Yorker, whose circulation now is an upscale million, all over the country.  We invite you to link to it, for diversion as well as information.

We also recommend Ben Smith's column in this week's Observer, and Joseph Mercurio's column.
 
DEPARTMENT OF AMPLIFICATION - MORE POLITICAL HISTORY
(Optional additional reading):
 
A number of you inquired why Ray Kelly was not listed among the returning commissioners.  I did write a paragraph on him, but it was lost on the way to the computer.  Sorry about that.  Kelly was named police commissioner by Mayor Dinkins after Lee Brown departed for Houston, Texas, where he was subsequently elected mayor.  Kelly was replaced by Mayor Giuliani in 1994 and reappointed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2002.  During Kelly's eight-year interregnum, three men served as police commissioners, William Bratton (now chief in Los Angeles), Howard Safir (now head of a consulting firm), and Bernard Kerik.
 
Another Lazarus, or Phoenix, among commissioners is James F. Hanley, now commissioner of labor relations.  Hanley served under Mayor Dinkins.  Mayor Giuliani then appointed Randy Levine to the post and Hanley reverted to first deputy.  When Levine left (he later was deputy mayor), Hanley was reappointed commissioner by Mayor Giuliani and he has been retained by Mayor Bloomberg.  He is a city official whose tenure exceeds some of the labor leaders he deals with, which is an unusual and helpful distinction.
 
Doug Schoen points out that Mayor Wagner was not denied re-nomination by Carmine DeSapio, he was denied re-designation as the organization candidate in 1961.  He defeated State Comptroller Arthur Levitt in a primary, and became the Democratic and Liberal Party nominee.  In the general election, Wagner won over the Republican candidate, State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz.  He did not seek reelection to a fourth term.  Frank O'Connor, who briefly served as City Council President in 1966, was Queens County District Attorney later that year when he ran for governor and was defeated by Nelson Rockefeller, who won a third term.  In that unusual election, the Liberal Party candidate for governor was Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., and the Conservative Party ran Paul Adams.