Politics Now

A miraculous proposal?

South Park Avenue, including this South Buffalo stretch looking towards Lackawanna, would be honorarily renamed "Father Nelson Baker Way" under a new proposal. (Derek Gee / Buffalo News file photo)

Just how related are the following two things? You be the judge.

--South Council Member Michael P. Kearns is a candidate in the March 20 special election for the 145th Assembly District seat.

--This week, Kearns will introduce a measure before the Common Council that would designate South Park Avenue, from Main Street to the city line with Lackawanna, "Father Nelson Baker Way."

The Read: What they're saying about WNY

Mark Grisanti, Mark Grisanti and Mark Grisanti. The casino incident involving the state senator got national and even international coverage and was a big part of this week's political headlines. Here's a look at what others said about it this week:

HuffPost’s New York editor-at-large writes, “For an unremarkable freshman state senator, Grisanti has a lot of statewide, even nation-wide, significance.” -- Casino Brawl Business as Usual for New York State Legislature, Feb. 16

Seneca Nation President Robert Odawi Porter writes in Indian Country Today in response to the Grisanti episode that “several media outlets” are “reverting to salacious stereotypes” in their coverage of the Grisanti story with headlines “such as, ‘Indians on the Warpath’ and ‘Indian Whomp-‘em,’ and peppering their stories with other unseemly descriptions of my people.” -- Seneca President Robert Odawi Porter Comments on Casino Incident, Feb. 17

At Capitol Confidential, the Albany Times Union's Capitol Bureau Chief Casey Seiler writes about changes in Porter's public statements the day after the incident. "When an update to the News’ story revealed that the incident had resulted in Maria Grisanti heading to the hospital on Saturday for an MRI and other treatment, Porter decided a slightly more, um, sympathetic tone might be in order."-- Seneca leader: Uh, what I meant to say was…, Feb. 11

At City & State, Grisanti was named one of this week's "losers" in their "Winners & Losers" feature. "It might be too muddy to end up hurting his 2012 re-election effort –- but it hardly helps," the blog said of the situation. -- Winners & Losers, Feb. 17

Cuomo weighs in on Grisanti incident

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has worked with State Sen. Mark J. Grisanti on everything from the gay marriage law to a University at Buffalo expansion plan, said he left the senator a message over the weekend but that they have not communicated since a Friday night brawl at a Niagara Falls casino involving Grisanti and a Seneca businessman.

"As I understand it, now there's an ongoing investigation into the matter. I don't have any comment on it. I do wish him and his wife the best," Cuomo said, noting that he had met Grisanti's wife in the past. "Obviously, I've worked with the senator on a number of matters, and I was concerned about the health of his wife, and I hope she's doing well."

--Tom Precious

Seneca Nation bolsters spending to fight casino plans

ALBANY -– The Seneca Nation of Indians is expanding its lobbying and communications presence in an effort to block proposals at the state Capitol threatening to bring new casino competition to its gambling ventures in Western New York.

The tribe has added a lobbying firm whose partners include former Buffalo mayor Anthony Masiello. Seneca officials declined to immediately provide Masiello’s retainer information. He was hired only a few weeks ago so his required financial disclosure reports with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics is not yet due. Masiello’s portfolio includes Kaleida Health, Niagara County and National Fuel Gas Co.

Target of some barbs, Cuomo slaps down the Legislature

ALBANY –- What a difference a couple weeks, and some criticism, can do for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s opinion of the Legislature.

It was only last month during his state budget submission, and before that at his State of the State address, that Cuomo spent considerable time thanking the Legislature for being his partner over the past year and for all the deals they had crafted together.

But a couple hours' drive from Albany today, the rhetoric was a tad different.

"I believe the Legislature is influenced by the special interest money and I’m trying to fight that," Cuomo told reporters in Syracuse after a speech.

Audio from Albany: Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos

As part of a regular weekly feature on the Politics Now blog, Tom Precious of The News' Albany Bureau posts an audio interview with a newsmaker from the Capitol.

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ALBANY — The Legislature's top Republican is suggesting Western New York and New York City could be the locations for where the state will lose two of its congressional seats in the redistricting process raging on behind closed doors at the Capitol.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said talks are intensifying between the GOP-led Senate and Democratic-controlled Assembly to try to produce a deal for New York's 27 congressional district boundaries under the once-a-decade reapportionment exercise. ... Read more

Download the audio 

Prescription drug reporting debate to get public airing

ALBANY -– Senate Republicans will host a roundtable discussion next week at the Capitol over efforts to have New York require real-time reporting by doctors and pharmacists when prescribing and filling painkillers, sleeping pills and other controlled medications.

"We’re trying to get people all around one bill," said Sen. George Maziarz, a Newfane Republican.

The two-hour session at the Capitol on Monday will include representatives from chain pharmacies, the Medical Society, the West Seneca-based Kids Escaping Drugs group, and Avi and Julie Israel, the North Buffalo couple whose son, Michael, who was addicted to prescription drugs, killed himself last year. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who last year proposed legislation to combat the worsening prescription drug addiction problem, has also been invited, along with officials from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s health department.

The Buffalo News over the weekend reported a growing push by all sides to get something approved this legislative session to improve the existing cumbersome and little-used prescription drug reporting system maintained by the state Department of Health.

--Tom Precious

Audio from Albany: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

As part of a regular weekly feature on the Politics Now blog, Tom Precious of The News' Albany Bureau posts an audio interview with a newsmaker from the Capitol.

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Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver talks about legislative and congressional redistricting and his plan to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.50 per hour. The Legislature -- more precisely, the GOP-led Senate and the Democrat-controlled Assembly -- last week unveiled plans for how state legislative seats would be drawn for the next decade. Still unresolved, though, are the twists and turns the state's congressional boundaries will take -- a rather burning issue with New York losing two congressional seats and after a federal judge ordered congressional primaries be moved from September to June. Silver, who will be in Buffalo today for an Assembly Democratic campaign committee fundraiser and, as a diehard New York Rangers fan, to attend tonight's Sabres-Rangers game, spoke to The Buffalo News in his Capitol office.

Download the audio

--Tom Precious 

Skelos worries about democracy with June primaries

ALBANY -- The Legislature’s top Republican said a June primary for state lawmakers would be "very disruptive" to the annual end-of-session frenzy in Albany –- and suggested it could heighten the problem of money in politics.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said Senate Republicans continue to insist that primaries -– at least involving state Senate seats –- be held in August, and not in June as Assembly Democrats are seeking. A federal judge last week ruled that congressional primaries be conducted at the end of June; the ruling left open the possibility that state legislative primaries could still be held as late as August.

Skelos said most primaries for legislative seats are held in New York City between Democrats. "You would have a member of the Legislature busy circulating petitions [in March] and making sure that their done properly when we’re negotiating a budget. Then, as we’re concluding our legislative year, the primary would be held ... and they would be looking for endorsements from unions and others, they would be looking during the process for contributions to get them through the primary process," he said.

"I think this would be very disruptive to the orderly functioning Legislature that we’ve seen since Gov. [Andrew M.] Cuomo has come into office," Skelos added.

The Republican leader defended the plan released last week to add a 63^rd Senate seat -– seen by critics as a way for the GOP to help hold onto the chamber; Sen. Mark Grisanti last week said the 63^rd seat kept Western New York from losing a Senate seat due to population losses.

"We wouldn’t be promoting a 63^rd seat if we felt it was unconstitutional. That wouldn’t be very bright to have it thrown out," Skelos said.

Senate Democrats are suing over the additional seat and other federal and state lawsuits are likely.

"I believe if they do sue, as they’ve wasted so much Senate money in the past, they will be wasting taxpayer dollars once again," Skelos said of the Senate Democrats.

Asked, twice, if the new lines enhance the GOP’s ability to retain the Senate, Skelos said his own Long Island seat would have a slightly more Democratic-leaning enrollment advantage and that most Senate seats have fewer Republican voters than Democrats.

"I don’t believe this has been a partisan redistricting process," he told reporters today.

--Tom Precious

Politics Now video with Bob McCarthy