Y Continued (UPDATED)

UPDATED
There is a formal process for requesting legislation out of committee. In the Assembly, the form used to request bills to move is called a "99," or referred to by a member as "99 a bill." In the Senate, it's Form 63. P IV obtained information from the Senate Chamber Procedure Manual

TO REQUEST A BILL OUT OF COMMITTEE (FORM NO. 63)

To request a bill out of Committee, the Member must complete and sign Form No. 63, which may be obtained from Senate Desk Operations (Rm. 323 Mezz., Cap.). Attached to the form should be a copy of the bill and a copy of the sponsor's memo. Since many of the Standing Committees require two sets of this package, it is suggested that three copies of Form No. 63 be obtained for each bill, with one copy being retained on file in the Member's office.

It seems Senator Aubertine should be able to clear up this controversy pretty easily by either he or Drew producing a copy of the form 63 that is supposed to be retained by his office.

ORIGINAL POST
The controversy over the YMCA legislation, much like other issues before, such as the JCC Capital plan, the NYPA job offer, and several others, continue in a back and forth pattern that seems to swirl around Senator Aubertine.

Today in the Watertown Daily Times and the other day on NPR different versions of the story of the YMCA legislation are being brought forward. The current version is that Senator Aubertine did not put in a standard request to put out the bill in a committee overseen by Senator Betty Little.

Interestingly enough in today's paper Aubertine spokesman Drew Mangione appears to be contradicting his own statements. At one point in the article he claims that Senator Little's version is incorrect.

"To claim that they did not know, or that if Senator Little had known, things would be different, is disingenuous," Mr. Mangione said.

To which Senator Little response is

"He never filled out the request to have the bill put out," Mrs. Little said again. "Other senators do it. We do it. People talk to you all the time about bills they want to get through."

BUT then Mr Mangione brings in an entirely different reasoning.

Mr. Mangione said because the Assembly passed a companion YMCA bill, the Senate version was automatically forwarded to the Senate Rules Committee.

Since the Rules Committee trumps the Local Government Committee, Mr. Mangione said, Mr. Aubertine bypassed the "request out" form to focus his efforts on the more important committee. At the time, Sen. Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, was the Rules Committee chairman; Sen. Malcolm A. Smith, D-Queens, was its ranking minority member.

The question is, why did Mangione even respond to the Senator Little part if it does not even concern Senator Little's committee? And the Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith is the ranking minority member on the committee where the alleged hold up is occurring, why is the issue not being taken up with Senator Smith, instead of Senator Little?

Senator Aubertine and his staff appear to have a lot of inconsistencies in their issues time and time again. So among just a simple desire for the legislation to be passed for the good of the community, people have to wonder and ask, what is the real reason it did not get through; was because the bill is in Senator Little's committee and Aubertine did not fill out the proper request OR it is in the rules committee and Aubertine did not follow up with his own Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith?

McLallen Rewarded for her Effort, But Not Francis

Doris Gorham McLallen, former candidate for the Jefferson County Legislature in district 11 who ran against Bob Boice and lost last year, is being rewarded by the Democratic Party for her efforts as a good candidate. She has been appointed by Governor Paterson to the Jefferson Community College Board of Trustees. She will be succeeding immediate past President Richard Howland.
Danny Francis, who was an announced candidate for the 23rd Congressional District but failed to obtain the required number of petitions for ballot access, actually saved taxpayers money, but he was not rewarded by the Democrats for his efforts.

If Danny had been successful in getting on the ballot, he would have forced a primary with fellow Democrat Michael Oot in 11 counties. The new ballot marking devices (voting machines) would have had to be dispatched to their respective polling places, at a considerable cost to the counties for the primary as well as the general election; therefore, by not having a primary Dan Francis actually saved the taxpayers, in several counties, money.

The Democrats must have figured that is as much of a consolation prize as necessary for a good government type like Dan.

Show Me The $

The financial disclosure reports are in for the candidates in the 48th Senate District and 118th Assembly District races and the only engine that appears to be revved up at the starting line is Renzi. The petition process is now closed and the campaigns begin in earnest.

Dave Renzi comes out of the gate with an impressive report. His individual contributors are local people. Renzi's report shows an expenditure for commercial production, which is likely a sign there will be commercials up and running soon.

Darrel Aubertine's report is mundane and not overly impressive for a sitting Senator, and it is worthy to note it is laden with special interest contributions. This will kind of put to the test the definition of who is "one of us."

Addie Jenne Russell's report is pretty lean.

Bobby Cantwell's report appears to be quite active especially with some contributors from the river area.


Here is status of the money so far available for campaigns in the Senate.

The money totals are for Senate Campaign and Housekeeping accounts, and State Party Cash and Housekeeping Accounts .

Democrats    $2,478,321 Total

Republicans $6,551,696 Total

Senate Race Ad

Senate race 7th district candidate Barbara Donno has released another commercial.

Campaign '08

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North Country Public Radio Has A Different Version of The YMCA Story

The Rejected Covers of the New Yorker

The Georgetown On The Record is claiming they have the rejected covers of The New Yorker, here.

They are making light of the situation with a little help from photoshop. The parody by Georgetown students will probably not humor the already angered.  

Responsible NY - Gimmick or Substance?

It has been less than a week since Golisano announced his multi-candidate, independent political action committee along with the platform and process. At first, it was suspect about his intentions, whether he was throwing his money around to influence state politics and his stunt would be nothing more than another special interest, then he announced a process and platform.

The intentions started to crystallize and it appeared this action was all about honorable intentions, but alas, the first instinct appears to be the correct one. Golisano only appears to be mouthing government reform and not really serious. In less the seven days since he announced the PAC, the platform and candidate questionnaire that needed to filled he has begun picking favorites without a process taking place.

Sadly, he is making announcements for support before candidates have had a chance to address the issues and fill out the questionnaire and some of the candidates he has announced the PAC's support are people whom he has had discussions with, which is potential trouble for him keeping this legal.

Danger Democrat was right, Golisano is wrong headed.

A comment from DD

Hey! How much do you need? Are those really big players with really huge pockets good for our political system? The DD answer is a resounding, "No." Whether its lefty George Soros, righty Ross Perot or lately the power seeking Tom Golisano the tossing of large campaign contributions as bait is a perversion of the system envisioned by the framers.

This appears to be nothing more than a gimmick.

LATER ADD:
An article written by Jay Gallager can be read here and it ask a very good question:

The question for New York now is, can Golisano's money buy a more democratic and responsive state Legislature?

The other question he did not ask; is what does Golisano want if the candidates he supports are elected? This is what voters should ask candidates who receive his support, he obvious is not looking for real reform that is only a masquerade.

Also Common Cause which is a citizen's good government, non-partisan lobbying group  appears to be opposed to Golisano's gimmick.

Susan Lerner, Executive Director had this to say

“Stretching the system to its limits I don’t think is an effective way to advance reform."

The New Yorker

The cover of The New Yorker is creating quite a stir.

Read Here but here is an excerpt

If it was meant to be provocative -- it succeeded. The cover of this week's New Yorker features Baack Obama in Muslim garb, with his gun-toting Afro-ed wife, an American flag burning in the fireplace.

It has already drawn laughs -- while being denounced by the Obama campaign, and by John McCain, and many Obama supporters.

The artists says it was merely meant to make fun of rightwing depictions of Obama and his wife.

More On Schumer's Loose Lips

The Office of Thrift Services is lashing out at Senator Charles Schumer for his continued public involvement in the IndyMac bank failure. It was not good enough for Schumer to raise concerns privately he orchestrated leaks through a release of letters to the media.

Comments from the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulated IndyMac, said "the immediate cause" of the failure was statements made by Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. Mr. Schumer in late June publicly raised concerns about the bank's solvency.


"Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process," said OTS Director John Reich.

IndyMac responded to irresponsible leaks by Schumer with this comment included "as a result of Sen. Schumer making his letters public and the resulting press coverage, we did experience elevated customer inquiries and withdrawals in our branch network last Friday and on Saturday of roughly $100 million"

The LA Times reported 

John Reich's comment "Dissemination of incomplete or erroneous information can erode public confidence, mislead depositors and investors, and cause unintended consequences, including depositor runs and panic stock trades. Rumors and innuendo cause damage to financial institutions that might not occur otherwise and these concerns drive our strict policy of privacy."  

John D. Hawke, the U.S. comptroller of the currency (regulator of national banks) from 1998 to 2004, had more pointed words for Schumer in a story in the American Banker newspaper today.

"If Schumer continues to go public with letters raising questions about the condition of individual institutions, he will cause havoc in the banking system," Hawke said.

"Leaking his IndyMac letter to the press was reckless and grossly irresponsible. I don't see how he can be trusted with confidential information in the future. What this incredibly stupid conduct does is put at risk the willingness of regulators to share any information with the [congressional] oversight committees. After this, you'd be crazy to share information with Schumer."

So, as one comment stated in the previous post about Schumer's grand standing, they were concerned P IV was not citing sources other than the Wall Street Journal. Here is continuing coverage of the unrestrained boisterous Senator, for those who want to continue to defend his actions.