One of the greater political mysteries to me in NYS has been the degree to which progressive reform of our criminial justice system has been elusive. Other than a very modest improvement in the bizzarre Rockefeller Drug laws (which mandate very long incarceration terms for narcotics offenders) Criminal Justice reform in NYS has been a political non-starter.

I listened, therefore with great interest to the remarks made by Dallas (Texas) District Attornery Craig Watkins, Monday morning. He laid out his progressive law enforcement agenda to a packed Drum Major Institute forum. Those proposals had gotten him elected in red-state Texas over a knee-jerk tough on crime GOP candidate. He advocates and thinks he's making progress on issues like proper evidence gathering and preservation, trials that are fair for defendants, review of past cases to correct wrongful or wrong convictions. (DMI has posted an account of that meeting at their DMI Blog . My post is not a full account of that interesting event. If you want to know more, go there.) If Watkins can do this in Dallas, why are we not doing similar work in NY?

Senator Eric Schneiderman is taking strong offense at yesterday's Supreme Court ruling, a sentiment unlikely to go down well with extremist anti-choice advocates like, say, Serph Maltese. From an email:

Dear Friend,

Yesterday, I was scheduled to bring a motion to the senate floor to force a vote on a bill to prohibit pharmacists or pharmacy chains from refusing to dispense emergency contraception or other medications lawfully prescribed by a doctor. My motion came to the floor just a few hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzalez v. Carhart, that--for the first time since the court's historic decision in Roe v. Wade--upheld a national ban on specific abortion procedures.

This ruling, which upheld the federal ban on so-called "partial birth abortions" that was signed into law by President Bush in 2003, was also the first time that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld any limit on abortion rights without providing an exception when the health of the patient was at risk. This decision has crossed a dangerous line, setting a new pace for the ideological attack on reproductive rights and on every woman's essential Constitutional right to control her own body. The full clip of my remarks is available here (audio only).

Sincerely,

Eric Schneiderman
NYS State Senator, 31st SD

Nice work. Just as a reminder what a difference a Democratic Senate would make.

An interesting analysis of Gov. Spitzer's State of the State address from State Senator Eric Schneiderman - one of Albany's leading progressives - in a message to his supporters. Schneiderman says the speech "may prove to be a work of political genius." Why?

The genius lies in the fact that the Governor did not just define his personal agenda for this year's session. He defined everyone's agenda, laying out priorities for Republicans (property tax cuts, lifting the cap on charter schools, reforming Wick's Law) as well as Democrats (universal pre-Kindergarten, public financing of campaigns, health care for all the state's children). In essence, Eliot has kick-started the traditional end-of-session negotiations to package elements of these competing agendas into an omnibus agreement in his first week.

The new Governor sent the most powerful possible message to all recalcitrant legislators: Here are the competing agendas on which we will focus this year. No delays. No excuses. Let's get to work.

And over it all, Eliot heaped an array of reform proposals that have been considered unachievable for decades.

Governor Spitzer may prove to be an executive who is able to use bipartisanship to achieve an ambitous progressive agenda.

Of course, if the Republicans don't play along, in 2008 we'll have concrete examples of how they've blocked progress.

Say what you will about the New York state party, but they do seem to be opening their front door and peeking out their noses to see what's happening in the wider world. My guess is that someone there read Crashing the Gate, with its emphasis on technology and the grassroots.

The case in point is their newest electoral push using text messaging, which is (as far as I can tell) pretty much unique, for several reasons. Dubbed the New York Democrat Mobile Action Network, the system basically uses the technology behind flash mobs as an activism and information tool.

The way it works is this: you text 'NYDems' to the number 30644 on your mobile, receive a reply that asks for your email and ZIP code, and then proceed to receive targeted action alerts about races in your area. There's talk of refining the data beyond that to enable even more targeted selection, but the principle is pretty awesome, especially if you have a geeky side (which I do). What's especially sexy about this technology is that it's fast: say you're holding a press conference in your tight race against some antediluvian republican incumbent; just text out the action alert to the local network an hour or so before, and you'll have people there. The response rate on these things is amazing, with an immediacy unknown in other channels such as email blasts. People for the American Way used a similar technology during the Supreme Court fight, managing among other things to shut down the Capitol switchboard several times, which I hear sent Bill Frist into a tizzy.

Do you think that the Democrats are making a significant effort to capture a majority in the New York State Senate? Well, I don't know either. In hopes of an answer, I and other public school parents (persuaded that Senator Bruno's Republican Majority is blocking equitable funding for our kids' schools), went to a party last night to find out.

There, Senator Eric Schneiderman, strategist, was mobilizing the base to take Senate seats from the Reublicans. 100 Upper West Side progressives consumed wine and soda, crudités, fruit, pasta, more wine and dessert. As soon as he came in, we cornered Senator Eric: "So where's the money for public schools? Did you bring it?" He reached for his wallet which seemed not to have 5.6 billion in it. "Once we have control of the Senate, I'll deliver the money" he joked.

US. Rep. Jerry Nadler, looking thinner than ever, but still not thin, was in fine fettle, joked about how this time the election was really important (even though he'd said the same thing about so many elections past). Council Member Robert Jackson was there too: elegant, witty, focused on school funding. State Senator almost-elect Bill Perkins with his signature broad-brimmed brown hat, mixed with the crowd, passed out a palm card or two.

The Times has a piece today appropriately headlined "Democrats' Momentum May Stall at Doors of the State Senate".

Despite the strength New York Democrats are displaying as they head into the statewide elections this fall, the party's drive to capture the State Senate appears to be faltering, with some Democratic officials and strategists worried about the strength of the party's candidates and their ability to raise money.

The situation is so critical that several leading Democrats are expressing concern that the party may actually lose a Senate seat this fall, after years of successfully chipping away at the Republican majority in the Senate and coming within striking distance of capturing the chamber.

The drive isn't so much faltering as remaining static, simply because it never got off the ground in the first place.

What this reflects is not a lack of leadership – the man in charge of recapturing the Senate, Eric Schneiderman, is one of the best we have – but what I'd call a lack of awareness. Bluntly, nobody really knows what the Senate does or how it works, along with the rest of our opaque legislature.

The truly puzzling thing about the situation the Times describes is that there is one supremely powerful interest in a Democratic Senate; that would be Eliot Spitzer, simply because he won't be as effective as governor without such a majority.

The state Senate can be captured in 2006. We have strong challengers against Senators Spano, Trunzo, Maltese and Padavan, and that's just off the top of my head. A couple of fundraisers and campaign appearances by Eliot and Hillary – I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that both will be elected with margins of over 20% - could be all that is required.

It can be done. It needs to be done. And this is the year to do it.