News Release On Wind

The news release was worthy of posting as received and here are some random thoughts that go along with the news release.

• The Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo has been actively campaigning for Senate Democratic candidates across New York State, but he has not made an appearance for Darrel Aubertine!

• Why has Aubertine refused full disclosure on his contracts? There should be nothing to hide and if he believes in reform then full disclosure should be the rule. Yes, they are proprietary like he states, but he is an elected official and his contract with the company should not be any different than other landowners who have contracts with the same company. 

As an elected official, he has different obligations than the general public and he has already violate his obligations by voting on wind power legislation in the Assembly, which he should recuse himself from and the letter encouraging others to violate the ethics decision of the county was wrong.  

RENZI HAILS ATTORNEY GENERAL'S NEW WIND 'CODE OF ETHICS;'
URGES OPPONENT TO RELEASE HIS OWN WIND CONTRACTS

Guidelines were prompted by reports of corruption involving officials with financial stake

State Senate candidate Dave Renzi today praised state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for his announcement of a new "Wind Industry Ethics Code" designed to stop corruption by requiring greater transparency and disclosure by public officials who have personal stakes in wind turbine projects.

Among the provisions of the Attorney General's Wind Industry Ethics Code is the requirement that public officials disclose dealings with wind companies, including making public the details of contracts by filing them with the local County Clerk.

"Wind power promises to play a major part in our nation's effort to wean us from foreign oil, protect our environment, and help create an entire industry and jobs revolving around green energy," said Renzi. "But sadly this nascent industry has been tainted by scandal and questions of unethical self-dealing involving elected officials across the state."

"We need to hold our government leaders to a higher ethical standard. That's why I am urging my opponent today, in the spirit of this new Code of Ethics, to release the full details of his secret wind energy contracts, so that voters and local residents can judge for themselves if he has acted appropriately and in compliance with the law in his dealings with these companies," said Renzi.

Attorney General Cuomo's Wind Industry Code of Ethics sprung from his investigation into whether companies and public officials may have acted improperly in relation to wind power projects.

Darrel Aubertine has been accused of using his public position to improperly influence local actions involving a wind farm project in his hometown, Cape Vincent. Aubertine holds contracts with at least one wind company—worth as much as $100,000 a year, according to a report in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

But Aubertine repeatedly has refused to release the details of his contracts, or fully explain his dealings with the companies, concerning his secret deal.

The Code prohibits gifts from wind power companies to elected officials, requires companies to publish the names of all public officials with a financial stake in their projects and requires that all leases and easements for wind power be filed with the County Clerk.

Aubertine has filed two "memoranda of leases" with the Jefferson County Clerk for possible wind turbines on his property, but these contain almost no information about his financial stake in the project.

Senate Debate - Gouverneur

The Gouverneur debate took a refreshing departure from the other debates, while both sides load up the audiences, decorum prevailed last night, even to the point where the student moderator stood up and requested that people hold their applause.

Congratulations to the student for recognizing it is the candidates and their views and not the audience participating.

The debate also featured very stark ideological differences between the candidates, on issues of minimum wage, gun control, DEC and partisan political influence on voting on issues.

An odd comment came when the candidates answered questions about this being a stepping stone and career politicians. Renzi responded he is not looking to make this a career, while Aubertine agreed, yet Aubertine is a 14 year politician and every other office has been a stepping stone for him. 

Here were the biggies for the night.

Wind Conflict:
Aubertine declined to disclose his contracts and amounts when questioned why he is voting on issues regarding wind power that present a conflict. He refuses to understand voting on an issue where he stands to gain financially being different than voting on a town budget where everyone pays their fair share. Renzi was smart here, when Aubertine attempted to avoid answering the question, Renzi gave up his rebuttal time and requested that Aubertine answer the question.

Budgets:
Aubertine told the audience that he wants to leave education and health care intact while the legislature attempts to resolve the state budget crisis. Financial expert after financial expert say that is impossible.

And, he stated he will not support home rule legislation for county sales tax. This will create a $12-15 million deficit for Jefferson County forcing either massive layoffs, a property tax increase in the area 30% or a combination of both.

The Senator needs to reconcile these thoughts on state and local budgets, he wants it both ways and that cannot be achieved.

He Has A Short Memory

Darrel Aubertine has already demonstrated his short memory by voting for the ethics reform legislation and then hiring his sister. He is once again demonstrating his lack of recall on issues.

He has campaigned on reform while this blog has constantly reminded people that he has been in the state legislature for 6 years, 5 of them as a member of the Assembly majority, which has given him amble opportunity to move reform legislation.

So now he wants to become the poster child for legislative reform. But wait one minute, what we have witnessed with Darrel Aubertine is - there is his version and then a real version.

His proposed reform packager:

• Home Rule Bill Legislation, 
• Conference Committees, 
• Bill Sponsorship,
• Equal Resources.
  

Here is the real world. The following are copied directly from a press release of Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco dated March 5, 2007.

• All legislators shall receive equal resources and staff allotments. Currently, Assembly Majority members receives more than twice as much money to pay staff as do their Minority counterparts ($183,373 per Majority member versus $86,092 per Minority member);

• Require immediate convening of conference committees when bills addressing the same subject have been passed by both chambers;

• Require bills with Home Rule requests from local municipalities to be considered in committee within four weeks of introduction. Currently these types of bills are jammed through at the end of session and are often used as political bargaining chips;

• Permit each legislator to have at least one substantive bill discharged from committee and voted on the floor each legislative session;

Whoa! Tedisco's and Darrel's reforms are identical to each other and Tedisco proposed his reform a year and a half ago while Darrel was a majority member of the Assembly. So how did Darrel Aubertine as a majority member of the Assembly respond to the minority leader Tedisco's request for reform then.

He voted NO on all of the measures.

Come on Darrel, do not insult voter's intelligence. This is so disingenuous it is absurd, you are taking voter's intelligence for granted. This is just plain wrong and it speaks to a larger issue of credibility that is plaguing you and perhaps enough for voters to turn you away from office. You had the opportunity to pass reform measure and you failed, do not try to tell voters you support reforming New York State government, because it is only when it serves you.

Trust is everything Darrel and you are losing it rapidly with voters.

Scalpel Please!

The Watertown Daily Times editorial today cuts through all the campaign rhetoric and examines the ethics issues in the 48th Senate District race.

For the editorial click here.

Here are some highlights.

Darrel Aubertine hiring his sister was a violation of the Public Officer's Law, which Darrel Aubertine voted for while he was in the Assembly. Once a violation occurs, the law requires the appointing politician repay the state the amount of payroll and up to a $40,000 penalty, neither of which has occurred to date in Mr. Aubertine's case which is nearly six months after the incident.

This line below is directly from the editorial and it speaks to this issue, but also speaks to the larger issue of governing in our state; our poor financial situation at the state, the general lack of leadership witnessed in the last 8 months in the 48th Senate district, the ATV, NYPA or A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital issues are all examples. 

Apparently Mr. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, did not understand the law he voted for.

That comment speaks volumes.


On the other hand, Dave Renzi participated in a wide spread and accepted practice of classifying a municipal attorney as an employee, where a municipal attorney will easily put in more time than the elected official that they are advising. The Attorney General's office did an about face earlier this year on the practice of allowing this situation to occur.

And finally this line directly from the editorial that sums it all up.

David Renzi did understand the new rule and he voluntarily complied. He did not cost the taxpayers anything. Darrel Aubertine has yet to comply.

State Finances Getting Worse

For those of you who say there is not enough pro Renzi campaign material on this blog and too much anti Aubertine.

Well, here is food to chew on!

New York State's budget woes continue to decline as LoHud reports the budget has sprung another $1.2 billion leak, leaving revenues short of expenses for the current budget year leading to another round of cuts.

This is simply poor management by lawmakers and if they were running a private company they would be fired. 

Years of spending too much, every last penny politicians could get their hands on and then some, leaving nothing to cover precarious situations like this year. New York lawmakers find themselves reacting.

Dave Renzi solutions:
1. Tax and spend policies are the problem and budget growth should not be allowed to exceed the rate of inflation. 

Renzi cites his preference while Aubertine avoids that conversation because he has consistently supported excessive, out of control, double the rate of inflation spending growth which is how we got to where we are today.   

2. State needs to reduce unfunded mandates on local governments and schools.

Both Renzi and Aubertine agree on this issue.

3. Maintain our fair share in proportion to other districts.

Renzi cites: school aid increased from the Governor's original proposed budget by $400 million while at the same time the aid increase in the 48th Senate district went in the opposite direction from the governor's original proposed $47 million increase to $46 million, a loss of $1 million in aid while others increased. This is a point lost on Aubertine.

Nepotism, Ethics - It Is Not Negative, It Is An Issue!

A new campaign ad in the 48th Senate District race. This ad deals with the issue of ethics and specifically the violation of Darrel Aubertine hiring his sister. This is a legitimate campaign issue, much like the Democratic candidate Rich Dollinger's ad in Monroe County.

Interesting Correlation

In reviewing a news release yesterday from Darrel Aubertine's campaign, it was quite noticeable their use of strong language in what can be perceived as a personal attack. Drew Mangione refers to a Renzi challenge on an issue by using the word 'lie' in the news release 4 times.

First thoughts is that it is a very strong word which generally means you are directly referring to someone as a liar which is distinctly different from debating and disagreeing with someone on issues and it reaches the point of personally attacking your opponent.

Then watching the Presidential debate last night while at the same time following ABC's Jake Tapper live blogging of the debate pops up this comment by Jake

10:34 - I really don't care for the sudden acceptability of the word "lie" by campaigns.

Jake, you nailed it!

Drew and any other campaign spokespeople do not let politics overcome your decency, refrain from using language that personally attacks someone's character and stick to disagreeing on the issues. The whole concept behind poltical competition is the advancing of competing ideas and subsequent discourse.

Contrasting and compaing ideas or policy positions is not negative, just be respectful.

Negative Campaigning - Democrat Style

Darrel Aubertine and the Democrats have a way of running a negative campaign and not leaving any dirt on their hands to show it.

The very astute reporter, Jude Seymour and staff at the Watertown Daily Times caught them at their little dirty tricks.

The strategy used by their campaign of shadow written negative and phony letter campaigns and the whisper campaigns that they run is not well known. The campaign people write letters to have other people sign or they use a campaign worker to sign them on behalf of someone to submit to the paper. They have not been caught yet, until recently when the paper received two identical letters only two days apart. Their whisper campaigns are usually started by them in order to pass negative information around the community on their opponents. 

The Watertown Daily Times has the proof of their negative tactics. The record is clear, Darrel has gone negative.

 

Update: Renzi campaign responds to the Democrats negative attacks. Eric Swartz speaks on behalf of his friend and candidate David Renzi.