Azi Paybarah

Via Will Gailson, a self-described"musician, inventor, and a part time crusader for judicial reform."

(One clarification: Irwin Schneiderman sits on WNYC's board of trustees.)

A less serious but heatedly debated point at last night's Tea Party forum in Manhattan erupted when two of Gillibrand's likely GOP rivals debated who had real Republican credentials.

"It's absurd to say that you worked for Ronald Reagan," David Malpass says to Bruce Blakeman.

Blakeman responds, "I was an advance man for Ronald Reagan."

(Hallaron)

Here's City Councilman Dan Halloran, best known for breaking religious boundaries in New York City, campaigning with Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio,who has made another religious institution the focal point of his campaign ads.

The two greeted voters at the Pop Diner in Elmhurst today.

Rick Lazio, and David Malpass, at a Tea Party 365 candidate forum. (Azi Paybarah / WNYC)

Just a little more about the Q poll and Park51 debate:

The Quinnipiac poll today is likely to guarantee the Park51 debate will get more than enough coverage inside the daily papers tomorrow -- and by that, I mean right now -- even though some of the editorial pages have been criticizing candidates for focusing too much on the issue.

The person often credited with being one of the first to oppose the project is Rick Lazio, the GOP candidate for governor who has gone all over national TV and radio talking about the issue. In fact, he's been so attached to the issue that critics say it's overshadowed the other stuff he should be talking about.

The Post fired a warning shot across Lazio's bow, warning him to talk about issues voters care about, which they said his rival, Carl Paladino, is doing.

The Daily News said Lazio was "shameless and shameful in exploiting passions over a planned Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero."

And the New York Times editorial board was equally direct: "New Yorkers should be offended by Mr. Lazio’s attempt to exploit ground zero images for political gain."

Lazio, I think, has re-calibrated his message.

During a Tea Party forum last night, Lazio was asked how he would protect New York State from terrorists. Lazio spoke about expanding the Ring of Steel security initiative in Lower Manhattan, and fixing the broken security cameras in train stations. He also said cellphone reception underground should be improved, so people could text law enforcement if they see something suspicious, thus ensuring a "real time" response to any potential threat.

At no point during his answer did he mention Park51, even though his campaign aides ads seek to tie the project to September 11, Hamas and terrorists.

But in a scrum with reporters after the event, Lazio said he wasn't changing his focus away from Park51. He said he doesn't need to change the perception held by "the editorial boards" because "I think this is about where the people of New York are."

Over golf, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he and Obama spoke about politics. Sort of. Bloomberg told reporters today:

We did not talk about 2012 or anybody that would run. And certainly not about me. I have twelve hundred and eighteen days left to go in this job and I plan to serve them all out.

Senate Conference Leader John Sampson does what not many Democrats are doing: appearing with Pedro Espada Jr.

They're announcing a town hall meeting about immigration on September 9. Another town hall meeting Epsada organized was canceled, reportedly, because it was drawing protests from his critics. Of which, there are many.

(Azi Paybarah / WNYC)

A new vehicle to promote the new voting machines.

Parked down the street from my office on Varick Street.

So, this will probably keep the Park51 debate going a little bit longer in the governor's race.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds a majority of Democrats - 65-25 percent - say they want Andrew Cuomo to investigate funding for the group looking to build an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has been tying Cuomo to the issue, and an AP story noted that Cuomo has been notably quiet about his support for the developers.

But editorial boards, like The Daily News and New York Post, have criticized Lazio for campaigning too much on this issue, and not discussing other topics more directly related to the day-to-day functions of governing New York.

At a lengthy Tea Party event in midtown yesterday, Lazio barely mentioned the issue.

Anyway, more from the poll:

54-40 % say Muslims have a right to build a mosque near Ground Zero "because of American freedom of religion."

53-39 % say the Muslim group "should not be allowed" to build a mosque there "because of the opposition of Ground Zero relatives."

71-21 % say developers "should voluntarily build the mosque somewhere else," because, "of the opposition of Ground Zero relatives."

71-22 % say AG Andrew Cuomo should investigate the financing of the mosque.

And 65-25 % of Democrats say that Cuomo should look into the mosque's financing.

Carl Paladino can probably sympathize with what the League of Women Voters and Manhattan Neighborhood Networks is going through, as they try organizing debates for a bunch of local races. As Beth Fertig explains, it hasn't been so easy.

Fertig:

Bill Perkin’s campaign manager, Richard Fife, told me that Perkins’ campaign informed the League of Women Voters that they couldn’t do the debate last week. They had tentatively agreed but then had a previously scheduled commitment and asked if Manhattan Neighborhood Network could change the time (record in advance instead of live at 8:30, when he had the scheduling conflict) and they couldn’t.

I called LWV to confirm this story and they said yes, it was because of Perkins that they had to cancel. Ashton Stewart, executive director of the L.W.V., says Perkins’ campaign went from a yes to a maybe and they said they wanted it rescheduled and we just couldn’t do that.

Stewart said they had to cancel the 28th Democratic Senate District debate (Jose Serrano and Escoffery-Bey, who said he couldn’t participate) as well as Democratic Congressional District 14 (Maloney couldn’t make it).

One other cancellation, State Senate District 28 for Republicans also canceled on Friday because Keisha Weiner out of town.

They just canceled one for tonight, Assembly District 73. Gregg Lundahl – who’s challenging Jonathan Bing - never got back to the L.W.V.

Ed Koch lands between Bloomberg and Paterson on the Park51 debate. In an email to supporters, the former mayor explained his position:

"[M]y position on the building of the mosque near Ground Zero is different than Mayor Bloomberg’s position. He apparently does not believe that an effort should be made by anyone to convince the supporters of the mosque to move the location for sensitivity reasons. My position is that the feelings of 70 percent of all Americans on the issue, and particularly the family members of those who died and the survivors of the catastrophe, should be considered by the Muslim supporters of the mosque. They oppose the mosque on that site, because the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11 were Muslims. However, if the Muslim supporters conclude that they see no sensitivity issue and seek as they allege to build a mosque as a bridge on that site, their rights should be protected and enforced.

“Further, no one acting on behalf of government should seek to dissuade them."

He's not kissing rings. Paladino says he's campaigning against the 'politicla ruling class.'

The first time Carl Paladino met his wife, she threw a beer in his face.

It was Mr. Paladino’s junior year at St. Bonaventure's University in Buffalo, and during one celebratory weekend, he was hanging out in a local bar before a dance later that evening.

Here’s how Mr. Paladino tells it.

“Somebody says ‘This is Cathy Hannon,’ and I made a crude remark about one of her relatives who I knew from the city. I made a crude remark and she threw a beer on me, and that was the end of that discussion,” he said.

Mr. Paladino eventually left. Later that night, he met up with a friend who had arranged a blind date. Mr. Paladino’s companion that night – Kathy Hannon.

“She forgave me,” he said. The two have been married for forty years.

As Mr. Paladino’s launches into the final week of the Republican primary for governor, his penchant for abrasive, off-the-cuff remarks has not abated.

He’s described State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as “Hitler” and the “anti-Christ.” As part of a job training program, Mr. Paladino proposed teaching welfare recipients about “personal hygiene.”

Mr. Paladino’s complete disregard for the traditional niceties of electioneering is a marked contrast to the man he’s trying to defeat in the Republican primary, former Rep. Rick Lazio of Long Island. Critics, and even some supporters, describe Mr. Lazio as a sincere, but not passionate, candidate.

Passion is not lacking in candidate Paladino.

Even when discussing the collection of sillybands on his arm, Mr. Paladino grows animated.

"That's a star. That's a dollar sign. That's a dog. And that's a cloud,” Mr. Paladino said, walking down the street in Mineola one recent afternoon. “I had to change with one of [my daughter’s] friends the other day - when one of her friends asks to exchange, you got to take what they give ya and give them what they want. So, she took my ice cream cone and she gave me this stinkin' dollar sign which I really don't like."

The real brunt of Mr. Paladino’s anger is reserved for what he calls the “political ruling class" of both parties. To rescue New Yorkers from New York politicians, Mr. Paladino said he’s put together a no-holds barred campaign team. The commercial real estate developer put $10 million of his own money behind the effort, and he's courted a team of aides known for their eccentricities as much as for their talents.

In late March, when Mr. Paladino decided to run, he got in touch with a political operative who was from his hometown of Buffalo but who had worked on campaigns all over the world: Michael Caputo.

Mr. Caputo had been in semi-retirement, living for a while on a tugboat in Key West, Florida. Caputo’s political work has taken him around the world. He has worked a few campaigns in Russia, and, as he tells it, buried a few friends, because of campaigns in Russia.

Mr. Caputo had moved back to Buffalo to take over his family’s insurance company when Mr. Paladino came calling. Mr. Caputo received the call – on his birthday – and came out of retirement.

"Getting on this campaign is the first time I put on a suit in five years. And none of them fit,” Mr. Caputo said in Mineola. “None of them fit. Moving back to Buffalo is the first time I put on shoes in four years."

To go with the new suits: a pair of black cufflinks, with a skull and bones on them. As far as Mr. Paladino is concerned, the floating domicile is the least surprising part of his campaign manager’s resume.

“What did you think when you heard this guy was living on a tug-boat in Florida?” I asked Mr. Paladino.

“If you think that's strange, wait until you hear the rest of the story,” he chuckled. “We're talking one day - somebody's reading the newspaper and somebody says 'Did you see this little airplane crash?' And out of the clear blue sky, he says, ‘I was in a plane crash once - in Siberia.’ ”

Yes, Siberia.

To help Mr. Paladino recall the story, because it's just that good, another campaign aide - John Haggerty - steps in.

“He drops stuff like this - it's like he's Forrest Gump,” Mr. Haggerty says, smiling. Mimicking both sides of a conversation with his adventurous colleague, Mr. Haggerty adds, “Yeah, I was in an emergency landing in Siberia. Emergency landing? Oh yeah, the front of the plane broke off –“

Mr. Paladino jumps in with the final part of Mr. Caputo’s anecdote.

“And they were surrounded by wolves. And all they could see was the whites of their eyes. And the helicopter pilot says 'Boy, you guys got out of there just in time’” he said.

“And I'm saying, 'are you kidding me?' "

Mr. Caputo politely notes that, technically, it wasn’t a plane crash.

Mr. Caputo is not the only one who has had a bumpy ride. Mr. Haggerty – a cherub-faced, quick-smiling Republican operative ran the ballot-protection program for Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election campaign last year. After the smaller-then-expected victory, Mr. Haggerty was accused of pocketing nearly $750,000 in payments from the campaign and not providing anything in return.

Then there's Roger Stone, a friend of Paladino who put him in touch with Mr. Caputo.

Mr. Stone has a tattoo on his back of Richard Nixon's face and led the so-called Brooks Brother's riot that shut down the 2000 presidential recount in Florida. In 2007, he was forced to resign from his post as a political consultant to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno following allegations that he left a profanity-laced voicemail message for Eliot Spitzer's father, but Stone still says the recording was not real.

And my favorite: In order to prove he leaked damaging information about Mr. Spitzer's liaison with a prostitute, Stone agreed to be interviewed by a magazine reporter in the same location where Mr. Stone said he first leaned about the information: inside a Florida sex club.

These guys don't care what people think about them. And that’s how Mr. Paladino likes it.

“I don't want to be anybody's friend. I don't have to be anybody's friend,” he said, during a wide-ranging interview. “It doesn't make me more comfortable than I already am. I don't seek money. I don't seek power. I don't seek praise or pats on the back.”

The 54-year-old real estate developer said he was sitting in his office in Buffalo earlier this year when a young candidate walked into his office.

Mr. Paladino recalled the meeting. “We talked for an hour. At the end of the hour, I thanked him, I showed him to the door, I came back and sat down. I don't have a word for this. I look at my son Bill, and Bill goes..."

Mr. Paladino hunched his shoulders, threw his hands up and twisted his face into a question mark.

“I don't know what the word would be, but it's Italian for 'what the $@! is this?’ “ Mr. Paladino said.

The candidate who had just left Mr. Paladino dumbfounded: Rick Lazio

Mr. Lazio was, by that time, running for governor with the support or former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a portion of the local Republican establishment. When he came to Buffalo, Mr. Lazio was hoping to get Mr. Paladino's money. He got Mr. Paladino’s candidacy, instead.

The two couldn’t be more different. Mr. Lazio served four terms in congress

If it’s considered poor etiquette for a donor to launch a campaign because of an uninspiring meeting with a politician, Mr. Paladino is not concerned.

The way Paladino sees it, Democrats and Republicans have both been complicit in perpetuating the state's problems. Special interest groups pressure lawmakers, who respond by giving away state money. To pay for the giveaways, lawmakers raise taxes on businesses, who, in recent years, have laid people off, or moved out of state.

Lawmakers, according to Mr. Paladino, never cut spending.

“Two hundred and ninety-eight thousand three hundred and forty-one employees, they couldn't fine one employee to lay off in this budget crisis?” he asked. “They raised our taxes last year ten point nine billion dollars. They raised it this year five point one billion dollars."

The key to Mr. Paladino's strategy for cutting state spending is to shrink the size of government. He'll give the legislature a bare-bones budget, and when they try to increase spending, he says he'll just stare them down. And they'll buckle.

He says there's no chance lawmakers will unite and overpower him in a budget fight.

“To override my veto, they got to get…two thirds, plus one,” he said, referring to the 212 legislators in the New York State State Assembly and State Senate. “As long as I have one third plus one in the Senate, and I'll probably also have in the Assembly, it's over. That's it. It's the end of it. That's the budget."

How he can be sure lawmakers in his corner won't bolt during the budget fight, like they did in the waning days of Republican Governor George Pataki’s tenure?

“I have a Republican Senate. They're going to do what I tell them to do,” Mr. Paladino deadpanned. “And let somebody try to stray - and I'll wreck 'em. I'll ruin 'em."

This kind of tough talk is exactly what some voters are looking for.

"I'm definitely upset with the way politics have gone and the way taxes have gone. I'm just not happy with it. It keeps going further,” says retired Army veteran Anthony Phillips, who donated $50 to Mr. Paladino’s campaign.

Before Paladino can harness public anger into electoral power, he has some questions of his own to answer. Like, why he forwarded a number of explicit emails to his friends

How explicit?

Lets just say, one shows President Obama in an gold chain; another shows a woman with a horse. My editor won't let me get more specific than that.

Lesser offenses have derailed other politicians. But Mr. Paladino and his gang forge ahead.

“My humor is irrelevant to my temperament. If you go and Google me, you're going to see what Carl Paladino is about. And sure, I'm not perfect. And sure, I'm not human,” he said, before correcting himself. “I’m human, forgive me - hahaha. I'm human. I've had my careless moments. I didn't think twice about sending to my friends a bunch of obscene emails.

“But, I apologized. I apologized to the people that were offended. People that I meet since that thing first became public, they're interested in the high crimes and misdemeanors of Albany, They could give a hell about Carl Paladino and his emails."

Despite the offensive emails, and lack of name recognition, Mr. Paladino could win the primary. Voter anger and an increasingly-organized Tea Party apparatus has propelled a number of angry, outsider, anti-establishment candidates like Mr. Paladino.

“If he spend his resources properly, he could easily be the nominee,” says Ed Rollins, who worked as Ronald Reagan's top political adviser in the White House and has stayed neutral in the gubernatorial race. (He doesn't give Mr. Paladino, or his opponent Mr Lazio, a chance of beating Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo in November.)

Should he make it to the general election, Democrats are sure to remind voters of Mr. Paladino's emails. But that, in itself, would be a victory of sorts for Mr. Paladino, whose entrance in to the race was greeted with a mixture of laughter and disbelief.

Recent polling shows Mr. Paladino within ten or twelve points of Mr. Lazio. And one hugely influential voice in New York Republican politics, the New York Post, has not endorsed either Republican gubernatorial candidate yet.

The Post has criticized Mr. Lazio for focusing too much on the controversy over building an Islamic center two blocks north of Ground Zero and not enough on the state’s more pressing problems.

And, the tension between Mr. Lazio and the paper’s state editor, Fred Dicker, burst into public view Tuesday morning during Mr. Dicker’s closely-watched radio program.

As Mr. Dicker interviewed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo, Mr. Lazio and an aide called into the program. Mr. Dicker then told his listeners that “I’ve tried for months to get Rick Lazio on the show” and now “Lazio is trying to cut into the show.”

Mr. Dicker described the maneuver as a “sneak attack” and told listeners, “I said thanks but no thanks.” Listeners never heard from Mr. Lazio.

Later, Mr. Lazio’s campaign spokesman went onto Twitter, and referred to Mr. Dicker as a “Cuomo apologist.”

About a week before Mr. Lazio and Mr. Dicker’s spat, Mr. Paladino went in for an editorial board meeting with the New York Post. Walking out of their offices on Avenue of the Americas, Mr. Paladino said he felt he gave a good presentation, but the editorial board was hard to read.

"I think we impressed everybody in the room, except the guy to my right,” Mr. Paladino said. “He did not change his facial expression through the whole meeting."

Mr. Paladino and his campaign manager Mr. Caputo, said things grew difficult when a certain reporter starting asking detailed questions.

“She's one of the toughest political reporters in the state,” Mr. Caputo said.

“The little dark-haired one I gave the thing to?” Mr. Paladino asked.

“Right,” said Mr. Caputo. “Jennifer,” referring to the New York Post's Jennifer Fermino.

Mr. Paladino nodded, and explained to me, “I gave her a sillyband. Because she didn't have any. My daughter said, you're not cool if you don't have one of these."

They gave me one too.

Then, Mr. Paladino and Mr. Caputo drove to JFK airport and caught a flight to Buffalo for another meeting with another group of potential supporters: a motorcycle club.

The Working Families Party wants to endorse Democrat Andrew Cuomo for governor. (Azi Paybarah / WNYC)

The terse, two-sentence reply from Cuomo's campaign after the WFP statement leaves the endorsement question unanswered.

Cuomo's campaign said, "Passage of our reform agenda in Albany next year just took a giant step forward. I appreciate the support of the Working Families Party."

New York candidates that have already accepted the WFP endorsement include Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

A new reportfrom NYC Campaign Finance Board said raising the amount of matching funds campaigns gets led to a rise in the number of small donations and more competitive elections in 2009.

Seventy percent of donations were for $175 or less, according to CFB officials. In 2007, the law was changed, from giving campaigns $4 for every $1 privately raised, to giving them $6.

"There were many more candidates in this election and the elections were very much more competitive than in the past,” said CFB Executive Director Amy Loprest.

In 2009, at least four incumbents lost re-election to challengers who participated in the matching funds program (Helen Sears in Queens, Alan Gerson in Lower Manhattan, Kendall Stewart in Brooklyn, and Maria Baez of the Bronx. A fifth lawmaker who lost his bid for re-election, Ken Mitchell, had only won his seat a few months earelir, in a special election.)

In exchange for getting the matching funds, participating candidates agree to spending limits, and participation in a handful of debates. Some candidates opt not to participate in the program, like Mayor Bloomberg, whose private fortunate is estimated around $14 billion. Other candidates facing nominal opposition say they simply do not need the matching funds.

All candidates, though, are required to report to the CFB information about who is donating to their campaign, and how, exactly, they are spending their money.

The CFB’s report also recommended a few changes to the law, including a requirement to force greater disclosure from groups making “independent expenditures” affecting a campaign. One group that made independent expenditures, but did not have to report them to the CFB, was the Working Families Party. The group also helped elect a number of new City Council members. Critics said those lawmakers unfairly benefited from the WFP’s expenditures.

The campaign finance law lowered the amount of money that could be given by people who had business currently pending before city officials.

The law, which was passed by the City Council and signed into law by Bloomberg, created an unfair exemption to labor unions. Contributions from individual locals of the same union would be counted as separate donations, and not go towards the contribution cap of the parent union. Critics said locals within a union often coordinate their activities and political decision making, making them one entity.

GOP gubernatorial Rick Lazio is best known to New Yorkers as the guy who ran against Hillary Clinton for Senate in 2000. More precisely, as the guy who marched across the stage in a debate with Clinton.

Going through some old Lazio footage, I came across this early clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which had its own take on that famous debate.

Footage that will not help David Mejias navigate his State Senate campaign through troubled waters.

Also worth noting: the local district attorney, Kathleen Rice, isstepping aside from the case. She's also a candidate for state attorney general, and, like Mejias, is a Democrat.

Paladino campaigns upstate against the folks downstate:

The New York City boroughs of Queens and Staten Island are “just like us,” the Republican gubernatorial candidate said to his fellow upstaters. The rest of the heavily Democratic city is a different story.

“That leaves Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn — and they can have them,” he said. “First, you can’t get around down there, and secondly, there aren’t many Republicans.”

[skip]

"Then you’ve got Bloomberg down there saying, ‘Give us your poor of America,’” he added, referring to New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “Easy for him to say. He’s a billionaire.”

The remarks prompted an official rebuke invitation from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to tour the borough.

In advance of this weekend's ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, state officials announced a breakthrough, of sorts.

And Matthew Schuerman sends this dispatch:

At WTC today, Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia thanked one by one all the parties involved. When he got to developer Larry Silverstein, who's been trying to wrangle more financial aid for the office towers he's building at the site, Coscia said:

"I'm a child of Italian immigrants, and Italians measure the amount of love they have by how much time they spend arguing with each other. By that measure, Larry and I are very much in love with each other on many levels."

This new ad by the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee reminds voters that State Senator David Valesky, a Democrat, is a Democrat.

Valesky, who represents a Republican-leaning upstate district, has portrayed himself as someone willing - if not eager - to fight with fellow Democrats.

Judith Kaye's report finds problems with Paterson's claim that he intended to pay for the tickets he obtained to Game 1 of the Yankee's World Series:

Although the OAG subpoenaed all relevant records, no check written personally by the Governor to the Yankees, partially prepared or otherwise, was produced to the OAG in the investigation. Neither the Governor nor Johnson mentioned to Kauffmann any check during their conversations following Dicker’s inquiry. There is no evidence that the Governor knew the price of the tickets before the game. In fact, evidence indicates that no Executive Chamber staff had discussed with the Yankees paying for any tickets before October 29, and that Johnson called Kirimca on October 29, the day after the game, seeking information on the price of the tickets. Finally, based on the handwriting on the check, the check that was submitted to the Yankees was written by Johnson, and not the Governor.

Paterson's flickr page

R.I.P. Tom White.

Koch calls.

Cuomo’s sister gets into the family business.

Zenilman: NY14 race, “sounding like a circus, feeling like a tragedy.”

The AP also focuses on Powell making Obama a wedge issue.

Espada’s challenger gets Liu and de Blasio.

Christ fires his education guy.

Schneiderman wants civility.

And Mwangaguhunga, thank you.