| | | | |  | | By Anna Gronewold and Erin Durkin | The midterm election dust has settled a bit, and Democrats are acknowledging their anti-crime messaging didn't seem to do the trick. This was particularly the case when it came to bail laws. "This was a nationally coordinated campaign by the Republicans, and we did not, frankly, rise to the occasion to explain to people what we did do and how the point was and still is not to criminalize poverty — it's to criminalize criminals," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told us. One of the reasons the GOP got the upper hand is simple, according to some Democratic strategists: No one was explicitly championing the bail laws even as Republicans blamed them — and the Democrats who passed them — for voters' fears about rising crime. Democrats attempted to pivot toward promoting other public safety measures, explaining that statistics don't show New York being any less safe than other large cities or citing numbers that, so far, have not indicated the bail laws are directly tied to individuals arrested for violent crimes. But as one Democratic consultant noted, that's a little like saying "I'm sorry you feel that way, but you're wrong." It doesn't help some people who are legitimately scared. The factors preventing a strong pro-bail reform message were many. For example, some groups that initially lobbied for ending cash bail during — and prior to — 2019 have since lost resources. Billionaire hedge fund investor Dan Loeb this year pulled his funding from New Yorkers United for Justice. The coalition of local and national nonprofits he'd convened for his criminal justice activism is now little more than a website. Another is that a bail reform success story — one where a person can return to their families and their jobs without pretrial incarceration — just isn't as emotionally riveting as the bail reform failure narrative. A TV clip alleging a connection between the governor's support of the bail laws and the torture and death of an elderly woman is going to get more eyeballs. And a third is that some Democrats still remain skeptical, alongside their Republican colleagues. The laws in 2019 were passed quickly amid a deluge of legislation the Senate pushed when Democrats took the majority. Their implementation lacked the kind of long-term preparation and collective buy-in that has allowed a similar push in New Jersey to be largely declared a success . And that's shown as the fights about changing the laws in New York have dragged on — something that looks to continue in the coming legislative session. IT'S MONDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com , or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S KATHY? In Gloversville making a downtown revitalization announcement. WHERE'S ERIC? Honoring NYPD officers who saved a man who collapsed on the subway tracks, signing a package of bills addressing diversity within the Fire Department of the City of New York, speaking at a meeting of the Interfaith Security Council and delivering remarks at the Albanian flag raising ceremony.
| | | | POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP . | | | | | |  | What City Hall's reading | | " Eric Adams heading to Greece for anti-Semitism conference, Qatar to 'learn more' about hosting World Cup ," by New York Post's Bernadette Hogan: "The Big Apple's jet-setting chief executive, Mayor Eric Adams, is heading to Athens, Greece for a conference on anti-Semitism and Doha, Qatar, to 'learn more' about co-hosting the World Cup. According to a copy of Adams' public schedule released Friday, Hizzoner will head to Athens on Nov. 30 to attend the 2022 Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism. The trip comes soon after the NYPD and federal law enforcement prevented an attempted attack on city synagogues by would-be terrorists Matthew Mahrer and Christopher Brown." " Mayor Adams takes supportive tone after Hochul signs bill restricting crypto mining ," by New York Daily News' Tim Balk: "Mayor Adams took a supportive if somewhat cryptic tone after Gov. Hochul signed legislation this week limiting some cryptocurrency mining in the state, casting the new law as an acceptable step toward smart tech policy. Adams, a vocal crypto booster, said he maintains his focus on establishing New York as a crypto hub. But he said that goal can be balanced with statewide efforts to curb environmental costs associated with some forms of crypto production." " What Does Queens Need More, a New Park or a New Train Line? " by The New York Times' Winnie Hu: "As a teenager in the 1990s, Karen Imas sneaked onto some abandoned tracks in Queens with her friends. They followed the broken railroad through a sunlit forest until they could go no further. 'It felt like a hidden gem,' recalled Ms. Imas, now 45 and living near the tracks with her own children. ... The three-and-a-half-mile commuter rail line once carried passengers through central and southern Queens as part of a route down to the Rockaways before closing in 1962 amid declining ridership and service. Since then, it has become an industrial ruin, surrounded by overgrown weeds and fallen branches, hidden in the heart of New York City's second-most populous borough." " You dirty rats! Researchers find COVID-19 in NYC sewer rodents ," by New York Post's Jacob Geanous: "New Yorkers may have a new reason to loathe rats. Researchers investigating mysterious COVID-19 mutations found signs of the virus in the city's massive rat population — sparking concerns the disease could jump from the vermin to humans."
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | 'It feels surreal': New Yorkers with pot convictions prepare to launch state's first legal sales , by POLITICO's Shannon Young: At age 23, William Durham was arrested for possessing marijuana, and he chalks up his only conviction to being young and in the "wrong place at the wrong time." Durham, whose family moved to New York's Southern Tier from Brooklyn when he was a child, said the case affected his ability to find work, with him losing out on jobs for not being "squeaky clean." Nearly two decades later, at the age of 42, Durham is about to become one the first New Yorkers to be allowed to sell cannabis legally in the state. And he's not the only one with a criminal record to get the chance: New York's first-in-the-nation legalization model reserves the state's initial 175 dispensary licenses for those most affected by marijuana prohibition. " DWIs, gun miscues and dubious acts revealed in State Police disciplinary files ," by Buffalo News' Matthew Spina and Charlie Specht: "Troopers have surfed porn sites from State Police computers, attempted to interfere with criminal investigations and intervened on behalf of family members about to be charged. None of the troopers lost their jobs, even those who abused their authority. These details are contained in the letters of discipline that State Police officials in Albany sent to their sworn employees to close out the cases against them. The State Police bureaucracy once told The Buffalo News it could not provide the disciplinary files for troopers who patrol Western New York because they are not kept by region." " Supreme Court to hear Ciminelli, Percoco appeals — and decide shape of federal corruption laws ," by Buffalo News' Jerry Zremski: "The 'Buffalo Billion' corruption cases ended up putting Buffalo developer Louis P. Ciminelli and several others in federal prison — but on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin considering the possibility that they were all wrongly convicted. The justices will hear two hours of oral arguments in Ciminelli v. U.S. and Percoco v. U.S., appeals in which the Buffalo developer and onetime aide to then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo challenge the legal theories that prosecutors relied on in charging them. Lawyers for Ciminelli, Joseph Percoco and the others convicted in the Buffalo Billion scandal argue that prosecutors improperly stretched federal fraud and bribery statutes to fit what they saw as crimes." 'The sixth borough': How Westchester became a Democratic firewall in New York , by POLITICO's Joseph Spector: On Long Island, more than 1 million voters in Nassau and Suffolk counties came out on Election Day and overwhelmingly backed Republican Lee Zeldin's bid for New York governor. He beat Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul there, 57 percent to 43 percent. Across the Long Island Sound, the results were flipped. Hochul cruised to victory in New York City's other largest suburb, Westchester County, crushing Zeldin 60 percent to 40 percent. #UpstateAmerica: Geologists are *pretty sure* the state owns New York's only prehistoric volcanic stem.
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | " Meet the Voters Who Fueled New York's Seismic Tilt Toward the G.O.P .," by The New York Times' Nicholas Fandos: "Lynn Frankel still has bouts of nostalgia for her old life, the one before the coronavirus pandemic brought New York City to a standstill and fears about crime began to bubble across this well-to-do suburb. There were dinners in the city with friends, Broadway shows, outings with her children — all an easy train ride away. But these days if she can help it, Ms. Frankel, 58, does not set foot in the city. She's seen too many headlines about 'a lot of crazy stuff': flagrant shoplifting, seemingly random acts of violence and hate crimes, which triggered concern about the safety of her daughters, who are Asian American. ... Ms. Frankel, a political independent who reviled Donald J. Trump, gladly voted Republican in this month's midterm elections."
| | | | GO INSIDE THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT: POLITICO is featuring a special edition of our "Future Pulse" newsletter at the 2022 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit from Dec. 6 to 8. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of health industry leaders and innovators solving the biggest global health issues to ensure a healthier, more resilient future for all. SUBSCRIBE TODAY TO RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE . | | | | | | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | " Trump sued by rape accuser E. Jean Carroll as Adult Survivors Act opens year-long window ," by New York Post's Priscilla DeGregory: "Donald Trump's rape accuser E. Jean Carroll is suing the former president under a new law that opens a window allowing sexual assault cases from years or decades ago to be filed. Lawyers for Carroll – an Elle magazine columnist – said last week they would be bringing the battery lawsuit against Trump for the alleged 1990s rape under the Adult Survivors Act signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May. The law allows victims of sex abuse to bring claims that previously were outside the statute of limitations during a one-year window that opened Thursday."
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Biden's former pick for a federal judge in the Northern District of New York could face sanctions for his handling of a case. — Republican Thomas Sullivan is leading Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato by a three-vote margin as a recount looms in the race. — Seven candidates were named as possible appointees to lead the state's highest court. — Rev. Al Sharpton criticized "latte liberals" for opposing Mayor Eric Adams' crime policies. — Saratoga Springs is again considering earlier bar closings because "nothing good happens after 2 a.m." — A retired NYPD officer who allegedly lied under oath got a job with the Rockland County district attorney's office. — A mother is in custody in the stabbing deaths of two boys in a Bronx homeless shelter. — The NYPD has joined Amazon's public neighborhood watch platform. — The computer network at a major Brooklyn hospital network has been offline since Nov. 19. — A woman admitted to posing as a health care worker to defraud the city's pandemic hotel program. — Eric Adams' Republican election rival Curtis Sliwa is urging the Department of Investigation to probe the mayor. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: POLITICO's Jonathan Lemire and Cally Baute … Metropolitan Public Strategies Neal Kwatra … CBS' Susan Spencer … CNN's Tim Skoczek … former Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) … Commerce's Danielle Okai … Tom Crosson … Dan Hurley … Andrew Mangino … (was Sunday): Rich Verma of Mastercard … former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) … Joe Solmonese … Tim Pawlenty … NBC's Libby Leist … Dina Cappiello of RMI … (was Saturday): Chris Hughes of the Economic Security Project (4-0) … Andrew Moore … Ethan Bronner … Gabe Brotman … CBS' Jenna Gibson … Katie Gommel of Sunshine Sachs … CNN's Alicia Jennings … … (was Friday): CNN's Abby Phillip … Jenna Bush Hager … Barbara Pierce Bush … EEOC's Keith Sonderling … Mark Bloomfield of the American Council for Capital Formation … Emilie Jackson … Kendrick Lau … Rachel Holt of Construct Capital … Leah Regan … ... (was Thursday): Tom LoBianco … Sally Susman of Pfizer … MSNBC's Rachel Witkin … Jared Cohen … AP's Nasser Karimi … Tyler Goodspeed … Chris Crane … (was Wednesday): Leonid Bershidsky ... Keith Lieberthal MAKING MOVES — Justin Goodman will join SKDK as an executive vice president. He was formerly chief spokesman to Sen. Chuck Schumer. ENGAGED — Ella Riley-Adams, senior social media editor at T: The New York Times Style Magazine and a Vogue and New Yorker alum, on Nov. 15 got engaged to Gates McCallister, a project manager at Red Light Management. McCallister proposed on a morning hike to see the sea lions in Todos Santos, Mexico, on the top of a cliff overlooking the water with a ring they'd designed together earlier this year. The couple met on Hinge. Pic
| | Real Estate | | " City Council set to pass bill outlawing criminal background checks on prospective housing tenants ," by Eyewitness News: "New York City landlords may soon be prohibited from performing criminal background checks on prospective tenants. A majority of City Council members have agreed to back the Fair Chance for Housing Act which bans the screenings, even for those convicted of murder or other serious crimes. Mayor Eric Adams has said he will sign the legislation if it passes." " Is Homeownership Slipping Even Further Out of Reach for New Yorkers? ," by The New York Times' Mihir Zaveri: "Jennifer Kopp decided early, when she was a child growing up in public housing in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, that she would be the first in her family to own a home. This fall, that goal appeared to draw closer: After more than 20 years of renting, Ms. Kopp was approved for a program that would help cover a down payment if she found a place by December. The city-run program, called HomeFirst, is designed to provide a loan of up to $100,000 to first-time buyers who are New York City residents with limited incomes … But Ms. Kopp, 42, a teaching assistant with a young son, soon ran into problems. Prices were beyond her reach, pushed up by a pandemic buying frenzy that left very few homes on the market. Interest rates, at their highest level in two decades, made mortgages too expensive." | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment