So there may be a little less at stake now for the officials girding for the opportunity to succeed Upper East Side-based Representative Carolyn Maloney. That unofficial mini-contest, of course, was contingent on Hillary Clinton having a chance of becoming president, and on Maloney having a chance of taking Clinton's place in the Senate.  read more »

State Senator Liz Krueger wants the city’s commissioner at the Department of Buildings fired, following the deadly crane accident last week.

Krueger, who represents the Upper East Side, said in a public statement just now, “The problems at the DOB are systemic, and exist from top to bottom. The first step that must be taken now is for DOB Commissioner Patricia Lancaster to step down.”

The Buildings Department inspector who admitted to falsifying documents that said he had inspected the crane was arrested yesterday.

Here is the full statement from Krueger:  read more »

The jostling for New York's official Democratic convention delegate spots has been quietly playing out in political circles here for some time. And since a Hillary Clinton win in New York is kind of a foregone conclusion, it's really a contest to be named by her campaign.

Officially, delegates have to run and win the spot in party elections, so anyone can still grab a slot. But the campaign has its own list, which is pretty determinative.

Here’s a list of a few of those delegates, this one coming from the 14th congressional district, based on information from two Democratic sources:  read more »

So, how did the draft letter senate Democrats were thinking about sending to the IRS wind up in the hands of the Republicans?

In a story today, the New York Sun speculated that it might accidentally have been sent to Democrat Carl Kruger, a Democrat whose last name is one letter off from Liz Krueger, a Democrat whose name was attached to the letter. Both are on the Finance Committee (like two other people whose name was attached to the letter) but unlike Liz Krueger, Carl Kruger is somewhat of an ally of Joe Bruno.

I asked Kruger’s spokesman, Jason Koppell, about that theory.

“It’s so ridiculous it’s not even worth responding to,” he said. Koppell also said that his office was never sent the letter and that he and his colleagues learned about it from reading the newspapers.

I just got off the phone with Travis Proulx, spokesman for state Senator Liz Krueger, one of the three people whose name was attached to that IRS letter about Joe Bruno.

Although the names of Senators Krueger, John Sampson and Valmanette Montgomery - all members of the finance committee - were attached to the letter, they “did not draft a single word of it,” he said.

Proulx said it was being shopped around to see who would want to sign onto it. None did. Proulx said he does not know who actually wrote it but what is clear is that nobody supported it.

“The big objection is the letter talks about personal gains from state aircraft,” rather than discussing the “political gains.” He added, “They did not write a word of this letter and killed it once they saw it.”

But the issue about using the state aircraft is still weighing on the minds of senators, according to Proulx.

Bruno “shouldn’t be using tax-payer funded state aircraft to raise money for the Republican party. But if the law allows it, we can gripe all we want about it” until the law is changed, Proulx said.

The state Senate is schedule to go back into session on the 22nd. A spokesman for Joe Bruno just told me an agenda for that session is not yet available.

Here is a copy of the letter John Sampson, Liz Krueger and Velmanette Montgomery drafted with the aim of getting the IRS to investigate Joe Bruno.

It reads, in part:

“Both Attorney General Cuomo’s report and the recent disclosure by the Albany Times-Union suggests that Senator Bruno has repeatedly used the aircraft for travel that was not primarily for bona fide state business and as such, we believe that he should be reporting imputed income for unreimbursed travel as members of the New York State Senate, we urge you to conduct a review into Senator Bruno’s use of the aircraft and his obligation and his obligation to pay federal income taxes on the fair market value of the unreimbursed non-official portion of his travel.”

Malcolm Smith released a statement reaffirming the fact that he (and others) have suspicions about Bruno’s travel, but saying that he decided not to pursue the issue because “it would be a distraction from us getting back to the people's business.”

Smith's full statement is after the jump.  read more »

Democratic state Senator Liz Krueger aired some of her frustrations about fund-raising and Eliot Spitzer at a panel discussion in Manhattan yesterday, hosted by the Drum Major Institute. Her comments, according to DMI:

"I'm disappointed in the progress of the Spitzer administration's lack of progress on campaign finance reform. The loopholes in the state system are bigger than the system itself. Bundling is a reality even in the city system, I mean, who's kidding who?

I hate fundraising. I hate spending a huge percentage of my time begging strangers for money."

Progress on campaign finance reform, and other major legislative initiatives of Spitzer's, have been delayed since the investigations into the Troopergate incident picked up in July.

What's unusual about Krueger's remarks here, excerpted and posted on DMI's blog, is that she appears to blame Spitzer, and not Republicans in the state Senate, for the delay.

UPDATE: DMI revised their excerpts of Krueger's remarks, and puts them
in context of her complaints about Joe Bruno.  read more »

The housing boom, or what’s left of it, has spawned a strong backlash against real-estate developers. First there was the City Council’s dramatic overhaul of the 421a property-tax incentive, which repealed the tax breaks that Mayors since John Lindsay had given new apartment buildings in lower Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn.  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/421a-reform-its-back-and-badder-ever#comments Real Estate Affordable Housing Liz Krueger Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:11:08 -0400 Matthew Schuerman 53642 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/node/31593 Susan Chamlin, the aide to Senator Liz Krueger who was running Assemblyman Pete Grannis's not-yet vacated seat, has sent out a letter to say she's dropping out.

From the letter:

Upon Pete Grannis' confirmation to head the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Governor Spitzer will call a special election to fill this vacancy. However, until Governor Spitzer calls a special election, there is no race. Yet it appears the race has already been decided.

The Democratic nomination now pretty much belongs to Micah Kellner, who most elected officials are backing.

In the letter, Chamlin tries to set herself up as the reformer in contrast to Kellner, who is running with the support of most of the Manhattan Democratic establishment, by backing Eliot Spitzer in his death-struggle with the Assembly. She also touts a long and varied resume with a Forrest Gump-y "I was there" refrain about her participation through the decades in the causes of racial equality, abortion rights, AIDS awareness and, of course, Liz Krueger's election to the state Senate.

Are there any substantive differences between the candidates that might make this race about something other than endorsements and money for mailers?