Presidential Politics

John Mc Cain has a new ad, Wesley Clark should open his clap trap, demonstrate his patriotism and try to dispute this ad.



This graphic falls under the category "If the shoe fits"

And this little man, who is posing a large problem to Israel and the US, is willing to meet with Obama anytime, it would be nice for Obama to make good on his word to meet with him without preconditions and do it NOW! That event would be guaranteed to make or break his election.

Goli$sano's Re$pon$ible, NY PAC

Independence Party founder Tom Golisano, announced yesterday his new PAC and is funding it with $5 million in seed money. The political action committee is designed to support any candidate, regardless of party, who in turn support the 8 point platform of the PAC.

(lift cap confidential)
The 8-point platform:

• Responsible budgets (budget increases limited to the rate of inflation)
• End to unfunded mandates
• Property tax reform
• Campaign and election reform (including redistricting reform)
• Government employee compensation commensurate with private sector
• Equitable distribution of economic development resources statewide
• Government transparency
• End back door borrowing

Responsible New York Mission Statement

Responsible New York is organized around a core of values, beliefs and principles that are essential to guiding true political reform in the State of New York.  Our quest is to create a political movement to return Albany to its rightful owners. Our pledge is help create an organization with no personal agendas, other than to give a voice to all New Yorkers - Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives and Independences from cities. suburbans and rural areas both upstate and downstate.

Today, more than ever, New York State is at a precipice. This isn’t news to New York families who are struggling to make ends meet, nor is it even news to the legislators in Albany or the special interest that own them.

Responsible New York will endorse candidates in the New York State Senate and Assembly. Candidates will be chosen in a non-partisan manner and only for their commitment and their ability to support Responsible New York,  removing Albany from the grips of special interest and returning our government to the people who support it. And to truly change Albany we will also endorse and support candidates for Congress who will work to put people first.

Responsible New York pledges that we will:

• Seek to enact economic policies which encourage fiscal responsibility and accountability on the part of both the government and its citizen by creating a modern budgetary process that uses professionally acceptable accounting standards and accrual accounting, avoiding unfunded mandates, understated liabilities, elimination of off-line budgeting and back-door borrowing. And to keep all budget increases limited to the rate of inflation.
• Support policies to reduce and then eliminate the disproportionate influence narrow special interest currently have on the creation of our laws. We will work to diminish the pervasive and pernicious role of campaign contributions in buying access to legislative decisions.
• Support and work with candidates who truly want campaign finance and electoral reform including, but not limited to, redistricting and franking privileges.
• Work toward a more equability and fair real estate property tax program to correct the financial burden that property taxes play on both the homeowner and the New York housing market.
• Work to correct the imbalance between government employees’ compensation and the private sectors’.
• Work toward a more fair and equitable distribution of economic development resources with a program to insure accountable to those who receive it.
• To create a government that is more transparent and understandable to all of the citizens of New York.

Golisano's goals are no doubt admirable and anyone who is reform minded would support this platform, but this will be in direct conflict with special interest and union's support for candidates as well, candidates who have traditionally been in the hip pockets of unions will have a difficult time professing their faith at the Golisano altar.

The other interesting point of the Golisano movement is that a PAC cannot make direct expenditures for candidates, they fund a candidate's campaign and they are limited in the funding that they can provide to a campaign. Golisano is proposing an "independent PAC" removed from any campaign and therefore it can spend any amount they desire in a given race provided there is no coordination with the candidate or the candidate's campaign, which also means after the initial questionnaire is submitted there is no contact with the candidate or their campaign.

Gollisano's difficulty comes in the fact that he has already had contact with some candidates. If this is not executed properly it is sure to have lawsuits swirling around it, and could become nothing more than another special interest, but the initial intent of the PAC is noble!

Golisano, had this to say yesterday for the leadership-driven structure in Albany, saying rank-and-file lawmakers "totally give up their independence" and become reliant on "pork" that is "directly related to how cooperative they are to the speaker."  

WELL SAID!

Another Quality Commercial Production

Dave Renzi take notice, your fellow candidates for Senate have another quality commercial up on air. This commercial is Barbara Donno for State Senate in the 7th district, not your typical politician!

Random Thoughts

SENATE LEADERS

The North Country is fortunate to have a visiting state dignitary in Jefferson County. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos will be visiting Sackets Harbor to join Democratic Mayor Mike Kinnie for an announcement. The North Country always welcomes state leaders.

The question remains, after Senator Aubertine's election in February, where is the Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith? Is his New York city colleagues keeping him too busy plotting their agenda that likely does not include upstate? Senators Valesky and Aubertine have little chance of being heard in that conference and Danger Democrat is blowing smoke if he says otherwise.


AUBERTINE NOW WAS INTERESTED IN NYPA JOB!

Speaking of our Silent Senator Aubertine, he is back in the news as the controversy swirling around whether he was offered the NYPA job or did he really want the NYPA or what. It is again reported the Governor did not offer him the job, specifically saying, "We didn't make him an offer, we never made him an offer." Yet Aubertine, contrary to his claim in a press release, was reportedly interested, "It was made clear to us that there was some interest"

So now Aubertine was interested in the job and the Governor's office spoke to Aubertine regarding the job as a courtesy. But, the obvious follow up question voters should pose to Aubertine now is why was he even interested so soon after being elected?

SIDE NOTE

Andrew Mangione, spokesman for Mr. Aubertine, declined to comment.
Mangione is experiencing a change in persona, in his role on the sunshine side as a reporter he was known as "Drew", and being the good reporter he was, he never accepted "no comment." Now that he has migrated to the other side, he is known as Andrew with no comment.

EDITORIAL BOARD APPOINTMENT FOR SKELOS?

Skelos met with the Buffalo News Editorial Board during his recent visit to Western New York, so it could be expected for him to meet with Editorial Board of the Watertown Daily Times, it will be interesting to see if there is a first hand account on the well written Northern New York Follies blog.

Energy Independence

The Washington Times has reported on more polling data on energy and the results clearly show Americans regardless of political affiliation want energy independence.

 Three out of five Americans (62 percent) noted rising fuel and other energy prices as their chief economic concern, including 62 percent of Republicans, 62 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents. In January 2005, by contrast, 51 percent cited energy prices as their major concern.

Nine out of 10 Americans, including 85 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of independents, said the federal government is "not doing enough" about high energy prices and U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern energy sources.  

Nine of out 10 Americans, including 86 percent of Republicans, 95 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of independents, said energy-related issues - including gasoline prices, home heating-oil prices, global warming and energy independence - will be "very important" or "somewhat important" when they vote.

 Yet Congress, despite calls from Republican members, failed to act before the July 4th break. This issue should be front and center on their agenda and Congress should take action before their August break to demonstrate they are listening to the public.

All Eyes On Golisano

Former Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Golisano, the billionaire founder of Paychex Inc., is unveiling his new political action committee tomorrow in Albany, called Responsible New York initially thought of as a means to funnel money to Senate Democratic candidates, but it is now being positioned as a bipartisan effort.

The are a number of reports on Golisano's activities and they are watching how he will legally distribute the reported millions of dollars. The Daily Politics reports on the where and when of the announcement and that some of the money will be targeted to unseat Speaker Sheldon Silver, that will be money well spent.

Capital Confidential reports on the how Golisano will distribute the money legally in order to comply with election law. It looks at the legalities of distributing the money through a 527 organization or a PAC.


If Golisano forms a PAC he can contribute to committees but does not retain control of the message.

A PAC can only make contributions to committees; it cannot make any direct expenditures.

The question now is, what can or can’t Golisano spend his own money on, without hitting a contributor limit or infringing on campaign finance law? Can he run his own ad and say “Vote for XXX”?

All eyes will be on the moves Golisano, charter member of the Independence party, makes in order to sway voters. If nothing else Golisano will likely make a good case for campaign finance reform, unions, PACs or billionaires including Golisano, Bloomberg, et al should not have this much control on the message. 

 

It is not "Responsible New York" at all, it has nothing to do with reform or being responsible and he lost his original focus, his money and message should be rejected.

Caption Entry

This is a picture that is worth a caption entry by people. 

McCain Economic Plan

McCain has unveiled his Jobs for America economic plan, read it here and plans to announce today he will balance the budget in 4 years.

Reid is Wrong on Energy

More evidence exist that Reid, Pelosi & Company are out of touch with voters on the topic of energy.

But 52% of voters surveyed Tuesday night reject Reid's claim about coal. That’s more than double the 22% who agree with Reid.

Rasmussen Reports

Similarly, 50% of Americans disagree with the claim that relying on oil for energy makes us sick. Thirty-one percent (31%) agree with Reid on that point. Reid’s declaration that America needs to stop using fossil fuels is rejected by 51% of voters and supported by 31%.

This is for the Mayor