Azi Paybarah

Some of the most significant collateral damage from Eliot Spitzer's implosion involves the reputations of two of his one-time allies: former communications director Darren Dopp (the original scapegoat for Troopergate) and David Soares, the Albany County District Attorney (who is the current scapegoat).

Dopp has been on the offensive trying to clear his name, speaking at length with the New York Times, and -- just this this morning -- providing the New York Post with his version of the testimony he gave to the state’s Public Integrity Commission.

The transcript Dopp provided undermines Soares’ initial report into the Troopergate incident, which alleged Dopp acted as a rogue agent and inappropriately ordered the state police to re-create travel records for state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who received protection from the police (as is customary for legislative leaders).  read more »

Somebody please join the Facebook group "Friends of Adolfo Carrion" -- because right now the Bronx Borough President and comptroller candidate is the only member of his group.

Now, I'm sure there will be plenty of people 'friending' Adolfo soon enough, but his lonely-seeming profile -- he's been his own best friend for more than a week now -- does provide a valuable lesson in Campaigning 101: If you're going to launch a social networking page for your favorite candidate, make sure you find him some friends right away. Otherwise, he might look kind of sad.

Are there any other pages like this out there?

Here’s the pitch Barack Obama’s campaign made to a bunch of New York donors recently, which basically says he’s leading John Mccain among younger, female and Hispanic voters.

That last one is interesting since. as some Hillary Clinton supporters reminded me, he hadn't done that well with Hispanic voters.

Here’s the form Hillary Clinton supporters are asked to fill out when donating money to help retire her campaign debt.

The form was sent to me this morning by a reader who received it recently. It reads in part, “I hereby designate my contribution to be used towards 2008 primary election debt retirement for Hillary Clinton for President. I am making this contribution with my own personal funds and not with funds provided by any other person."

One question to think about is how many of Clinton's donors are even eligible to help her out. After all, wasn't one of the reasons she fell behind Barack Obama in the money game the fact that she relied on wealthy donors who maxed out -- contributing $2,300 to her primary and general election funds? Those supporters, no matter how much they may want to, can't now give her more money.

Kendall Stewart, who is running for State Senate in Brooklyn, is plowing ahead with the notion that he knows how to get money for local community groups, despite the trouble two of his staffers got into for allegedly misusing public money intended for local community groups.

"I want to thank you for all the years of support and your fair and unbiased approach to reporting the news," Stewart says in this "press invitation."

Stewart and fellow City Councilman Simcha Felder are running in a Democratic primary against incumbent Kevin Parker.

It's double-issue time for the Observer, meaning that the regular crew will taking a break for a few days. Steve Kornacki, whose enthusiasms include the Boston Celtics and Bob Newhart records, will be minding the store.

I’ll be checking email periodically but been ordered to keep my Treo usage to a minimum. So if you’ve got some interesting tidbit (out of Schedule C, perhaps?), or find yourself unexpectedly close to a certain billionaire mayor muttering about his favorite watering hole in D.C., send it to skornacki [at] observer.com.

Over to you, Steve.

Congressional challenger Kevin Powell of central Brooklyn is hoping to get elected to office, in part, on the strength of his association with famous people: He likes Barack Obama, and celebrities like him.

“Chuck D e-mailed me today,” Powell told The Observer, referring to the outspoken rapper made famous in the late 1980s and early ’90s with songs like “Fight the Power” and “911 is a Joke.” “He was driving in Montreal, Canada, and he said, ‘Kevin, I’m with you. Anything I can do for you, let me know.’”

Powell is attempting this year to unseat a 13-term incumbent, Representative Ed Towns, a Baptist minister who supported Hillary Clinton in the primary and whose absence from the campaign trail in 2006 (and so far this year) can make it hard to notice there’s an election happening.  read more »

Many people have thought for a long time that Michael Bloomberg’s solid waste plan--which included opening a garbage transfer station near Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District--would never pass in Albany, given that three Assembly members from Manhattan opposed it.

But at the end of session last week, the bill suddenly passed, with Sheldon Silver's support, although those Manhattan Assembly members still opposed it.

Matthew Washington, deputy director for Friends of Hudson River Park, which opposed the plan, couldn't quite explain what had changed. “Very early on, it seemed like he [Silver] was supportive of his members--Dick Gottfried, Deborah Glick, Linda Rosenthal--who’ve always been against using the Gansevoort site as a marine transfer station," Washington told me.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo announced he won't appeal the court's decision to side with Dick Grasso, further eroding Spitzer's legacy as attorney general. Here's the statement:

"We have reviewed the Court's opinion and determined that an appeal would not be warranted. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the Grasso case is over."

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal editorial board called for Cuomo "to cut his – and taxpayer – losses" on the Grasso case.

Anthony Weiner said in a recent interview that the public hasn't noticed Michael Bloomberg's failure to push the city's agenda in Albany because the mayor has "had a lapdog press corps."

The Congressman, of course, may have to deal with that press corps if he runs for mayor next year.

When I asked Weiner spokesman John Collins about the "lapdog" comment, he emailed:

"We won't be a press critic. The mayor's operation does a good job on all fronts and I think Anthony will stay out of the press evaluation business."

 

Recently, I wrote about the (legal and normal) process by which some politically connected nonprofits continue to get a good deal of money in City Council-distributed member items.

In the comments section on that post, a vigorous discussion ensued about the size of the salary earned by executive director William Rapfogel of the not-for-profit Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which got $500,000 in member items this year.

For the record: he makes a lot of money by non-profit-world standards, but not quite as much as some commenters guessed.

According to Rapfogel, who I talked to on the phone just now, his current salary is $379,000, which squares with the number in the group’s 2005-2006 tax filing, the most recent one available online.

This is the first batch of member items to go through a new, more rigorous vetting process.

Kevin Parker, the state senator from Brooklyn facing two well-established primary challengers, just got the endorsement of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1500.

According to a statement from campaign spokesperson Ronnie Sykes, the union's decision wasn't a close one: “The union endorsed Senator Parker without conducting an interview. The decision was made based on the Senator’s strong history of support for working families.”

Running against Parker are term-limited City Council members Kendall Stewart and Simcha Felder, who has been on the wrong end of a preemptively exclusive screening process before.

Yesterday, Jon Bon Jovi and Michael Bloomberg held a joint press conference to announce a free concert in Central Park on July 12.

About nine minutes into the video, Bon Jovi is recalling other concerts in the park, and he notes that earlier, Bloomberg had mispronounced Art Garfunkel's name (he apparently said Garfinkel).

“Did I say that?” Bloomberg asks. “He’s my neighbor too. He lives next door.”

A new political party. From his email:

What we should do is improve on the reform model and create a new party which will state in its manifesto that it is running against the candidates of both the Democratic and Republican parties and has as its goal the sweeping out of Albany of all incumbents – the bad and the good – replacing them with the new party’s candidates. After two elections in which the new party is successful, it should agree to dissolve and allow the Democratic and Republican parties to once again take over, vying against one another on a philosophical basis, hoping they have learned their lesson and become functional.

Barack Obama says he opposes the ballot initiative in California that would ban gay marriage.

Obama said both that he would support faith-based intitiatives, like those favored by George W. Bush, and that he would support those organizations' right to hire and fire based on religion.

Wes Clark did not back down on what he said about John McCain.

Gail Sheehy writes the Clinton campaign obituary for Vanity Fair.

The Wall Street Journal sounds the alarm on Obama's tax policies.

Having supported Hillary Clinton may be problematic for some members of Congress when September's primaries arrive.

Descriptions of the conversation between Bill Clinton and Obama are fairly vague.  read more »

George Soros just contributed $500 to the campaign of congressional candidate Kevin Powell, who is running to unseat 13-term Representative Ed Towns in Brooklyn.

Soros' political director Michael Vachon confirmed the contribution by the billionaire liberal activist, saying Soros made the donation on-line about 30 minutes ago. “Soros is supporting the candidacies of several young progressives around the country and Kevin Powell is one of them,” Vachon said.

Arthur Leopold, a fund-raiser for Powell, tried to take the significance of the contribution one step further. “Soros endorsed Barack Obama early because he wanted a new wave of leadership. He’s not only looking nationally but I also think he’s looking locally,” Leopold said.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who hasn’t faced a Democratic opponent in 22 years, was out campaigning this Sunday, a spokesman for his campaign confirmed.

“Assembly member Silver spent some time on Sunday with a longtime resident of Village View who introduced him to some of her neighbors to hear their concerns and talk about his record fighting to preserve affordable housing in Lower Manhattan,” said Silver campaign spokesman Jonathan Rosen in an e-mail.

Silver’s campaign previously said he would not campaign until the legislative session ended and "once we know who all the candidates will be.”

That second part is usually code for the July 10 deadline for petitions and whatever additional time it takes to challenge the validity of those petitions in court. It looks like Silver isn't waiting.

This year, he's facing two Democratic opponents: Luke “Skywalker” Henry and Paul “Obamawitz” Newell.

Spanish-language television ads that feature Michael Bloomberg encouraging people to vote are tentatively scheduled to air in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in mid to late August and September, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The ads are part of a nationwide campaign called “Ya es Hora,” which is produced by the Spanish-language television network Univision and will feature mayors from around the country.

Univision has produced similar public service announcements in the past, but this is the first year they’ve included mayors. (Bloomberg, however, has touted his Spanish skills before.)

A person familiar with the program said they decided to include mayors like Bloomberg, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and others because they'll be recognized outside their city's borders.  read more »

Among the funding requests cut by the Council from its budget was one for the Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce, which was slated to get $10,000 at the request of City Councilman Larry Seabrook. The organization earned some attention when it came out that they never accounted for the ultimate destination of $994,488 they received last year.

After voting in favor of the budget, Seabrook told me, “I didn’t put it in -- that was a mistake on their end,” referring to the Council staff.

A spokesman for the City Council explained the mistake, saying that Seabrook had initially asked for the money but later recsinded the request.  read more »

Even in these days of increased transparency when it comes to the City Council's appropriation of member items, the process remains, unavoidably, one that rewards people who know people.

For example, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a non-profit group whose executive director, William Rapfogel, is married to the Assembly Speaker's chief of staff, Judy Rapfogel, got $556,250 in member items this year.

The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center, a group founded and closely associated with Vito Lopez, an Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic County Leader, got $658,089 in member items.

In the comments section of my original post on these member items, Mendy points out that Leib Glantz, a politically active Satmar rabbi, is a big winner because his group, UJCare, got a $200,000 member item to fund "a variety of services.  read more »

Assemblyman Rory Lancman of Queens sent a letter to Barack Obama asking him to “say loudly and clearly to the world” the words “Ani Yisraeli,” meaning "I am an Israeli."

That unsolicited advice on “how to speak to my community” was sent by Lancman to Obama’s Washington office on June 29, in advance of Obama’s upcoming trip to the Middle East.

Lancman, whose Flushing Queens district includes a large Orthodox Jewish population, also suggests that Obama “challenge the Palestinians to build their nascent nation instead of building homemade missiles to launch into Israel," and to say that “Jews can live in Hebron or anywhere else, and Israel has the right to protect them if the Palestinians won’t.  read more »

Before passing last night’s budget, Christine Quinn told reporters at City Hall, “I can assure New Yorkers there are no fictitious organizations in this budget.”

Later, in response to a question, Quinn said groups that were funded last year and don't appear in this years budget weren't necessarily rejected--some Council members give funding for more than one year.

Michael Bloomberg is trying to overhaul senior centers.

Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging stricter gun control laws.

The only members of Congress from New York that disclosed what local projects they’re trying to fund were Peter King and Vito Fossella.

The City Council approved the $59.1 billion budget, and did not fund a handful of questionable member items.

Christine Quinn said she failed to get more money out of Bloomberg.

George Pataki won’t be a John McCain delegate.

Jacob Gershman finds outs where Dean Skelos buys his suits.

Sheldon Silver’s race gets some attention from Gotham Gazette.  read more »

The City Council just released its Schedule C budget document, which details things like how the members allocated $46 million in member items this year.

If you see anything we should be highlighting, let me know.

Steve Minarik, once the chair of the State Republican Party, just resigned from his current position as chair of the Monroe County Republican Organization. The resignation came the request of the county executive, Maggie Brooks, but her statement offered no further elaboration.

Monroe County has the one of the largest number of registered Republicans of any county outside New York City.

Channel 13 has more.

In 1979, when Joe Bruno was still new to the State Senate, his office was next door to that of State Senator Norman Levy, head of the Labor Committee. Levy’s intern at the time was a young Hofstra student named Randi Weingarten.

“I watched him, as a leader, mature,” Weingarten, now the president of the United Federation of Teachers, told me. Bruno, she said, “will be sorely missed.”

There’s been speculation about what Bruno’s retirement meant for the unions and business interests he had political ties to.

“I was able to work with George Pataki. I was able to work with Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

Not everyone is happy with the $59.1 billion budget that Michael Bloomberg and the City Council agreed upon last night, which preserved property tax cuts and school aid by cutting funds to cultural programs and senior centers.

“I’m very dissatisfied in terms of calling it a budget negotiation,” Councilman Lew Fidler told me in an interview this morning. “A number of us went to the quote-unquote 'handshake' last night to support the speaker, but not because we thought there was a partnership with the mayor.”

Fidler said Bloomberg "wanted to raise the property taxes.”

Raising property taxes may be necessary if budget revenues continue to decline, Fidler acknowledged.  read more »

In a chat with Staten Island Advance political editor Tom Wrobleski, State Senator Diane Savino reviews the legislative session that just wrapped up, discussing how shocked she is that lawmakers, "at the end of this whole process, really not have accomplished that much for the people of the State of New York.”

Savino goes on to call the state budget “out of whack."

"We put it together with spit and scotch tape and Monopoly money and I think we’re going to run out of Monopoly money in about three weeks,” she said.

She went on, “The revenue projects were seriously out of whack and we knew it at the time.  read more »

During his weekly appearance on John Gambling’s radio show this morning, Michael Bloomberg defended the amount of money going to education in the budget the City Council just passed, saying, “It isn’t like we’re cutting the schools' [funding].”

He added, “I’m in a business where if they ask for 10 percent, and you give them a 6 percent raise, they say, 'You cut us 4 percent.' In government speak, you talk about cutting, but cutting from the budgets.”

Referring to the overall budget, Bloomberg went on, “The truth is, in absolute dollars, we are spending this coming year, assuming it holds together, virtually exactly the same.  read more »

Here’s Councilman Charles Barron in City Hall yesterday, sounding off on the political situation in Zimbabwe.

I asked Barron, a longtime admirer of Robert Mugabe, what he thought about Mugabe’s behavior, considering the horrific violence reported against the democratic opposition to his government in Zimbabwe. Barron's answer was the same as always: the West and Western media is biased against Mugabe because he took land back from colonial white settlers.

(Barron invited Mugabe to City Hall in 2002.)

“In the year 2000, when he said one farm, one farmer, he was vilified,” Barron told me. “For 20 years they loved Mugabe because they didn’t take the land from the whites.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg and the City Council reached a deal on a $59.1 billion budget that will maintain cuts to property taxes and restore education spending.

Social service programs saw their funding cut.

The Council decided to forgo some of their discretionary spending to preserve money for schools.

The New York Sun is delighted that the budget avoids tax increases.

Code Pink showed up to protest the meeting between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington last night.

In a speech yesterday, Clinton expressed support for Obama three times.

Obama donated $2,300 of his personal money to Clinton's campaign.

They flew to Unity, New Hampshire together.  read more »

As Liz noted, some of the state’s leading unions have been eerily silent ever since Joe Bruno announced his retirement. (A spokeswoman for 1199 SEIU, for example, declined requests for comments for two days.)

Two people I spoke to downplayed how durable or partisan the unions' allegiances might be.

“[The unions are] so big, and they have so much money, that even if they were to fulfill their commitment to Bruno by supporting all the Republican candidates this fall, and the Democrats win, they’ll still land on their feet,” said one leading union official who asked not to be named.

“The next election is only two years away and they, and the teachers, are in a separate category of political actor,” this person said.  read more »

State Senator Marty Connor announced he got the endorsement of UFCW Local 1500, a union that backed his opponent in 2006.

The union picked Connor without conducting an interview with either the senator or his opponent, Dan Squadron.

According to an email from a Connor spokesman, union president Bruce Both explained: “You will notice that this endorsement was given without our Union requesting an interview. We do so based on your strong record of supporting workers rights, preserving our middle class and helping working families. We are confident that you will do so in the future.”

A call to a UFCW 1500 spokesperson was not immediately returned.

In yet another quality-of-life initiative, Andrew Cuomo announced that after an investigation by his office, Anheuser-Bush will no longer sell alcoholic beverages with caffeine in them. Cuomo's probe found they were being illegally marketing to minors. 

Getting alcohol out of the hands of minors is the latest example of Cuomo focusing on tangible issues, in contrast to Eliot Spitzer, who took on the more complicated financial issues of Wall Street.

From Cuomo's office:

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that Anheuser-Busch will stop selling all caffeinated alcohol beverages after an investigation showed the company was illegally marketing these drinks to young people.  read more »

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Earlier today, Michael Bloomberg defended the pledge he reportedly made to help Dean Skelos keep the narrow majority Republicans hold in the State Senate.

“Because I have said repeatedly I will help those who help this city,” Bloomberg said when he was asked why he made the promise during a Q&A with reporters in Lower Manhattan after unveiling the Waterfalls. “The Republicans in the State Senate were willing to vote for congestion pricing, and the Democrats were not. And there’s been a whole bunch of things where they have been there to help us," he added. "If the Democrats help us, I’ll support them as well.  read more »

Nearly 30 television cameras and countless reporters have gathered to hear Michael Bloomberg launch his latest public art project, aptly named "The New York City Waterfalls," here at Pier 17 in Lower Manhattan.

One reporter who covers City Hall regularly wondered aloud how to get Bloomberg's attention during the Q&A.

It's one of the largest crowds I've seen gather to hear Bloomberg, proving he can still get lots of attention without it necessarily being based on ruminations about his political future or frustrations with Albany.

All the new faces in the crowd seem to be foreign press.

David Dinkins has been named campaign chairman for Manhattan Surrogate's Court candidate Milton Tingling. The campaign also announced that Charlie Rangel will serve as honorary chair. Ravi Batra (of Law and Order fame) is serving as the finance chair.

It just adds a bit more name recognition to this competitive, quiet race.

Tingling is running against Nora Anderson and John Reddy.

The City Council’s budget negotiating team stayed late last night at City Hall, trying to hammer out a budget before the June 30 deadline. A handshake agreement is expected today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, it's a scene. Lobbyists have been a permanent fixture on the City Hall steps and in the City Hall rotunda for days, if not weeks, hounding lawmakers, staffers, and even reporters for any information.

Yesteday afternoon, I bumped into City Councilman Tony Avella across the street from City Hall. When I asked about the budget, he threw up his hands up--it seems he's waiting for information, just like the rest of us.  read more »

Here’s Dean Skelos--at his first press conference after being elected State Senate majority leader Tuesday night in Albany--saying property taxes are the first, second and third priority for the Republican conference.

This also means there are more elected officials using YouTube (the video is from the State Senate's recently launched account).

Michael Bloomberg will appear in Spanish language ads to urge people to vote.

A woman who said she was raped by a former Sheldon Silver staffer is now volunteering for Paul Newell, Silver's challenger.

Dean Skelos said Bloomberg pledged to help Republicans keep control of the State Senate.

Skelos raised $1.2 million for his uncontested re-election.

The New York Post doesn’t think much will change after Joe Bruno’s departure.

Skelos is doing a listening tour.

Jim Odato looks at Bruno’s life after office.

Chuck Schumer teams up with Wal-Mart on a tax plan.

Danny Hakim thinks it’s unclear whether David Paterson’s approach to governing has been more effective than Eliot Spitzer’s.  read more »

Christine Quinn took a shot at Albany lawmakers (none by name) for passing a bill she says will weaken the city’s soon-to-be enacted law requiring stores to recycle their plastic bags.

“Yet again, it’s Albany taking away our power,” Quinn said in a brief chat with reporters in City Hall. “I fail to understand why the State Legislature wants to make New York City a less green city, and we urge the governor to stop them from doing that.”

It's an opportunity for Quinn, a likely mayoral candidate, to fight on behalf of the city. Likely rival Anthony Weiner has long been seen as more aggressive than Quinn, and another likely rival, Bill Thompson has unloaded a series of audits that are critical of the city on parks and education.  read more »

Last night, newly minted State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos explained to reporters that his priorities may shift now that he’s representing a statewide conference, and not just his Long Island district.

Speaking at a press conference, he said, “Of course I have a responsibility to my constituency--I’m elected to in the Ninth Senatorial District, but I think David Paterson has shown, as he moved from being the minority leader to lieutenant governor and now governor, that your responsibilities perhaps change a little bit, and you have to amend your ways a little bit.”

One of the accomplishments Skelos highlights in his biography is that he wrote the law ending what he called the "unfair and onerous" commuter tax, which cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue.  read more »

Joe Bruno announced his retirement shortly after the F.B.I. seized tons of his paperwork from the capitol.

Bruno’s lawyers asked prosecutors if his stepping down would affect their investigation, reports Ken Lovett.

It won’t.

Nicholas Confessore details Bruno’s showmanship.

Bruno’s replacement comes out of “the legendary” Nassau Republican political machine, which spends a lot money and is known for “fierce discipline.”

Newsday has a take on Skelos here.

Assemblyman Jeff Aubry said the “personal relationship between Skelos and Shelly [Silver] is going to be more edgy, that’s for sure.”

Skelos will focus on taxes.

Amid all the Bruno fuss yesterday, a lot of legislation was passed.

The New York Times editorial board hopes Bruno’s departure leads to more reform.  read more »

ALBANY—After a stretch long enough for people in state government to have forgotten that it was ever otherwise, Albany-dwellers are preparing for life after Joe Bruno, the 32-year incumbent who has helped define the capital’s three-men-in-a-room culture.

“Oh, it’s going to suck. It’s going to suck,” said one photographer who works in Albany. “This place is going to be half as much fun to cover. This guy was larger than life.”

Mr. Bruno, horse enthusiast, former boxer, and ex-majority leader of the State Senate, departs at the end of a legislative session in which his chief accomplishments have been defensive in nature: He blocked a plan to cap property taxes that his allies in the teachers’ union opposed; struck down an early plan by Assembly Democrats to tax millionaires; and, most memorably, survived a political death struggle with Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

When Dean Skelos takes over for Joe Bruno, one of the forces he'll have to come to terms with is Michael Bloomberg, who relied on State Senate Republicans to help pass New York City-related legislation in Albany, and who, in turn, gave them lots of money to get members re-elected.

The Skelos-Bloomberg relationship, whatever else there is to it, may already be strained.

According to the biography on Skelos' legislative web site, "Senator Skelos also wrote the law eliminating the unfair New York City "Commuter Tax." That's money New York City lawmakers have been trying unsuccessfully to get back ever since.  read more »

From David Paterson's comments at a press conference in Albany right now, it seems like he will have a good relationship with Dean Skelos, who is replacing Joe Bruno as the State Senate majority leader.

Speaking to reporters in the back of the Assembly chambers, Paterson said of Skelos, “For eight years he was the deputy majority leader, and I was the deputy minority leader and we used to debate each other on the floor for all my time. He is, in a lot of ways, like Senator Bruno, but he has his own style.”

Paterson, who represented Harlem in the State Senate, added, “He and I grew up about ten minutes away from each other in Long Island.  read more »

Dave Chappelle is doing a fund-raiser for former MTV Real World star Kevin Powell, who challenging Congressman Ed Towns in Brooklyn's 10th district.

Any event featuring Chappelle is bound to get a fair amount of attention, since he has stayed out of politics until now.

Powell's opponent, the 13-term incumbent Towns, has opted for a lower profile than his challenger, avoiding nearly all campaign events in 2006, and so far again this year.

Powell went on from The Real World (first season!) to a career writing about hip-hop and culture for publications like Vibe.

Republican State Senator Serf Maltese, whose narrow re-election in 2006 has made him a target for Democrats this year, said he’s not going anywhere.

“I’m very happy here. I’m enthusiastic,“ Maltese told me outside the State Senate chambers on the third floor of the capitol building in Albany. “I’m disappointed, very disappointed that Joe stepped down.”

He said an Albany radio reporter had described him as likely to retire in the wake of Bruno’s retirement. Referring to that reporter, Maltese said, “He just made that up out of whole cloth.”

Maltese did say the timing was advantageous for Republicans. Bruno’s announcement came so late in the campaign season (nominating petitions to get on the ballot are due at the State Board of Elections soon), that Democrats won’t have time to field a strong challenger to the likely Republican candidate, Roy McDonald, the local Assemblyman.

“He’s screwing them,” Maltese told me.