My apologies for the long delay in this post (and happy holidays to all).
I'll be away on maternity leave until early 2011. "On New York," a blog that I started when I joined POLITICO, will be giving way to other great reads on our home page.
I will make some final posts in the next few days, wrapping up some things I was working on before my son made his early debut.
But I want to thank all of you who read the blog and helped make it a conversation about politics in New York during one of the stranger, and more interesting, election cycles I can remember in this state.
For those who helped shape this blog with tips, advice and, yes, some occasionally tough criticism, I am deeply grateful. It all served to make this space sharper and better. I'm also grateful to POLITICO for giving me this space.
My BlackBerry (my favorite feature in my caricature) is still functioning, albeit used a bit less right now. If you need to reach me, e-mail me.
In the meantime, thank you again and have a terrific end of 2010. See you next year.
Andrew Cuomo, who's started slowly increasing his public appearances since Election Day last week, is going up with a "thank you" ad on Thursday focused on his "Clean Up Albany" message.
New York Mag's Chris Smith has someone close to the mayor, and an associate, making what are emerging as two recurring themes in the 18 hours since new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black was named:
And while Klein may have eliminated "social promotion" from the school system, Bloomberg-administration insiders had long wearied of the chancellor's energetic self-promotion. "Joel had hit a wall," one associate of both men says. "And the mayor's education legacy was getting lost in Joel's personality."
(snip)
Black is a tough and slick saleswoman; her greatest assets, from Bloomberg's perspective, are her background in marketing and her charisma. "This is about a charm offensive," says one mayoral intimate. "Cathie represents the opportunity to build consensus with all the players and to win back all the people Joel has alienated."
In terms of the first point, it basically answers the question many have asked privately, which was why the mayor didn't try to lure Michelle Rhee to New York. Rhee has developed a strong reputation as a reformer, but also as a force in her own right.
Klein also did indeed "alienate" swaths of people, predominantly state lawmakers who made an effort to strip the mayor of control of the school system — something he wrested from the Board of Education in 2002 when he took office.
And it goes back to my point from yesterday, that part of the goal here on the issue that the mayor sees as a legacy item is to reclaim the narrative and centralize the messaging back at City Hall in the final three years of his term.
The Times and The Washington Post report on the maneuverings involving Henry Barbour, nephew of RGA head Gov. Haley Barbour, and others to shore to up a stronger opponent to RNC chairman Michael Steele — and the current efforts to focus that attention on Steele ally Reince Priebus.
Priebus's name had been floated for months as a possible replacement for Steele, but one scenario posited to me was that he could make it more palatable for the current chairman to decide not to run again.
The Times quotes sources saying Priebus has "recently warned" Steele that a reelection bid in January could prove difficult.
The involvement of Henry Barbour, whose own name had been floated as a possible replacement but who wasn't speaking in such terms in an interview with The Times, is extremely noteworthy, given his uncle's potential 2012 run and prominence within GOP circles.
Haley Barbour openly criticized Steele's performance recently, after months of leaked occasional behind-the-scenes comments, saying his performance on the job had forced Republicans to have to "scramble around."
Steele, however, so far shows no indication of wanting to go.
Over on Room Eight, the free blogging site Ben started years ago, strategist Jerry Skurnik takes issue with reporting that folks such as Ben and I — and most reporters —do on Election Day posting anecdotal tales about turnout from various spots.
Noting that turnout is comparatively heavy at 9 a.m. to a prior midterm year based on someone's voting number should never be taken as an attempt at gaming out what the day will look like (although many people do take it that way).
While I disagree with his meta about the total "worthlessness" of political speculation — on Election Day or before redrawing of congressional districts — his point about their overall value should be listened to.
Among other points, Skurnik noted to me last week that turnout on Election Day was at about 40 percent of the active voter rolls of more than 10 million in New York State. As he correctly said, that's not quite the presidential levels that some officials were predicting earlier in the day (more than 7 million New York state voters cast ballots in the 2008 presidential race).
It also may look anecdotally during off years as though things are busier than they are simply because the turnout in primaries has become so abysmal in the state and the city that any bump seems grand, he said.
Mayor Bloomberg's move today - announcing the resignation of long-serving schools chancellor Joel Klein and his replacement by Hearst boss Cathie Black — marks one of the most dramatic shifts in personnel in the mayor's tenure.
What Michelle Rhee was as the face of the Washington D.C. school system, Klein has been at the helm of the largest public schools system in the country.
But while the shift in staff is seismic, the impact on policy won't be. Bloomberg has just three years left on his mayoral term, and the focus is expected to stay on items such as boosting charter schools and working toward accountability measures.
His team is also expected to continue focusing heavily on test scores as a performance measure, one of the more controversial aspects of his education reforms.
"You're gonna see Joel's policies continued" overall, said a source familiar with the situation. The question then becomes, what message is Bloomberg looking to send now?
Even more surprising than Klein's departure — which was kept a very close secret until about a half-hour before it was announced publicly — was Bloomberg's choice for a replacement. (Speculation ran wild that he tried to nab Rhee, but a source familiar with the situation said it was not true.)
Black has no experience with education and fits, as Liz Benjamin noted, the Bloomberg model of a business leader morphing into a government role.
However, unlike Klein, Black is not a product of the city school system (she answered a question at the news conference about her union experience as being "limited" and said her kids went to boarding school in Connecticut).
She will have a short time in which to master a fairly steep learning curve with a sprawling bureaucracy. Her appointment has also raised some eyebrows in that some education reform proponents had hoped the next chancellor would be reflective of the system, which is heavily black and Hispanic.
However, by picking someone with no education experience, Bloomberg to some extent ensures that City Hall has great control over messaging on education, perhaps more than it had with Klein in the most recent years.
Outgoing schools Chancellor Joel Klein is about to become an executive vice president in the chairman's office of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., it was just revealed.
Klein has long had a strong relationship with Murdoch, and the New York Post has been deeply supportive of mayoral control and of Mayor Bloomberg's reform efforts.
However, News Corp. is, among other things, a competitor of Bloomberg News.
And it's hard to see how this new job for Klein will keep from further fanning the flames of speculation about Bloomberg running for president in 2012, given the relationship between the mayor and the publisher.
Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in NY-1 seizes on the understatement of the week, from a Newsday editorial about the vote-tally snafu in the district, to help raise money for his recount against Randy Altschuler:
Dear Bishop Supporter,
That's right. As Newsday's editorial today starts, "something seems to have gone badly wrong" in counting the votes cast on Tuesday in my race for Congress and other close races on Long Island.
Words cannot express my sincere appreciation for your many calls, emails, and contributions of both time and funds in support of my Election Protection efforts - especially after all you did before Election Day.
In our democracy, where our vote is our voice, how could all this happen?
* Returns for 38% of election districts changed between Election night and Friday - yes, 38%!
* My lead of 3461 votes became a deficit of 383 votes.
* Voters all over Long Island are questioning whether our new system for voting works.
I am confident that, when we finally count every last vote cast one week ago, I will continue to serve as your Congressman.
And, with your help, we can ensure what's most important -- preserving the integrity of our electoral process by sending to Congress the candidate with the majority of the votes after a full and accurate count.
If you can spare even $25 or $50, or if you are able to give up to $2400, please click here to help us fund our legal and vote count efforts.
Add your voice to the chorus of voters calling for a full hand count of the ballots cast on Tuesday. Sign the Make My Vote Count petition on my website today. Count YOUR vote.
Thank you for your commitment to my campaign. I am honored to serve you in Congress and look forward to working with you to rebuild our economy and protect our way of life here on Long Island.
Hearst boss Cathie Black is being named the new schools chancellor at a City Hall news conference right now with Mayor Bloomberg.
UPDATE: Bloomberg praised Black to the hilt and said he did conduct a search and chose who he thought was best.
Black, for her part, was asked how much experience she's had dealing with unions, and her answer was that she's had "limited" exposure to them.
She also, asked where her kids went to school, said it was not the NYC public school system, but Connecticut boarding schools.
Klein had the mayor's tremendous trust and was deeply empowered by his boss.
However, he has remained one of the most unpopular figures in polling data citywide, especially with a school system that is heavily black and Hispanic and in which many parents never felt totally happy with the Department of Education.
New York GOP chairman Ed Cox has apparently had a turnaround on Randy Altschuler, and he's showing it through his wallet.
Cox wrote a $2,400 personal check to Altschuler's recount effort, the Altschuler campaign confirmed, as he moves ahead in hia battle against Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in NY-1.
It's a bit of a sea change, considering that Cox's son, Chris, was a late addition to the primary against Altschuler and former SEC attorney George Demos, a move that created turmoil that rippled through the GOP statewide.
"Chairman Cox generously contributed $2,400 to the Altschuler Recount 2010 account and this money is going towards hiring the legal team of professionals needed to preserve this victory for Randy Altschuler," said Rob Ryan, Altschuler's spokesman. "I think it shows the chairman's belief in Randy Altschuler and his victory in this seat that he would do so considering the hard-fought primary that took place versus his son Chris."
Meanwhile, I'm told Bishop's camp is expected in court about 4:30 p.m. to force a recount.
ABC's Top Line interviewed N.Y. 1 Republican Randy Altschuler, who's locked in one of the more intense recount battles nationally against Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop, earlier today, and asked his take on the float of Alec Baldwin running against him in 2012 (if he wins, of course):
"It’s Alec Baldwin — I actually like his TV show. But apparently, and who knows if it’s true or not, sources close to him are saying if I am victorious, he's going to run against me in 2012,” Altschuler told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today.
Altschuler said he agrees that Baldwin’s character on “30 Rock,” Jack Donaghy, would be much more likely to run in the Republican primary than as a Democrat.
“One could only imagine, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. We still go to finish this. Knock on wood, we'll have a successful outcome, but still a lot of ways to go here,” Altschuler said.
This just in, from Quran-burn-threat pastor Terry Jones, who is looking for a fresh 15 minutes:
Dr. Terry Jones, senior pastor, Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Fla., will visit New York City on Tuesday, Nov. 16,. Dr. Jones, along with members of his church, will gather at ground zero (26 Church Street) at 11 a.m.
Afterwards, Dr. Jones will hold a press conference in front of the proposed Park 51 site (45 Park Place), where he will make an important announcement!
The undecided race for the 25th Congressional District seat intensified Monday when a judge ruled that both campaigns may inspect all of the roughly 11,000 applications for absentee ballots submitted for the election.
Those inspections could result in challenges to some of the ballots seen as critical in determining the winner of the Nov. 2 election.
With just 684 votes separating U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei and Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle, the candidates have developed their own post-campaign strategies that are focused on the legal issues of counting absentees and recounting other votes.
Lawyers for Maffei (D-DeWitt) set the stage for a Florida-style recount Monday by seeking a court order that could have elections officials recounting each paper ballot by hand. If the four counties in the 25th District are ordered by state Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph to do such a manual recount of the paper ballots scanned by voting machines, the process could last until December, county elections officials said.
DeJoseph issued an order Monday afternoon allowing the inspections of absentee ballot applications. Each campaign will have staffers, accompanied by election workers, sit at computers in the Onondaga County Civic Center and check to make sure the signature on file for each absentee voter matches the signature on each submitted application.
The counting of absentee ballots from Onondaga County, where the most absentees come from, and Wayne County won't begin until Nov. 17. We're doing to be doing this awhile.
Former Gov. George Pataki, who elevated his travels and his profile in the past several months with his Revere America PAC and its role in several congressional races, made clear in a string of interviews today that he's seriously looking at 2012.
This isn't a surprise, to the extent that he has been privately discussing this with several Republicans and was clearly looking to be part of the national discussion.
However, with the midterms now behind us, 2012 begins in earnest, and it's a whole new day. Multiple sources insist he hasn't made up his mind about what he's doing, including about whether to start ramping up in New Hampshire — where he started making early inroads in 2008.
He ultimately opted against running at a time when better-known fellow New Yorker Rudy Giuliani was doing the same thing.
Pataki has an interview tonight on NY1, but earlier today ABC's Rick Klein reported on their interview with the three-term governor, which was rather entertaining at several points (and also included a reference to the "massacre" at the top of the ticket in New York):
“What I'm going to be looking at is, do we have the right people out there who have that experience, who have experienced leadership, who have been challenged and who can bring people together — not just Republicans and conservatives, but conservatives [and] Democrats. And make a decision on who else is out there, and whether or not they have those characteristics we need to be able to win this election and govern successfully."
Pataki, like Palin, was a mayor before he was governor.
“It was a challenging job, mayor of Peekskill, let me assure you. Twice the size of Wasilla,” Pataki said.
Pataki said he would support Palin, R-Alaska, should she become the Republican nominee for president, citing his reluctant support for tea party gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, R-N.Y., in his home state as evidence that he would fall into line behind her.
“It was hard for me to support Carl Paladino. And I did that. So certainly if the choice is between her and President Obama, I don’t think I'd have any difficulty at all supporting Sarah Palin,” Pataki told us.
Pataki said he voted for Paladino, but he expressed disappointment that he was a drag on other candidates in New York state last week.
A staffer for a congressional Democrat who came up short on Tuesday reports that a team of about five people stopped by their offices this morning to talk about payroll, benefits, writing a résumé, and so forth, with staffers who are now job hunting.
But one of the staffers was described as a "counselor" to help with the emotional aspect of the loss — and a section in the packet each staffer was given dealt with the stages of grief (for instance, Stage One being anger, and so on).
"It was like it was about death," the staffer said. "It was bizarre." The staffer did say the portions about the benefits and résumé writing were instructive.
The teams weren't sent by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. Two people have suggested it may have been the Clerk's Office or Human Resources.
While Tuesday was definitely a major loss for the Democrats, I hadn't heard it cast in a stages-of-grief way before.
Mayor Bloomberg spoke this morning abouthis 27-year-old daughter Georgina's sill from a horse during a tournament Friday:
"A number of people have expressed their prayers for my daughter. She is, I think, fine.
"She had a concussion, was unconscious for a short period of time, but managed to get up and walk out of the ring. And she may or may not have cracked some vertebra. She’s right now getting an MRI at one of the hospitals, and you know, I think it’s certainly not life threatening and hopefully she’ll be fine.
"I talked to her yesterday — a little bit of pain, but we’re still walking around and we’ll see what happens today. I just got off the phone before I came down with her mother, who is also bearing up reasonably well, more important. We’ll take some questions on — but anyway, thank you for everybody that’s Twittered and e-mailed and called. I appreciate — and I will try to make sure the George sees all of the Twitters and e-mails and tell her who called."
There are reports dangling the possibility of actor Alec Baldwin, Long Island native and famous Hamptonite, challenging Randy Altschuler down the road if Altschuler ends up prevailing over Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in this round of ballot-sorting in NY-1.
MSNBC also reported on this possibility earlier today, a race that would be two years from now if it came to pass.
