Eliot, the New Shelly
So how should we interpret the snub of Sheldon Silver from the Eliot Spitzer-backed screening panel yesterday, which failed to recommend any Assembly Democrats for the vacant comptroller position?
The panel delivered exactly what Spitzer want: a slate of people who are ostensibly Albany outsiders. It's visible proof, as far as Spitzer is concerned, that he's willing to live up to his rhetoric about changing Albany, and that he's not the naive, political newbie learning how to deal with the entrenched pros.
For the aforementioned pros, though, it's something else: a statement about Spitzer's raw power and ambition.
"It's an example of Spitzer as Rudy Giuliani, pre-9/11 of course," said a Democratic lawmaker. "I'll do whatever I want, too bad if you don't like it.'"
Or, as one source sympathetic to one of the snubbed candidates put it: "From three men in a room to one."
-- Azi Paybarah
Silver will reject the panel's selections because it failed to send up five names as agreed. A technicality, yes, but Silver's in a corner and his conference is watching how he handles this...
There is no way that Shelly is going to chow down on this. He has no choice but to try to pick one of his conference members as the next comptroller. Now, with the death of John Lavelle, he only has 107 members and with Grannis effectively switching sides that leaves the magic number of 106. Among those 106 members there are certainly a few (or more) that can be bought off by a very new governor. Just think back to 2004 when he tried to do overrides and Steve Kaufman, Ron Tocci, and Carmen Arroyo disappeared. Well Arroyo is still there and presumably can be rented for this purpose along with others. This seems to put at least some of the power in Malcolm Smith's hands. Without Smith Shelly will have a difficult time holding each of the 106 together. Add that to the increasing pressure from editorial boards and goo goos and this is one big question mark hanging over the state and its political life. I would never underestimate Shelly or the governor. Tighten your seat belts. We are going to the bottom of the ninth.
DiNapoli is in. Silver will force Spitzer to accept his man. He can't afford not to. BIG amateur mistake by Spitzer trying to grab too much too soon. This coupled with his attacks on healthcare and the appointment of a lightweight with minimal utility experience to LIPA do not bode well for the new governor. He is seriously miscalculating what his mandate is. He'e going to see how quickly people abandon him.
Also Cuomo going after member items is going to end up being a HUGE embarrassment to the democratic party and will further widen the split between Spitzer-Cuommo and the rest of the dems. Shelly NEEDS DiNapoli in as comptroller to maintain his power in the state. Look for Shelly and Bruno to get together and appoint DiNapoli (despite some reservations by some republicans about DiNapoli's personal issues).
DiNapoli will do a great job as he's done as an assemblyman and as someone who can reach across both ailes to do what's right for the public. Spitzer(like Bush) is a divider. DiNapoli brings folks together.
I agree with everything the last poster said. Anonymous has it right, in my opinion.
In many ways, Spitzer's conduct here is both ruthless and naive. By pusing too hard too soon, he has summarily ended the honeymoon and paved the way for a much more resistant legislature when the big substantive issues have to be faced. This may ultimately be a far more important result of this mess than whose Comptroller candidate gets selected.
By the way, where are the Republicans on this. If this had been a simple Democrat versus Republican contest, they would probably simply vote no or not show up. But a potential Spitzer contra Silver war gives them some leverage just as it provides clout to Malcolm Smith. Perhaps the question the GOP will ask in this is: who do we want to screw more?
Stay tuned.
you guys are all, obviously, way too insider. do you really think that sheldon silver has a mandate from the people of new york? do you really think that he is more popular or well liked than the new governor?
if Silver muscles his cronie in to the Comptroller's spot spitzer is going to use it as a exhibit A in albany corruption and dysfunction. the media, statewide, will happily feast on the storyline. it'll be the beginning of the end for silver's rule. and good riddance to that awful little man.
new york is completely sick of sheldon silver and joe bruno. so, please, sheldon go ahead and try to powerplay an incredibly popular governor whose been sent by the people of ny to clean up your mess.
the only mistake spitzer could make would be to continue to let silver run the state. you insiders are all so used to sheldon running the show, you can't imagine that it's going to go any other way.
Bruno is WAY more angry with Spitzer than he's ever been with Silver.
The question is what Long Island Republicans in the Senate and the Assembly will do.
From the public interview, it looked like some of them might be willing to nominate DiNapoli themselves. Senator Krueger even joked that DiNapoli appeared to be the Republican nominee.
Silver doesn't need to be more popular statewide than the Governor.
He needs to be popular in his district and with his colleagues. His colleagues need to be popular in their districts.
He is and they are.
Democrats won 108 out of 150 Assembly seats this year, which comes to 72% of the seats which, last I checked, was several percentage points higher the Spitzer's "mandate."
The decision on how to handle this mess will come from Silver's conference. They will either push to take the Governor on now, or they'll decide to wait for a better opportunity. But there is no way that independently elected legislators will tolerate this kind of duplicity and disdain from Spitzer for long.
I agree with jad. Spitzer was both ruthless and naive. Maybe not such a good combination.
anybody notice that none of the ex-comptrollers asked a single questin during the public interviews?
what was that?
When dong the math on the legislative votes factor in Senators like Marty Conner who can/have been bought by Shelly with promises of legal work. PS I think eliot should claim the process a success and walk away from the results he has already started a mini-revolt in Nassau