All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was convicted of corruption.
His claim that he showed “courage” in passing the SAFE Act apparently did not move the judge as Skelos received a 5 year prison sentence plus $500,000 fine. Junior got a 6.5 year sentence for his part in the scheme.
Dean #Skelos lawyer said that he had "political acts of courage" as a legislator including the SAFE gun legislation
— Victoria Bekiempis (@vicbekiempis) May 12, 2016
Assemblyman Steve Katz is not running for re-election so he lets fly with his opinions on Albany politics:
Steve’s comments are right on the money.
One note, with respect to all the junk bills that come up, the Republicans should learn something from this. The Democrats do this to appeal to their base, raise money and push the issue along. They do the same just about every year in the Senate trying to move a couple of antigun bills with a Motion for Committee Hearing/Motion for Discharge. There is no reason the Republicans could not do the same in the Assembly. The fact that they don’t is why they are down to so few members.
According to this article in the Post, Chuck Schumer is set to become Senate Democrat Leader when the 115th Congress convenes next January.
Hopefully he will be Minority Leader, not Majority Leader, next year. Stupidity surrounding The Donald may have put Congressional control in play.
It was inevitable that the Libertarian Party would try and capitalize on the #NeverTrump movement.
Historically while the party has a strong platform on limited government and individual rights, the LP has long suffered from a leadership less interested in electing people to public office and more in ideological purity. This can be seen in their lack of candidate quality control. Gary Johnson is one of their more reasonable candidates having served two terms as New Mexico Governor. Whether he can generate a lot of new support now remains to be seen.
With both Ted Cruz and John Kasich ending their campaigns The Donald has pretty much wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination. I suspect this will go very badly for them even if he wins.
Of course, the GOP has brought this on themselves both at the New York state and national level. Their cowardice, incompetence and complacency are to blame. I would like to think that maybe Trump’s behavior is going to change, but at the moment that is not happening.
In any event, here is some commentary from people who think Trump can win in November:
Congressman Chris Gibson has decided against a 2018 run for Governor.
That leaves Weschester County Executive Rob Astorino as the strongest likely challenger for Governor Cuomo in ’18. Each candidate had their owns strengths: Gibson being a somewhat “moderate” Republican and Astorino being better known in the NYC metro area. It is good that he decided to end it now because we do not need a primary contest. Personally I would have gone with Rob over Chris, but either would be an improvement over the incumbent.
Having screwed up the SD-9 election I figured the end of the NY GOP was finally upon us.
Then this happened:
Early indications point to this being worse than either the Shelly Silver or Dean Skelos corruption trials. It’s like God himself has thrown the Republicans a lifeline. It will be their #1 campaign issue this fall.
It looks as if the deal Senate Republicans had with Governor Cuomo to stay out of the SD-9 election did not produce the planned results:
“… With votes still being counted, Republicans late Tuesday cautioned that paper ballots also still need to be counted in the contest. At midnight, with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Kaminsky had 49.96 percent to McGrath’s 48.82 percent, a difference of just 780 votes out of 68,000 total cast, according to the Nassau County elections board …”
The antis will claim a victory here even though I have not seen any evidence they blacked up their endorsement with GOTV action. McGrath was not reaching out for the gun vote either.
A couple of interesting points:
UPDATE: Republican turnout was very high and they still managed to blow it.
Hillary Clinton and the antigunners, along with their allies in the media and legislature, are throwing everything they can at Bernie Sanders over his D- rating from NRA leading up to tomorrow’s New York primary.
Has it been working?
National NBC/WSJ poll: Clinton leads Sanders by just 2 pts, 50%-48%.
That's down from Clinton 53%, Sanders 44% last month
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) April 18, 2016
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence also endorsed Todd Kaminsky last Wednesday for tomorrow’s SD-9 special election.
How did that go?
“… Republican Chris McGrath has opened an 8-point lead in the closely watched battle to fill the seat of disgraced ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, according to a new poll … The results are a sharp turnaround from a March 15th Siena poll, which had Kaminsky, a former federal prosecutor, holding a slim lead — 47% to 45% — in the 9th Senate District, which covers a portion of Nassau County …”
They never learn.
I knew Al D’Amato was involved with John Kasich’s campaign. State of Politics lists him as being a part of Kasich’s “New York leadership team.“
If that is not reason enough not to vote for him, Kasich has been endorsed by George Pataki as well. Clearly Kasich is making a play for the milk toast vote.