The New York Times:

State Senate leaders manipulated the choice of who would build New York City’s first casino, leaking information and showing favoritism to a troubled bidder that was donating to Democratic candidates and had ties to key political figures, the state inspector general said Thursday.

In a scathing 300-page report on the competition to install video slot machines at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, the inspector general described a chaotic and ultimately doomed process that was without formal rules or objective criteria, and was awash in “unrestrained political considerations,” lobbyists and targeted campaign contributions. [...]

“This report reveals Albany at its most sordid,” said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Every New Yorker should be outraged. We urge the district attorney and U.S. attorney to move quickly on the I.G.’s finding of possible violations of the public officers law.”

This report, not to state the blindingly obvious, could not have been released at a worse time, with all of twelve days to go until New Yorkers go to the polls.

New York Democrats are actually doing remarkably well in this cycle. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand appear locks for re-election, Andrew Cuomo is stomping tea party anti-everything-of-goodness-and-value loon Carl Paladino, and even the relatively unknown Progressive standard-bearer for Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, is quite comfortably ahead in the polls. On the House side, things are a bit grimmer, but even there recent polls show some improvement in a few key races. That improvement correlates with wider national trends that may, just may, save us from electoral Armageddon.

In New York State itself, it's safe to say, the tea party wave - if there ever was one to begin with - crested a while ago, breaking on the shoals of its own candidate freak show.

That leaves, of course, the Democratic State Senate to piss in the punch bowl. And with this report, that is exactly what they did.

Capitol Tonight;

CapTon’s Kaitlyn Ross, who is at a Capitol press conference with Fisch, sent this quote from the IG: “Senator Sampson’s testimony was incredible; I stopped counting the number of ‘I don’t recalls’ after 100.”

From the report:

“Unfortunately, and shamefully, consideration of what was in the public’s best interest, rather than the political interest of the decision makers, was a matter of militant indifference to them.”

How bad is it? Really bad. Enter Dean Skelos, in a press release today:

The people of New York expect and deserve honesty, openness and transparency from their government, instead they have been hurt by the arrogance of one-party rule. This scandal proves once again that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and makes the best case for having checks and balances in state government.

The Inspector General’s words regarding this corrupt process conducted by Senate Democrats simply could not be strong enough. I encourage the Manhattan District Attorney to conduct a thorough investigation into the corrupt bidding process and into the possible perjury committed by Senate Democrats and their staff in testimony to the Inspector General.

So what about the Democratic candidates? Brian Foley in Suffolk is already in trouble, per Newsday, with his campaign now being run from headquarters. Elsewhere, it gets worse.

The Daily Politics: Dem Hopefuls Running From Senate Leadership Like Seabiscuit Over Aqueduct Mess

Democratic candidates are already starting to distance themselves from the embattled Senate leadership as a result of today's Inspector General's report on the Aqueduct racino bidding process, State Capitol Bureau Chief Ken Lovett finds:

Joanne Yepsen, who is running as a Democrat for state Senate, just said if elected she will not support John Sampson, Malcolm Smith or Eric Adams as conference leaders because of their activities outlined in the scathing report.

Fantastic, isn't it? Going out on a limb here: what are the chances that all those fantastic Democratic candidates we have this cycle are anything other than mortified?

There are some really good people in the Senate. Maybe it's time to put them in charge.  read more »

In my last Vines column (see # 10-09), I told you that I had inside info, which stated that upon finding out Eliot Spitzer’s team had tagged him for the Lieutenant-governor slot, David Paterson said: “they surely haven’t vetted me for this job”. And now Paterson goes up on a local radio station and directly corroborates said info. This had been a news item on the blogs (see Elizabeth Benjamin’s blog) last week. I hereby reiterate what I wrote in a column recently, calling for mainstream media (and alternative mediums too) to do a better job vetting candidates before elections are held; this is a responsibility placed squarely on the shoulders of the fourth and fifth estates (non-identical twins). And by fifth estate, I refer to all the alternative mediums that have sprung up with all the technological advancements in communications, since the founding fathers ratified the constitution (and the fourth estate). For example: the internet, twittering, blogging, texting and the like, can now be considered the fifth estate.  read more »

In the recent David v. Goliath political story, the David is real (Governor Paterson); the Goliath (President Obama and his White House staffers) however, are nothing but symbols of so many things wrong with our present democracy. The problem is that so many of our electeds are too compromised to do anything about fixing some of the structural defects within political parties. In both of the major political parties (Democrats and Republicans alike) party-politics tend to suck: simple as that.

One of pains that come with challenging incumbents is that you are quickly black-balled and politically ostracized: no matter how talented you are; no matter how qualified or experienced you are. Incumbents view their positions from a prism of entitlement. They seem to think that they own the seat once they get elected to it. And how dare some silly insurgent rise up to challenge them? How dare some insurgent be so audacious as to give the people a choice during elections? This is one of the reasons why I am so set on having term-limits at all levels of government.  read more »

David Paterson announced this afternoon that he would appoint a Lieutenant Governor to fill the office left vacant when he succeeded governor Spitzer on the latter's resignation. Via press release:

Governor David A. Paterson today announced the appointment of Richard Ravitch to serve as Lieutenant Governor. The Governor announced the appointment in a televised statewide address during which he spoke about both the fiscal and government crises facing New Yorkers.

Mr. Ravitch has been called to public service numerous times throughout his career by Governors and Mayors at times of historic crises and he will now join Governor Paterson in his efforts to put New York on the road to recovery.

If one were to pick someone to fill the post in the current miasma of dysfunction, Ravich seems like an obvious choice, as someone known better for technocratic expertise than partisanship. If the governor makes this stick, the Senate might begin to function again, given his role in breaking ties in that body. Of course, that would require that the Senate muster a quorum, which seems unlikely these days.

Of course, there's always a fly in the ointment. Attorney General Cuomo's office released a statement calling the idea unconstitutional.

"The State Constitution explicitly prescribes what occurs when there is a vacancy in the Office of Lieutenant Governor. In such circumstance, article 4, § 6 states that "the temporary president of the senate shall perform all the duties of the lieutenant-governor during such vacancy . . . ."

"Article 4, § 1 of the Constitution expressly provides that "the lieutenant-governor shall be chosen at the same time, and for the same term" as the Governor. The Legislature did not authorize a Governor to bypass this provision of the Constitution and fill a vacancy in the Office of Lieutenant Governor pursuant to Public Officers Law § 43.

Arguing for the constitutionality of Paterson's naming of Ravitch is a coalition, apparently newly established, with some of the best legal minds in the state.

If Paterson makes this stick, despite what seems a clear reading of the law - not a lawyer here - it's not going to fix everything. There just is not a clear majority in the upper house, and won't be until an election or defection changes the balance of power yet again.

But you know what the most satisfying result would be? That Pedro Espada - check out the man's arrogance, asinine self-regard and sense of entitlement in the newest issue of New York Magazine - will not be even acting governor if something should happen to Paterson. Maybe we've just been spared the nightmare scenario of an acting governor Espada.

Update, twenty-four hours later: Rosalie was right. The Democrats were talking to Espada. In short, all those sources who said they'd never take him back were either ill-informed or liars.  read more »

Paterson's office emails over this bit of good news: WIC - Women, infants and children - recipients can now use their checks or electronic debit cards at their local farmers market.

Governor David A. Paterson today announced that participants in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program can now use their monthly checks at New York farmers’ markets to purchase eligible fresh produce. New York is the first state in the nation to allow the use of WIC checks for fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets.

A pilot program conducted in 2006 by the Department of Health showed that WIC participants prefer fresh produce over canned or frozen products when fresh is available. In New York, approximately 520,000 women, infants and children participate in the WIC program every month. The program received approximately $420 million in funding from the federal United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) this year and is administered by the New York State Department of Health’s Division of Nutrition.

Paterson's initiative nicely addresses the baleful question of food deserts, and isn't going to cost the state a dime, This is good stuff - more, please.