Primary Lesson:
Silver Stronger
Than Editorials
By Henry J. Stern
September 10, 2008
People in politics have their own calendar. For them (or us), the most important day of the year is Election Day. The ultimate arbiters of victory and defeat in a democracy are the people. Election Day is the day they get the last word.
Primary Day is also quite important. In all cases, it determines who the candidates will be on election day. In most cases, particularly in New York City, the September primary decides who will be elected in November. When I was a child, I used to read in the World-Telegram: “In Mississippi, the Democratic nomination is tantamount to election.” I figured out what tantamount meant – equivalent. That statement is no longer operative, Mississippi has a Republican governor and two Republican senators. Credit for that goes to Democrat Lyndon Johnson for getting civil rights and voting rights bills passed by Congress. Who said that? LBJ did.
In New York City, however, Democratic supremacy generally applies. There are exceptions, Republican city council districts on Staten Island, Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, and Bayside and Middle Village in Queens. The only competitive race for borough president is on Staten Island.
The district attorney there is a highly regarded Republican, Daniel Donovan. He would have been the strongest candidate for the seat Vito Fossella was forced to abandon because of personal misconduct. Donovan, however, declined to run, the designated Republican died suddenly, and the end result was that former twelve-term Assemblyman Robert Straniere won the Republican primary and will oppose Councilman Mike McMahon, who won the Democratic primary. That will be an important race since a House seat is at stake, possibly for many years since the winner will be an incumbent.
There will be two competitive State Senate contests, both in Queens: Senator Frank Padavan, who has served 36 years, is opposed by term-limited Councilman James Gennaro, and .Senator Serphin Maltese, a veteran of 20 years in Albany, is opposed by term-limited Councilman Joe Addabbo, Jr., son of a former Congressman.
SILVER WINS WITH 68% OF THE VOTE
The most significant race yesterday was Sheldon Silver’s enormous victory in the Lower East Side district he has represented for thirty-two years. . He had two nominal opponents, Paul Newell (23%) and Luke Henry (9%), both what today might be called ‘community organizers’. Silver’s real adversaries were the publishers and editorial boards of three major newspapers, the Times, Post and News. It was an interesting coalition, the Post on the right, the News in the center and the Times on the left. They were united, however, in wanting Speaker Silver removed. We can only speculate as to whether there was a single force that galvanized the publishers to squash this bug.
We have been critical of Silver for years as a symbol of the dysfunctional legislature. We do not like his private law practice as a plaintiff’s lawyer, and the influence that appears to have on his attitude toward legislation. We think he is soft on criminal justice matters, possibly influenced there by his members. We cannot forget the repeal of the commuter income tax eleven years ago, in which he collaborated. He is the symbol of the old politics, where friendships and contributions have significant influence. He is close to some lobbyists.
Yet there are several things he did in the last year that we find commendable. First, he stood up to Governor Spitzer on the selection of a state comptroller, a task clearly assigned to the legislature by the state constitution. In this case, he listened to the Democratic conference in the Assembly, the people who chose him as speaker. That is why Tom DiNapoli is now State Comptroller, rather than a city official who was the governor's choice.
If the legislature had taken the same tack in 1993 when State Senator Carol Bellamy sought to succeed Ned Regan, the Republican Comptroller who resigned, New York’s political history would have been different. In that case, the Assembly yielded. Silver did not become speaker until 1994. On his watch, the Assembly prevailed.
On the issue of the West Side Stadium, Silver and Bruno combined to kill the mayor’s plan. Bruno’s son was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby against the stadium. We are sorry that the Giants and Jets, two New York teams, are building their new stadium in the swamps of New Jersey; it would be nice if it were in New York. With the huge cost overruns for construction, sharply increased prices for tickets and newly-imposed requirements for personal seat licenses, we may be just as well off without it. But why should we have to travel to Jersey to see football games?
This year’s showdown at the O.K. Corral came on the issue of congestion pricing. We have serious reservations about the plan, which is basically a scheme to impose tolls on the poorer motorists who use the free bridges to enter Manhattan rather than the tolled tunnels. We are suspicious of new taxes imposed under the guise of noble goals, especially since the MTA is so wasteful with dubious capital projects (e.g. Fulton Hub, South Ferry).
Speaker Silver deserves credit for standing up to the powerful forces that supported the plan. As far as the complaint that “He didn’t even give it a chance to be voted on,” that is true, but the reason for that is he did not want his members to be forced to take a public position on the issue, and earn the wrath, and a possible primary, from those on the other side.
As a smart surviving politician, Silver protects his base, the Democratic assembly members. He protects them from more powerful figures, the former mad Governor, the disappointed Mayor and their entourages of notables. His members do not want to anger people richer and more important than they are, just because they sided with their unorganized, lower middle class constituents, and their own gut feelings?
The situation here is described in Rule 29-T “The trouble is charges are true,” but when we explain via Rule 6: “There is a reason for everything,” we find the root cause is the synthesis of the Loyalty Triptych, Rule 8 FM: “Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.”
One other issue comes to mind. Were Shelly Silver to disappear, who would the Democrats elect as Speaker. Does anyone see any shining lights out there?
This Just In From Newspaper Blogs
ASSEMBLYMAN CHARGED IN FRAUD SCHEME: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced on Wednesday that Anthony Seminerio, a Democratic assemblyman from Queens, had been charged in a fraud scheme in which they said he took more than $500,000 in payments from entities doing business with the state."
QUEENS ASSEMBLYMAN SEMINERIO CHARGED WITH FRAUD. "Federal authorities in Manhattan are unsealing a criminal complaint charging New York Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio with fraud. He is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands in corrupt vendors from various entities with state business… His biography on the Assembly web site says: “His experience as a corrections officer has led him to be an active sponsor of more stringent penalties for criminals."
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