CIVIX: Civics and Culture

UES Skyline

2006-08-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

Civic Groups Testify at CFB Post-Election Public Hearing

2005-12-18T05:31:00.000-05:00

The New York City Campaign Finance Board had it's post-election public hearings this week, without much recognition from the press. Much of the testimony is available on their website.

CREATING INEQUALITIES

Frederick A.O. Schwarz, the CFB Chairman, noted that preliminary results show that about half of all public financing in the general election went to candidates who won in landslide races - winning with more than 60% of the vote. He says that "the current triggers for paying out public funds are simply too low and are having the opposite effect from that intended—i.e., to create a level playing field."

Gene Russianoff, a lawyer at NYPIRG, who helped draft the original City Campaign Finance Act, supports lowering contribution limits to$250, as opposed to the current limit of $2,750 - which the CFB previously recommended. NYPIRG believes this will "yield more competitive elections (along with lower spending ceilings in council races), encourage a broader base of people participating in the political process, and further reduce the influence of bundlers."

NYPIRG also proposes denying significant public financing in a district that has historically voted overwhelmingly in favor of one party or another during a general election. Funding could be denied if all of a candidate's opponents have raised only a small amount of funding, they recommend. But they might allow a candidate financing if he or she can show his candidate has significant name recognition. NYPIRG also alludes to lower expenditure ceilings as a way to limit total expenditures.

Candidates who face an opponent that has not raised 20% of the expenditure limits are required to submit to the CFB a letter arguing why they need public funding. Citizen's Union notes that these requests are rarely - if ever - denied, and sees this as a loophole in the guidelines that needs to be addressed. As a recommendation, they offer requiring the candidate to appear before the CFB, rather than simply submitting a letter. They suggest using criteria such as the candidate's showing in prior elections and their name recognition, the district's voting history, and indices such as polling data. The 20% trigger needs to be raised, as well, and coupled with a reduction to a 2 to one match Citizen's Union says. They stress caution, citing the potential of charges of tampering with elections.

COMPETING AGAINST HIGH-SPENDING SELF-FINANCED OPPONENTS

The ability of government to impose spending limits on self-financed candidates is limited by the Supreme Court, so the CFB must work around this. Bloomberg has spent record amounts on his campaings, outspending every campaign other than presidential races, including senate and gubernatorial races.

The CFB enacted new bonus funding and higher expenditure ceilings for participants competing with candidates who spend above a certain threshold, but NYPIRG calls them inadequate, and proposes an additional flat grant to help participants compete with self-financed competitors. After a candidate reaches their spending limit, he or she would receive a grant of one-fifth of the spending of the competitor, Russianoff offers as an initial suggestion. NYPIRG also calls for allowing a political party higher contribution limits when their candidate faces a high spending opponent is another solution. Common Cause New York supports a flat grant as well. Although CU finds merit in NYPIRG's proposal of a flat grant, they see the one-fifth figure as "a bit high." They also support allowing higher contribution limits under these circumstances, which the League of Women Voters of the City of New York also advocates.

Nicole A. Gordon, Executive Director of the CFB, said that two council candidates received the new 5-1 bonus rate, and 1 council candidate and a mayoral candidate received the 6-1 bonus.

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of Vermont’s limits on campaign spending, which could possibly change campaign finance law nationaly, and allow new restrictions on spending.

THE NEED FOR MORE REFORMS

While a couple issues tended to dominate the discussion, there were many other topics raised by the reformers, including:

NYPIRG supports extending the 90-day blackout period for city-funded self-promotional literature (called franks), disallowing exemptions from budget reporting during an election year, and a prohibiting prominent photographs and commentary of officials outside of a particular district. CC/NY supports these measures. CU also supports the extension, and calls for further restrictions within the blackout period.

Gifford Miller, during the democratic primary, is famous for spending over $1 billion of the city's money - about 0.02 percent of the entire city budget - on literature, a day before the blackout period.

CU would like to see greater access to low cost of free airtime for participants on radio and television programing, as well as other mediums, such as newspapers, bus and train ads and online outlets. The CFB should attempt to make agreements with media outlets, and provide media subsidies to candidates, CU says. They also recommend that the current print, online, and video voter guides need to be marketed more effectively, "This info is only as good as valuable as the number of people that it reaches" they say. They further suggest that the guides be expanded to include District Attorney races. The League commends the print voter guide, and agrees it should cover DA races as well.

While city law now ensures that candidates show documentation proving that the donor approves the transfer, CU takes the position that "candidates should only be allowed to transfer funds raised within the relevant election cycle." NYPIRG calls for the prohibition of the transfer of war chests, and would like to see the CFB grow to encompass the DA's races if legally possible.

Schwarz, the CFB Chairman, said that the issue of pay-to-play - the practice of lobbyists or those doing business with the city donating to electoral campaigns and seen as an attempt at private gain - will be addressed in the near future at public hearing devoted solely to the issue. He noted recent laws passed in Connecticut and Pennsylvania that ban the practice.

Schwarz also expressed dismay at the Council's choice to pass legislation allowing "single source contributions" - the ability for local unions to donate separately - after the Board committed publicly to revisit the issue after the 2005 elections in the regular course. Citizen's Union, New York Public Interest Research Group, and Common Cause New York all submitted testimony at the Council's public hearing.

11206 Legislators

2005-11-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

Chuck Schumer
Senior Senator

Hillary Clinton
Junior Senator

Nydia Velazquez
Congresswoman Distric 12
District Map(pdf)

Martin Malave Dilan
State Senator District 17
District Map(pdf)

Vito Lopez
Assemblyman Distric 53
District Map(pdf)

Diane Reyna
Council Member Distric 34
District Map

NYBLORGROLL

2005-10-27T05:09:00.000-04:00

Alarming News
right-winger with huge blog roll
Aaron Naparstek
Author and Journalist for NY Press
Back Room Deals
Covers the race for City Council Speaker
CB9M Chair's Blog
Chair of Manhattan Community Board 1
Corante New York
Tech blog
Curbed
Wild Commentary on Real Estate
Daily Gotham
Community Driven Progressive Politics
Dope on the Slope
Local Park Sloper
DMI Blog
Liberal think tank, from the Drum Major Institute
Edwize
UFT Sponsored Education Blog
Gothamist
Popular General Issues
FishBowlNY
Part of Media-Bistro, Media Issues and Gossip
Insane Yankee
Political Commentary
Inside the Big Apple
From Empire Page, former City official James Eugene
The Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Anti-Big Box
News Copy
Empire State politic
NewYorkology
Part of Travelology, City cultural events
The New York Opinion
Dialectic Politics, Opinion and News
No Land Grab
Atlantic Yards developments and other Eminent Domain Issues
nyc bloggers
Links to NYC blogs organized by subway stop
onNYTurf
Collaborative political coverage by Borough
Politicker
From the Obsever, government and political coverage
Power Plays
From the Village Voice, It's CityState section in Blog format
Right Events
The name says it all
Slant Point
Conservative Politics, lots of links, events, huge blogroll
Times Ratner Report
Journalist and author covers Atlanic Yards developments
Urban Elephants
Conservative Politics
Wonkster
From Gotham Gazette, significant editorials and blog commentary

WEINER FOR MAYOR 2005 LOBBYIST/STAFFERS

2005-10-20T05:11:00.000-04:00

Michael Whouley is Anthony Weiner's field manager for his petitioning effort.
The lobbying firm he founded, the Dewey Square Group, is prominent nationally, and Whouley is - like many of the staffers at DSG - a veteran of many major Democratic electoral campaigns. But an affiliate of the firm said privately that roughly 90 percent of its profits come from work with corporations and nonprofit groups (1). He was known by Gore as "the Brain" (2), and considered "the magical Michael Whouley" by Kerry (3). His name was among those mentioned in an Enron lobbying strategy memo as having Mr. Gore's ear (4). Whouley was also an advisor to President Clinton.

Whouley has been a registered lobbyist for Visa, Mastercard, AT&T, and Northwest Airlines, among others. DSG has been registered for lobbying in New York, lobbying for General Motors over CO2 emissions legislation, and for Barnes and Noble.

DSG is now a multinational, allowing European clients "to penetrate further into the US market." (7).

At a dinner hosted by Enron and attended by about 20 people during the Gore 200 campaign, Mr. Whouley -introduced by Richard S. Shapiro, Enron's top lobbyist - gave presentations about the campaign and took questions. While Whouley said he "couldn't speculate on what their motives were, except the usual Washington meet-and-greet," (8) he did note that the company was highly regarded at the time (9).

Whouley opened White House doors for wealthy lobbying clients while serving as one of Vice President Al Gore's top political strategists. While he formally became Gore's campaign manager Aug. 2, 1996 - and took a leave of absence from lobbying until November - shortly before arranging one of the White House meetings, he accompanied Gore on a late May campaign swing to New Hampshire. He returned for a few days in June to talk to high-ranking party officials and begin laying the groundwork for the Gore presidential campaign (10).

In 1993, Whouley was in charge of in charge of patronage hiring. "People who helped us were the priorities. You make sure you take care of the people who took care of you," he said (11). Though such lists have long been common practice in past White Houses, critics cited the scope and intensity of the Clinton administration's aggressiveness in rewarding supporters (12).

DSG specializes in grasstops and grassroots lobbying. They don't actually lobby public officials themselves - they find other people to do it. Using a strategy of "thinking globally and acting locally," says Minyon Moore, Head of State and Political Practice at DSG, they "go into communities and find people of influence" to make DSG's clients points for them (13).

"The best person to bring to a national official is a credible community member," says Brian Mccabe, a partner at DCI group, a Republican consulting firm that frequently works in tandem with DSG for their corporate clients (14).

Karen Skelton, a Principal at DSG, tells a story of working with Starbucks, who wanted to open a store in San Fransisco. "We went to community meetings at people's homes to identify influential community members." And through these people, they shined a light on the positive side of Starbucks - like the fact they provide health coverage to part-time workers (15).

A grasstop lobbyist is an "influencer". One could be considered a campaign donor, an advisor, or someone who has helped the candidate out of tough bind - generally someone "who can call in a favor" or somebody "the candidate can't say no to" (16).

Mccabe says the first step he takes when looking for people of influence is to look into his client's staff and their vendor's - or any organization that is dependent on the client's economic status (17).

Also working for the Weiner campaign, Is Mark Benoit, the campaign manager. In between the Weiner campaign, and his involvement in the Clark 2004 Presidential campaign as NY State Director, he has been working with the influential Ken Sunshine Public Relations firm. Ken Sunshine has recently been the state Senate payroll, for Minority Leader David Paterson, at the same time he was a registered lobbyist for the Jets (18). Benoit is also working For Betsy Gotbaum's bid for re-election for Public Advocate.

(1) The Boston Globe, July 28, 2004, DEWEY SQUARE QUIETLY FLEXES ITS POLITICAL MUSCLE, Glen Johnson
(2) Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2000, DECISION 2000 / AMERICA WAITS, ELIZABETH MEHREN and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
(3) ibid, Johnson
(4) The New York Times, February 18, 2002, Enron Pursued Plan To Forge Close Ties To Gore Campaign, RICHARD L. BERKE
(5) Dewey Square Group Press Release, September 22, 2003
(6) The Boston Herald, November 20, 1997, Bay State lobbyist opens doors to Gore, Andrew Miga
(7)The Washington Post, January 21, 2000, Iowa Ground WarTests the Generals, Thomas B. Edsall
(8) The Boston Herald, April 15, 1997, Clinton donors 'considered' for job, perks, Andrew Miga
(9) Ibid, Berke
(10) Roll Call, February 18, 2002, Enron Courted Gore;
Sought Ties to Veep's Hill Allies, John Bresnahan
(11) Millen Institute Panel: The New Government Relations: Think National, Act Local,
(12) ibid, Milken
(13) ibid, Milken
(14) ibid, Milken
(15) ibid, Milken
(16) Daily News, March 6, 2005, Dem pol flags Jets PR guru on state dole, Joe Mahoney

BLOOMBERG 2004 LOBBYIST/SAFFERS

2005-10-20T04:52:00.000-04:00

Bloomberg has three staffers that were either former lobbyists or currently lobby. In addition to that, two staffers from his 2001 campaign became lobbyists.

From the 2001 campaign, Maureen Connelly and Kathleen Cudahy, have been retained by clients to lobby his administration. Ms. Connelly and Ms. Cudahy work for the same firm, Tenth on the list was Connelly McLaughlin Communications, which was ranked 10th on the list of the highest earning lobbying firms in NYC this year (1). When asked if he would request his former campaign consultants to refrain from lobbying, he replied ''I'd be happy to do that.'' But within hours, the mayor's office was backing away, insisting that what Mr. Bloomberg had said was not really what he meant. ''The mayor doesn't think it is necessary to make that request,'' Ed Skyler, the mayor's spokesman, said (2).

On the 2005 campaign Bill Cunningham and Josh Isay have been lobbyists.

Bill Cunningham, Bloomberg's chief campaign consultant, was Senior VP of Public Policy at Fleet bank, some time between 1995 and 2001. Prior to his job as lobbyist, he was a senior staff member for both Governor Hugh Carey and Governor Mario Cuomo, he was Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation and Assistant Director of Economic Development at the New York State Commerce Department. Cunningham served as Chief of Staff for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1995. He first went to work for Bloomberg in 2001 for his first campaign.

Josh Isay was Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for DoubleClick between 2000 and 2001 (3). But according to the Industry Standard, Isay was still with Doubleclick in May 2001 - while he was working on Alan Hevesi's 2001 campaign for mayor (4). Doubleclick, a leading internet ad company, was under investigation - over privacy issues - by the FTC while Isay lobbied for them (5). They settled a 30 month long investigation with Attorneys General from 10 states for $450,000 and agreed to implement safeguards in August of 2002 (6). Doubleclick settled a private class-action lawsuit with $1.8 million earlier that year (7). Doubleclick purchased Abacus Direct, a marketing company, and planned to merge the names from Abacus's offline data with its anonymous online user activity, but backed down due to bad publicity (8). Additionally, Isay is a partner at the political consulting firm Isay, Klores, Prince - which has an address at Reed Smith, LLP (9), a firm with major national lobbying operations. Before Doubleclick, Isay was chief of staff to Senator Charles Schumer, was campaign manager for Andrew Cuomo's failed 2002 gubernatorial bid, and worked on Democrat Robert Torricelli's successful U.S. Senate campaign. He turned down a top post in Al Gore's presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton's Senate bid, and a job offer to run the Democratic Senators Campaign Committee to lobby for Doubleclick.

On a related side-note regarding personal information, the Bloomberg campaign has spent over $5 million on a voter database. It is paying Penn, Schoen, and Berland Associates to combine formatted voter information from the Board of elections with answers to a survey conducted by phone (10).

Kevin Sheekey, political advisor to the mayor, became a lobbyist for Bloomberg, LLP in 1997. Prior to his affiliation with Bloomberg, Sheekey was Chief of Staff to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

(1) The New York Times, May 26, 2005, City Lobbyists' Earnings Double To $33.6 Million in Five Years, MIKE McINTIRE
(2)The New York Times, June 9, 2004, Mayor Retreats on Restricting Consultants From Lobbying, Mike Mcintire
(3) Daily News, January 4, 2001, DOUBLECLICK LOBBYIST HEADS BACK TO POLITICS, JOEL SIEGEL
(4) The Industry Standard, May 28, 2001, Singing the K Street Blues, Aaron Pressman
(5) The New York Post, March 7, 2000, DOUBLECLICK BEEFS UP POLITICAL CONNECTIONS, MARY HUHN
(6) Doubleclick Press Release, August 26, 2002
(7)The Washington Post, August 27, 2002, Web Ad Firm to Limit Use of Profiles, Robert O'Harrow Jr.
(8) The New York Post, March 7, 2000, DOUBLECLICK BEEFS UP POLITICAL CONNECTIONS, Mary Huhn
(9) New York Department of State Corporation filing
(10) The New York Sun, June 20, 2005, Bloomberg Camp Spends Millions On Voter Data, JULIA LEVY

Lobbyists Working on Political Campaigns

2005-10-20T04:39:00.000-04:00

I started research during the 2005 Democratic Primaries trying to create a comprehensive portrait of the number of lobbyists working on each of the major mayoral canididates campaigns. These two reports - on Bloomberg and Weiner - are the farthest I reached. I used the test of current office held when choosing the order of which campaigns to investigate.

Weiner for Mayor 2005 Lobyist/staffers
Bloomberg 2004 lobbyist/staffers

Civic Exchange Competition

2005-10-16T01:50:00.000-04:00

The Van Alen Institute: Projects for Public Architecture held an invited competition (Civic Exchange) for the design of a public interactive installation for Lower Manhattan facilitating the dissemination and exchange of local information. [Antenna Design's] winning proposal is an open platform that allows for community participation on different levels. The basic gesture for the design was inspired by the image of people gathering around a bench under a tree, as seen in city parks. The installation features multiple screens for different purposes. The main information screen is a multi-user interactive map table. The interactive map of Lower The Manhattan provides direct access to place-based news, events alerts and other information. People can engage in community dialogue by responding to polls, articles, and by annotating the map. Local organizations can produce content for specific place-based activities. A public announcement screen in the form of a LED column presents broadcasts through color and motion... In alert or emergency modes, messages are presented in a more attention-grabbing manner. Also integrated into the column is an emergency intercom. A single-user internet terminal allows for private exchange. Seating modules invite people to gather. A roof with solar panel, which provides partial and back-up power, provides shade for the interactive display and acts as shelter from rain.

local media

2005-09-06T20:43:00.000-04:00

THE MAJORITY OF THE FOLLOWING PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE IN PRINT AT THE ATM LOBBY ON BEDFORD AVE IN BETWEEN N8TH AND N7TH

Greenpoint Gazette
597 Manhattan Avenue
New York, NY 11222
718-389-6067

The Greenline
North brooklyn Community News
Editor, Genia Gould
718-388-5454 ext. 167
greenline@stnicksnpc.com

Bushwick Observer
Editor, Ken Kern
718-366-3800
observer@rbscc.org
THE BUSHWICK OBSERVER CAN BE FOUND AT THE BUSHWICK BRANCH OF THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

EDITORIALS

2005-08-20T12:38:00.000-04:00

The value of a personal blog

GOVERNMENT VOTING AGENCIES

2005-08-20T09:58:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS

NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

Lobbying links

2005-08-20T01:23:00.000-04:00

FEDERAL LOBBYING DISCLOSURE

STATE LOBBYING DISCLOSURE

VENDOR AND LOBBYIST DATABASES

the value of a personal blog

2005-08-13T21:16:00.000-04:00

My blog is a tool to facilitate my reaserch. A tool I can use to pick up from where I left off, so I can finish my train of thought from anywhere I have access to the Web. A medium to make my efforts more valuable by distrubuting what I have learned to the general public, who can offer suggestions, new leads, or stand on the shoulders of my efforts to further thier own benefits, which may just be my own.