This could have been the time for changing New York’s incumbent protection election system. During the last council election in 2005, almost two thirds (28 out of 34) of the incumbents running had no primary. Four of the other six incumbents being challenged won with more than 80% of the vote. The controversial term limits vote is the only opportunity to negotiate with enough councilmember to get the votes needed for Charter change that will insure real competitive elections in this one party town. It is a failure of the Citizen Union and other good government groups as well as the newspaper editorial boards and the reform clubs of this city not to demand changes that could have been used as a bargaining chip by both sides in this forced debate.

Changes needed to give challenges a better chance against incumbents include: a reduction in the number of petition signatures required to get on the ballot; non partisan redistricting; reductions in constituent mailings and office staff; equal time on the city’s cable TV stations and council web sites for challengers and opposition voices and an end to member items.

Petitions

Back in January 2006 I had as my goals:

1.) defeating the Bush/Gingrich/McCain agenda nationally

2.) defeating the Pataki, Bruno and Silver Albany constipation

3.) defeating the local Brooklyn Vito Lopez machine.

Still working on #3 through several channels. And it remains to be seen whether indictments or ill health or Brooklyn fatigue with corruption bring down Vito Lopez. For my part I prefer indictments to ill health. But Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn DA, has pushed that aside and has focused on other, also worthy efforts. So we wait to see who will replace Lopez in time.

Goal #1 began to happen in 2006 with a massive take over of the House and an evening up of the Senate. And we have a damned good shot at continuing this in 2008 with MORE House seats, a REAL takeover of the Senate and a White House win by Obama.

Been thinking about the Brooklyn Surrogate race and many people have been talking to me about it. I know to non-insiders this seems like a minor thing, but in reality the Surrogate Judge, and all judges, are important elected positions and the fact that the machine's lock on appointing judges has majorly slipped is a very big deal.

My post-primary piece might have been a bit overly pessimistic, though I think fairly accurate. But the reform clubs are celebrating and for good reason. I put down the reform clubs a bit in my last piece, but honestly they did help swing the race for Diana Johnson and did hand Vito Lopez a solid defeat.

And it really was a solid defeat. Diana Johnson won with almost 60% of the vote. That means Vito Lopez and his machine lost about as decisively as you really ever expect in a judicial election. There was a time when Surrogate Judge was the machine's to give away like a plum. It was one of the bigger plums the machine could give.

Before you even read this article, read this one, by Matt Stoller over on Open Left (quickly becoming my favorite new blog on the intertubes, one might add).

Eliot Spitzer is a dangerous man, with dangerous ideas. Chief among the latter is the simple observation that the status quo in New York is no longer good enough, if indeed it has been for the last generation or so. His diagnosis is simple: our leadership has failed, allowing the once-proud Empire State to fall into a dotage and senescence that are in themselves scandalous. New York has fallen, from being a leader among the fifty states, in terms of size and power and sheer influence, to a third place in population, about to be overtaken by, God alone help us, Florida, and a doddering irrelevance in policy terms. The state is bifurcated - here, the glittering metropolis and its endless gleaming suburbs, there, the vaster swaths of impoverished farmland and dying industries.

In the center of it all lies Albany, the state capital, home to the trompe l'oeuil legislature, election to which guarantees a lifelong, care-free sinecure. The place oozes futility. It appears that George Pataki wasn't just a mediocre governor; he is, rather, a state of mind, one that still very much obtains in the capital.

The election of Eliot Spitzer threatened to change all that, by declaring that good enough is no longer good enough.

It’s day 14 and the Governor and his agenda are officially being roasted by no less than FOUR potential investigations into allegations of wrongdoing regarding Joe Bruno’s travel on state aircraft. Meanwhile, the public is left with platitudes and bromides about cooperation coming from Albany and the Governor.

Clearly those that thought everything would change on Day One – can’t remember where they got that idea – are to blame. The only thing that seems to have changed are the faces – and not too many of those – in Albany. With competency and learning from mistakes so rife in the news and among the chattering classes of Albany and Washington, you would have thought that the Governor and his crack team would be on top of the trend.

State Senator Diane Savino offered a quick fix for this problem over a week ago when she suggested that Darren Dopp, the Governor’s embattled communications director, be fired. Of course, firing Mr. Dopp does not mean that he is guilty of a crime. Certainly his recently retained counsel made that point abundantly clear in an article in Friday’s New York Times.

Last Tuesday morning the phrase being uttered around New York was, “Not a good day for the governor” – if only. A week later and the story continues to garner news ink. Now, whether you are down on Wall Street reveling in the governor’s reversal of fortune or a supporter left grasping for words to explain what seems to be well, unexplainable – stop for a moment and contemplate the larger picture.

Here are some of the news stories we need to see more of from our deeply dysfunctional capital.

Spitzer signs bill to put congestion pricing on track

Spitzer establishes stem cell panel

Here's a headline that I cordially suggest we don't need:

Ethics Commission Begins Review of Spitzer’s Office

Not, mind you, that we don't need to have clarity, and consequences, over what happened in what the Murdoch Press is already calling Spitzergate. Rather, we don't need the kind of behavior that causes the Ethics Commission to step in in the first place.

[Ed. note]: This article was originally written by Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project and is reposted to indicate our full support of this effort.

Unfinished Business: Pass The Telecom Reform Act

The Legislature left Albany last week with much unfinished business. The Governor issued a statement expressing his disappointment with lawmakers for so abruptly abandoning a number of viatl pieces of legislation before leaving for home.

This record is totally unacceptable.

New Yorkers expect and deserve dedicated and aggressive action to revive the upstate economy and reform state government.

...

In the days and weeks ahead, I will be traveling the state to remind lawmakers of their obligation to address pressing issues.

Mr. Spitzer lists many of the issues left unresolved by the legislature including Wicks law reform, paid family leave and power plant siting legislation. But, one of the most significant bills introduced in Albany in years didn't seem to make his list, Assemblyman Brodsky's Telecommunications Reform Act of 2007, a bill that would certainly qualify as "dedicated and aggressive action to revive the upstate economy" by requiring the buildout of high speed broadband infrastructure to a minimum of 85% of the state, something desperately needed by under served and economically depressed communities upstate. It would also protect net neutrality, bring cheaper cable and telephone rates through increased competition and allow New York to once again be a progressive, innovative model for other states to follow.

Quite a coalition of support has coalesced around the bill since its introduction including NYS Rural Advocates, NYPIRG, Common Cause, Jobs With Justice, Citizen Action, Rural Opportunities Inc, New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, Consumers Union and ACORN among others. Much of the credit for assembling this coalition goes to Pete Sikora at the Communications Workers of America who has done a fantastic job of building support for the bill against its only known opponents, namely the cable companies and Verizon (and by extension, Joe Bruno and the Republican state Senators who represent those upstate New Yorkers who stand to benefit most from passage of the bill.)

I've written about the bill here several times and want to explain again why I and so many others believe it to be the "gold standard" in state telecom legislation (or as Pete Sikora put it, "the best thing since sliced bread") but first I want to ask you to do something to get this bill back on the governor's radar. Please call Mr. Spitzer's office and ask him to support this bill. You can reach his office at 518-474-8390.

We know that the Governor has a long history of supporting consumers over corporations. He also campaigned on expanding broadband infrastructure to underserved upstate communities and has often expressed his vocal support for net neutrality such as when he wrote to Senator Ted Stevens (.pdf) last year:

Net neutrality embodies the principle of open access and nondiscriminatory treatment of all internet users and content providers. Net neutrality has made the internet a powerful promoter of public discourse and commercial exchange, affording to users throughout all parts of the nation and the world and unlimited array of information, news, opinion and entertainment. Net neutrality has also fostered robust competition by content providers, without regard to ownership of the backbone facilities over which Internet traffic travels.

We need to let the Governor know that not only do we want what this bill provides (and he has repeatedly advocated for) but that there is a constituency of support for him when he takes on this fight. Call him at 518-474-8390 and ask him to support this bill.

Who wins with this bill on the flip...