The hardest race for most people in Comptroller. Although this is possibly one of the most important positions in the city, few people seem to care about it. If we want our money spent right in this city, we need a good Comptroller.

This year we have four candidates, all current City Council members. The are, in order of how they are doing in the polls, John Liu, Melinda Katz, David Yassky and David Weprin. And let me preface this analysis with a sad fact. All of the candidates have their skeletons in the closet, all of them have their favored backers, and none of them have focused on the biggest financial scandal around, the Pensiongate scandal. A major scandal spanning several states, Pensiongate was centered in NYC...and yet most of the investigations, indictments, etc. have been outside of New York State (e.g. New Mexico). Yet none of our Comptroller candidates have seemed to give a crap about NYC's biggest financial scandal. (I should note that the only candidate I find any direct connection to the Pensiongate scandal is Yassky, who has received donations from Steve Rattner, one of the central figures in the Pensiongate scandal.) However, them's the four candidates we have, and these sad facts don't help us decide which to vote for. And this is a race that is close enough that a runoff is almost a certainty. So how DO we decide? I think we can easily decide by ruling out the most obviously scandal ridden candidates and pick from among the candidates that actually have financial experience.

There are a multitude of reasons to oppose David Yassky and Melinda Katz. These are by far the two worst candidates in the race. Neither Yassky nor Katz has any financial experience, which I would consider pretty important when running the city's money. In fact they have no pertinent experience whatsoever. All they bring to the table is their own career ambition (which is not to say the other candidates lack ambition) and tons of developer money. Although all four candidates receive plenty of developer money, Katz is the number one recipient of developer money in the city, and Yassky comes in second among people running in this race. Both Katz and Yassky have run the least truthful campaigns, making claims about their "standing up" for people that those who actually know them know to be untrue. Both Katz and Yassky also voted for the very unpopular one-time reversal of term limits. And Yassky, in particular, is caught up in numerous scandals. He is among the worst offenders in a slush fund scandal where Council members funnel money to non-profits that then funnel money into council member's campaigns. Now ALL FOUR candidates are part of this scandal, but Yassky stands out as the worst of the four. From Daily News:

City Councilmen Bill de Blasio and David Yassky, both Brooklyn Democrats, were co-sponsors of $145,000 for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy for the past two fiscal years. Board members and the nonprofit's director raised $16,150 for de Blasio and $22,700 for Yassky in the same period.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/01/2009-06-01_city_council_membe...

To be fair, this is what the article says about Liu:

Councilman John Liu (D-Queens) sponsored or co-sponsored $37,500 in Council funds for the Chinese-American Planning Council. He picked up $9,713 in checks from employees, board members and their spouses (up to $20,213 with matching funds).

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/01/2009-06-01_city_council_membe...

In Yassky's case, though, slush fund scandals go even further. Yassky has made a career of pay to play politics, (though he also manages to lose anyway). In addition to the Brooklyn Bridge Park mentioned in the Daily News, Yassky funneled $15,000 a fake non-profit run by former City Councilman Steve DiBrienza. That non-profit actually never did anything that anyone can find any evidence of other than pay Steve DiBrienza and his family salaries for doing nothing. Yet Yassky eagerly supported it. Of course Yassky insists that the fact that DiBrienza endorsed him right before this $15,000 gift is irrelevant. Sounds either like incompetent financial skills (not something you want in a Comptroller) or outright corruption. A similar pay-to-play deal was made between Yassky and the Bruce Ratner front organization, BUILD, when the BUILD director endorsed Yassky right before Yassky tried to get the city to fund BUILD. This kind of scandal is par for the course for Yassky. Katz is nothing but a shill for developers and Yassky is nothing but one continuous attempt to buy higher office. And, of course, Yassky spectacularly failed to buy office (Congress) in 2006 and he looks to be spectacularly failing this year as well since he consistently polls third in the race, behind Liu and Katz.

David Weprin and John Liu are both well qualified for the job of Comptroller. Unlike Katz and Yassky, both Weprin and Liu had extensive financial experience before becoming City Council members. And both Weprin and Liu voted AGAINST the one time reversal of term-limits. Weprin, from what I can tell, has less involvement in the slush fund scandals than Liu, Katz and, particularly, Yassky, and may well get the least developer money of the four. The main problem with Weprin is he is so uninspiring he makes Walter Mondale's run for President seem like a wild ride of thrills. I know people who, on first meeting Weprin, almost refused to shake his hand, they found him so unappealing. This is unfair, and in general I have spoken well...or at least adequately...of Weprin. But Weprin is clearly the laggard in this race. Only Katz or MAYBE Yassky has any shot at making it to the runoff. If no one else in the race could match Weprin in terms of experience, I might have endorsed Weprin. But I do find that John Liu matches the experience of Weprin, but also brings an inspiration to the job I find refreshing.

John Liu is a brilliant, dynamic and exciting candidate. I wish I could say he had no slush fund participation, but he, like almost all the City Council and all his opponents, has played the political game that makes NYC an embarrassment. But his combination of inspiration and financial experience is by far the best among the candidates. I have talked to him several times now, and, in contrast to what I find to be extreme evasion and rationalizations on the part of Yassky, I find Liu to be up front and willing to discuss even uncomfortable aspects of his career. Campaigning with him in Central Brooklyn, far from his district, I found many people knew him and had stories of how he helped them or inspired them. In contrast I found people in my area (Yassky's district) hated Yassky, distrusted Katz, and had no idea who Weprin was. But they knew Liu and liked him. He has by far the most impressive endorsements in the race, including groups like NYC Americans for Democratic Action (representing the liberal wing of the Democratic Party), Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (reformers and progressives), and NY Community Council, all of whom I respect. I have heard accusations of scandals related to Liu, but never with any details, only insinuations. By contrast, with Yassky and Katz their ethical problems are well documented and obvious. Also some of those scandals related to Liu's father, not Liu himself. If JFK, RFK and Ted Kennedy were held to that standard, they would not have been the Democratic champions they were given their Joe Kennedy's scandals. I wish I could give as strong an endorsement as I have to candidates in other races. But the truth is Liu, like most other City Council members and like all the other candidates in the race, has played the games typical of NYC politics. But despite that my enthusiasm for him is strong and I genuinely like John Liu. All four candidates are politicians, with all that implies. But of them all, John Liu is clearly the best and the fact that he has, overwhelmingly, the most endorsements reflects the enthusiasm he inspires.

I think there will probably be a runoff and that runoff will certainly include Liu and probably include Katz. Yassky and Weprin will be out tomorrow, I predict. And I think Liu will win the runoff since he has the financial experience that Katz does not and is a more inspiring candidate than Katz. Let's just hope that Liu will, as Comptroller, take an interest in both the slush fund scandals and the Pensiongate scandal.