Norman Adler

Although his own attempt to engineer an extended mayoral stint failed, Rudy Giuliani is cautiously supportive of Michael Bloomberg's plan, telling the Daily News he'd be willing to campaign for the mayor if he runs again.  read more »

The AP has an official statement from Democratic Senate Leader Malcolm Smith explaining why he pulled his entire conference off a bill raising salaries for state lawmakers--something Governor Spitzer opposed. Smith said the conference changed position because Senate Republicans didn't agree to campaign finance reform.

As a result, the members of the minority conference will remove their names as sponsors of Sen. Bruno's pay raise bill," Smith said in a prepared statement. "Moreover, we will oppose this bill absent an agreement by the majority to embrace meaningful campaign finance reform.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, needless to say, thinks that Smith got steamrolled.

Somewhere, political consultant Norman Adler -- who once called the Senate Democratic conference a "wholly owned subsidiary" of Spitzer's operation -- is chuckling.  read more »

Norman Adler thinks that in light of the race in Nassau -- in which Eliot Spitzer engineered the vacancy of a Republican seat and then propelled a Democrat to victory -- the state Senate Democrats are basically the governor's to do with as he pleases.

"Of course they sided with him," said Adler, a consultant who works with Republicans in the state Senate and Democrats in other offices. "He's their only hope. If they're going to be taking anything home to their districts, it's going to have to come through the governor's pork rather than the senate's pork. In this case, they sided with him because he's going to be their salvation."

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"All the money came from the governor, all the staff came from the governor, the media guy came from the governor. Ultimately the guy who did the second half of the mail came from the governor. The guy was out there campaigning continually. He's the one who pulled in Hillary and Chuck.

"So the Senate minority, until they get into the majority, is almost a wholly owned subsidiary of the governor."

-- Azi Paybarah

Random mini-highlights from a New School forum today about the incoming Spitzer administration:

NYPIRG's Albany man Blair Horner said the new governor "has to have a big reform victory that people understand" quickly, because the longer he's there, and the more Spitzer works with lawmakers, the harder it'll be to leverage public support for major changes.

Lobbyist and consultant Norman Adler criticized the much-discussed Brennan Center report about how to reform the state legislature for shoddy methodology. They "should be embarrassed to put that report out," he said.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld said that one major mistake he made as governor was to have been "too savage" with legislative leaders from the other party. Which makes it all the more intriguing to think about what might have happened if he ever made it to Albany.

And former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, who lost his seat because he passed a huge tax increase, partly in order to fund a CFE-like lawsuit, said his situation was made so difficult because, unlike governors in New York, he couldn't borrow money to pay for operating expenses.

-- Azi Paybarah