News Copy, New York

Pirro in Hot Water

Last week, the New Jersey Attorney General resigned after a state investigation found she used the power of her office to get her boyfriend out of a little traffic trouble.

Now, New York State Democrats are looking at Republican Attorney General candidate, Jeanine Pirro, and are hoping to tar her with the same box of feathers.

More from THE state political editor, Fred Dicker, at the New York Post.

New York State Democrats had this play in their bag of tricks and were only waiting for the right time to pull it out. Their biggest problem was that NJ Attorney General resigned too quickly. They are probably kicking themselves because they started going after Pirro on this issue during the final two weeks of August --- when most political observers aren't observing and a good chunk of voters are on vacation.

Fudge Report

Over at Urban Elephants, a post by Scott Sala: he informs on the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee's anti-Republican campaign news "Fudge Report" website.

If Liebeman Loses...

If U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman loses his Democrat primary battle in Connecticut, will any true blue conservative lose any sleep over it?

I know I won't.

NY1 Expanding To Westchester?

NY1 moderated the debate between Tom Suozzi and Eliot Spitzer this week at Pace's downtown Manhattan campus.  It drew a lot of praise from journalists and political observers in Westchester County, who wish such a dynamic news operation could set up shop here.

Now News Copy is hearing directly from individuals negotiating with Verizon that the phone company could be considering NY1 as a news outlet in the suburbs.

Sources told News Copy this evening that Verizon's planned delivery of content (through fiber optic cable) throughout New York City's northern and eastern suburbs might have to be accompanied by a news provider to fulfill FCC requirements.

Though I'm not entirely certain that Verizon would be legally bound to provide local news, I'm learning firsthand as a member of my town cable advisory committee that Verizon might have no choice.

My sources confirmed this evening that NY1 has been mentioned by people close to Verizon as a potential news provider in this suburban region.  Existing cable contracts throughout Westchester include cable providers offering local news.  Some attorneys have speculated that FCC and State requirements would almost leave Verizon with an obligation to provide local news -- though Verizon has not shown any desire to get into the news business.

They would be competing with Cablevision's News 12 in Westchester, if such a deal was ever reached.  Westchester and much of the Hudson Valley already have RNN (Regional News Network) in many locations and Time Warner's presence is felt from the Mid-Hudson Valley north along with Mount Vernon in lower Westchester County.

The prospect of NY1 securing a foothold in the suburbs would be welcomed by this political enthusiast.  I'm convinced that's precisely what Westchester needs to spice up its coverage of politics -- and the competition would productively counter the existing coverager by News 12.

Columnist Phil Reisman of The Journal News had these observations on the "Yes or No" question and answer section of the debate.

"From a sadistic point of view, the results were interesting. Having the forks preemptively removed from their tongues, both men appeared a little off balance. They stopped smiling and visibly tensed up, as if they were taking a lie detector test or were witnesses before a grand jury."

It sounded as NY1's Dominic Carter challenged both Democrats.

The candidates tried a few times to expand on their answers, but Carter drowned them out with a stern reminder: "Yes or no!"

You could almost see the wheels turning in their heads as they weighed the possible consequences of each reply they gave. Even the innocuous questions seemed to inspire a kind of solemnity usually reserved for the more pressing matters of state like taxes and the runaway cost of Medicaid.

More intensive daily interview programs like would bring about a more balanced coverage in Westchester, waking up what has been a sleepy news zone in New York State.

We hope word of NY1's expansion is true.

News Blogs Abound: Weekend Warriors

Dan Greenfield of The Journal News e-mailed me last week to explain that all the reporters on Politics on the Hudson work for the Westchester-based The Journal News.

I liked Dan's take on the following meeting between Tom and Eliot.

Ben Smith of The Daily Politics had his observations on the density of coverage.

I still believe its great that The Journal News has been wise enough to also retain the statewide services of Yancey Roy, Jay Gallagher and Cara Matthews, who all work up in Albany at the Gannett bureau.

Reporters for The Journal News in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam have been contributing to Politics on the Hudson with a daily and hourly regularity that matches what the Albany Times Union has done with that news blog. 

Newsday has also jumped into the action, so it is fair to say that news blogs are usurping at times the output of The Associated Press.

What News Copy wants to know is when Gannett will take this so-far-successful experiment in Westchester County and aggressively spawn the idea into at least the Southern Tier (Press and Sun-Bulletin), Mid-Hudson Valley (Poughkeepsie Journal) and Finger Lakes/Western New York (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle).

In a word, such a news chain of blogs would be... wow.

The news bloggers are just starting to make their mark -- and count on the online traffic changing Madison Avenue's entire perception of "the news of the day."

These are weekend warriors, whose coverage doesn't resemble banker's hours.  A few of these reporters are just as likely to log into a news blog near the midnight hour on a Saturday or Sunday to file a story many hours before any other news outlet in New York.

That's a dedication to the craft that could make all the difference with these newspapers, as reporters compete to break stories before the other.  That's the old school of "scoops" and "exclusives" that hasn't been a reliable part of "news" in New York for many years.

Those joints are jumping.

It's keeping me on my toes.

Brief Encounters

For example, Friday night I was recovering from post-nasal dripping cold and missed what must have been a classic collision between John Spencer and KT McFarland.

It happened right around the corner at Lake Isle Country Club, right in my hometown of Eastchester, and Glenn Blain of Politics on the Hudson caught what otherwise would have been a missed moment.

Republican Senate candidate KT McFarland was heading into the Westchester County Women's Republican Club spring gala in Eastchester tonight when she stopped to talk to some people in a hallway outside the dining room. She stayed just long enough to be there when rival candidate John Spencer and his wife, Kathy Spring Spencer, arrived.

McFarland, seeing that she was blocking the Spencers from entering the dining room, quickly finished her conversation and moved on without saying a word to her opponent. However, McFarland's press spokesman, William O'Reilly, did shake hands with Spencer as he entered.

Reporters also were able to immediately break the strained post-convention encounter between Democrats Tom Suozzi and Eliot Spitzer.

Newsday's Spin Cycle and the Times Union's Capitol Confidential were all over this bit of verbal sparring:

Michael Rothfeld of Newsday had most of the exhange between party nominee and seemingly-exiled challenger.

Tom: Eliot how are you? I brought some more press.
Eliot: Why don’t you come on board?
Tom: How was your tour?
Eliot: It was good. It was good. We had a good time in Nassau and Suffolk, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown, Rome, Saratoga, Pine Plains. It was excellent.
Tom: It was sort of like Howard Dean the way you did that.

Tom then asked Eliot to say if and when he will produce a plan to reduce property taxes.

Eliot: I appreciate all your thinking about these issues. We have been speaking in specificity about issues. I would suggest you try the Web site.
Tom: I actually looked at the Web page. You have 20 speeches on there. You mentioned property taxes nine times, less than 2 percent of the words you used and you’ve given no specifics as to how to reduce property taxes. Property taxes is my number one issue, and I’d like you to come up with a plan to reduce property taxes.
Eliot: Tom, we have had plans, we have had discussions and we are going to have a wonderful time reforming the state government, I look forward to doing it with you. Thanks a lot, Tom.
Tom: Thanks for coming by, Eliot.

Eliot walked away. Tom followed him, and they talked some more.

Eliot: You want to take the train? Guys, I gotta catch a train.
Tom: If you tell me your property tax plan, I will take the train with you.

Eliot walked away again. He told reporters that he plans to reduce property taxes by trimming health care costs and increasing the tax base by improving the economy through projects such as the third track for the Long Island Rail Road.

Then Eliot got on the Long Island Rail Road and Tom went home.

Elizabeth Benjamin of Capitol Confidential had been Buffalo, for the Democratic Convention, then Hempstead for the State GOP Convention -- but wrote as if she was missing all the fun when she first heard about the Suozzi-Spitzer meeting.

"Almost makes me wish I was still on the bus."

I was kind of envious of those who were there to witness the Suozzi in-your-face challenge, especially since Long Island is only a hop, skip and jump from lower Westchester.

But Liz Benjamin did catch one aspect of Suozzi's analysis (that Spitzer only mentioned property taxes two percent of the time in his recent speech) that slightly missed its mark.

One calculating spin master advised Capitol Confidential that Spitzer had only discussed taxes 1.28 percent of the time.

The New York Times blog, The Empire Zone, re-emphasized that Tom nearly did follow Eliot all the way to Manhattan.

And had Suozzi stepped onto that train with Spitzer -- the entire New York press corps would have stuffed inside that rail car like circus clowns piling into a VW bug.

Surprise!!

Eliot Spitzer just received the state Democrat Party nomination for governor.

Newsday is reporting that 18 of Nassau County's 22 voting delegates are planning a walk out.

And the NY Times wonders: where in the world is Tom Suozzi?

Manhattanville Poll: Democrats Will Romp With Republican Voters

Manhattanville College Poll shows Eliot Spitzer so firmly in control that he wins convincingly among Republicans, Fred Dicker of The New York Post reported this morning.

"The data clearly show a strong Democratic bias in this year's race, regardless of candidate," said Manhattanville College President Richard Berman.

"If these numbers hold, this would be the first time in over 50 years that all five statewide offices would be simultaneously held by Democrats."

Strategic Vision's poll identified 60 percent of Republicans undecided.

Manhattanville's poll measured Spitzer leading Faso among Republicans 41-30 percent, leading Weld 42-26.

With numbers like that in your own party, who needs enemies?

Dicker of The Post noted that among all likely voters, Spitzer led Weld, 65-14 percent, and Faso, 64-14 percent.  Nassau County Excecutive Tom Suozzi also led, though by narrower margins, 39-17 against Weld and 41-13 against Faso.

The big hurt came in the Attorney General's race, where Andrew Cuomo appears to be sailing against former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro 49-20 percent.

Yonkers, Faso, Westchester, Weld --- The Politics of Indecision

Ah, according to NewsCopy guru Bob Fois, State Senator Nick Spano thinks that the Yonkers GOP's endorsement of John Faso for Governor was a little too early. He wanted them to wait for the Westchester County's Republican Executive Committee to make some decision on whether Faso or former Mass. Governor Bill Weld would be their nominee. And no one in the County structure wants to put their necks on the line until the state party structure makes some moves.

The Yonkers move is unique: their executive committee actually made a decision to back a candidate. This is quite unusual for a committee who never likes to fill up their dance card until they know who is actually going to dance statewide (meaning, Yonkers moves when they know the candidate they will be endorsing will be the statewide candidate). So, what is behind this little coup?

Local leaders are a little nervous because when they endorsed Faso for governor, they believed that their big chief (Spano) was actually backing Faso, not Weld. They believed that the state's Conservative Party was ready to back Faso for governor along with Yonkers' "favorite son" John Spencer for U.S. Senate. They believed that the state GOP was ready to jump on the Faso bandwagon for one reason: Weld couldn't garner enough votes for the nomination. Throw into the mix the weakness of Governor George Pataki, the Yonkers GOP thought they would be showing some leadership on the Faso endorsement.

Oh, to reiterate the first line of the previous paragraph: the Yonkers crew also believed Senator Nick was supportive of Faso over Weld. That's why they announced their endorsement of Faso a couple weeks ago. Tells you something when 2 Yonkers City Councilpeople who are NOT aligned with current Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone but are in appearances close to State Senator Spano in Dee Barbato and John Murtagh are invited to the press conference to back Faso.

But...

As with the Pataki GOP, everything is crumbling. Bill Weld isn't going away (he has money and quiet support from people like former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani). He is gaining support from within the GOP everyday because he has money to run a statewide campaign. The fear is that if Faso runs, he will not be able to acquire enough campaign funds to put up a serious challenge to Eliot Spitzer (or Tom Suozzi, a nice name who appears to have little support right now from within the prime voter list of the New York Democrat Party).

Weld will have the cash...enough of it where if there is a GOP gubenatorial primary, he could actually blow out Faso with spending. And if the Conservative Party backs Faso and Weld wins the GOP nod, things would be looking bleak in New York Republican politics...not that they aren't already looking like the bugler is already warming up to play "Taps" for the party of indecision.

Or so says a Yonkers GOP "leader" who emailed me a response to Mr. Fois this morning.

Throw this into the hat to add to the intrigue: Bill Weld is trying to garner a second-tier nomination: the NY Daily News reports this morning that Weld is actively seeking the Libertarian Party line...Weld a GOP and Libertarian Party nominee...Faso a Conservative Party nominee...

This is all a bad political soap opera plot where the Republicans are trying to pick out what outfit to wear to their political suicide party while Democrat Spitzer is measuring for curtains in the Executive offices in Albany.

The Yonkers Citizen

Communists Visibly Backing Democrats

News Copy thought that noting an article by New York State Communist Party "chairperson" Elena might have been too far out in "left" field but we aren't the only ones who noticed that the "lefties" are taking a far more visible role backing Democrats this year.

Elizabeth Benjamin of Capitol Confidential reports that the NRCC noted the irony, and the radicalism.

“It’s good to know Democrats can count on the support of card-carrying Communists to win over the hearts and minds of Empire State voters,” Patru said. “While it’s fitting that the party of failure and the philosophy of failure would join forces, we find these revelations quite disturbing nonetheless. New York Democrats, particularly these candidates, should tell voters whether they are now or ever have been in cahoots with Communists.”

What we found noteworthy was that Google included the story in the Communist weekly among tens of thousands of mainstream new media reports -- yet we have to openly ask why blog commentary on Urban Elephants or City Journal hasn't been as highly publicized by this search engine.

It's certainly "luck of the draw" with Google, right?  Or is it the right keywords or some other technical machination we missed?  We don't sense any bias on the part of Google (they have conservative weeklies by Human Events highlighted all the time) but when did the Communist Party become "in vogue" again?

Since the Republicans in Washington, D.C. noticed the same story we did, Mora's analysis certainly wasn't missed by people in the Beltway's corridors of power.

Now when is a "Main Street" conservative Republican like U.S. Senate candidate John Spencer getting the same attention?

Democrats Creative Writing Class

We wonder how long it will be before editors of newspapers will be as closely watched as political campaigns when it comes to news copy.

William Weld was scrutinized over a weeks ago for lifting a sentence or two.  Now it is the State Democratic Party creatively revising reporters' work, according to the Albany Times Union.

Michael Gormley of the Associated Press noted some changes:

On Jan. 31, for example, the Democrats posted: "AP: Poll: Clinton remains strong for re-election," a bylined story about a Siena College poll on the U.S. Senate race.

Here's how the final AP article began:

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is in strong shape for re-election in New York this year, but most voters in her adopted state think it is unlikely the former first lady could win a 2008 presidential race, a statewide poll reported Monday."

Here's how the Democrats re-edited the piece and posted it as an AP piece:

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton remains in a strong position in her bid for re-election this year with almost six in 10 New York voters saying they will vote for the former first lady, a statewide poll reported Monday."

In another story about Clinton criticizing the Bush administration over, a sentence describing her as a possible presidential contender in 2008 was removed.

Of course, the sin of omission is not limited to political campaigns.

We know of many a reporter who has grumbled over an editor or publisher carving out a quote or paragraph, leaving a story gutted of its initial intent.

We have also sat in the editor's chair, as a deadline loomed, and been left with the tough decision to edit down a story to fit in what the pagination required.  It's a part of the business.  It's an expensive part of publishing and omissions are not always the result of some evil conspiracy.  You would be amazed how many editors and publishers throw darts at each other -- and how many news rooms have a betting pool on when a beloved editor is getting fired.