February 13, 2007
The Governor Goes to War Posted by John Steele Gordon at 10:25 AM EST Julie Fenster decries the fact that the few thousand people in Iowa who go out to the caucuses in the depths of the Midwestern winter probably have more influence on the presidential nominations than the 19 million citizens of New York State, whose primary election is usually scheduled too late to have much effect. I agree, but I would like to see the current presidential primary “system” replaced with six or eight regional primaries (or caucuses, if a state prefers), scheduled every two weeks, with the region going first changing with each election. Why Iowa and New Hampshire have been allowed to hijack something as important as a presidential election for their own parochial interests is one of the mysteries of American democracy. Right now, of course, New York State is so institutionally corrupt that its politics is determined not by the people but almost solely by the politicians and the special interests. Gerrymandering makes most elections for the legislature foregone conclusions. Once elected, the senators vote for an all-powerful majority leader and the assemblymen for an all-powerful speaker. Once that is done, they might just as well go home for all the influence the individual legislators have over legislation. New York State government is truly “three men in a room,” the majority leader, the speaker, and the governor. Only the last is elected by the people. The result of this has been a steady decline in New York’s once unchallenged economic and political power. Were it not for New York City—a world unto itself that is thriving thanks to global economic forces—the once proud Empire State would be the Basket Case State, for upstate New York is in deep depression. Its once booming cities—Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Rome, Schenectady—decaying. And it will stay that way until the political culture of Albany changes. Happily, there are a few signs that that political culture might indeed be beginning to change. The state’s new governor, Elliot Spitzer, campaigned on reforming the way business is done in Albany and was overwhelmingly elected (to be sure, against a candidate so weak that I confess I can’t remember his name). One of the first orders of business once he took the oath of office on January 1 was a new state comptroller, the previous one having resigned after a scandal. The comptroller not only keeps the state’s books and audits state entities, he makes investment decisions on the state’s $145 billion in pension funds. It’s a job that calls for expertise not only in accounting but in investment. With the legislature in recess until January 3, Spitzer could have made a recess appointment on his own. Instead he made a deal with the other two men in the room. A special commission would interview candidates and choose the most qualified. The legislature, meeting in joint session, would then pick among them. The commission met, interviewed, and chose three candidates. The speaker didn’t like the selection he had agreed to choose from, so he reneged on the deal without even an apology, and his legislative sheep dutifully picked the man he wanted, an assemblyman with no qualifications whatever except loyal service to the speaker. To say that Governor Spitzer was furious would be to understate the case, and he did a most unusual thing for Albany. Instead of raising hell in private among the “three men in a room” for this bald-faced betrayal, he went public. He lambasted the legislature and the speaker. Then he went further. In the home district of Assemblyman William Magnarelli of Syracuse, one of the sheep, he told the local newspaper, “Bill Magnarelli is one of those unfortunate Assembly members who just raises his hand when he’s told to do so, and didn’t even bother to stand up and say, ‘Whose interest am I representing?’” As The New York Times put it, “It was, by Albany standards, a shocking breach of etiquette for a sitting governor to lambaste a colleague from his own party in his home district.” It was more than that, it was a declaration of war against the legislature. Spitzer has now promised to support primary opponents against members of the legislature who do not do their jobs and show some backbone. If he follows up on that and uses the bully pulpit of the governorship to its fullest, the political tectonic plates in Albany could shift fundamentally and—who knows?—maybe the people of New York State might once again have some say in the legislative process. What a concept! Spitzer earned a take-no-prisoners reputation as state attorney general, often, in my opinion, running roughshod over both the truth and his targets’ rights in the process. That’s why I voted for what’s-his-name instead of Spitzer last November. But if Governor Spitzer is going to truly do battle with the New York State Legislature—the heart and soul of what is wrong with New York State and the primary cause of its sad decline—and take no prisoners in the process, I will not only wish him well, I will hold his coat, keep him supplied with bottled water, and mop his brow between rounds. It looks like New York State politics might get interesting for the first time in decades. I certainly hope so.
|
