MAX
COURIER LIFE, DEC.M B G 28, 2018–JAN. 3, 2019 25
PARTY LINE
Continued from page 18
“This mayor is worse than Giuliani or Bloomberg
for calling out police violence,” he said. “This mayor
is not the mayor I endorsed in 2013.”
The hosts also asked the contenders for ways to
improve the local Democratic Party, whose leaders
often spar with its rank-and-fi le members , the city’s
Board of Elections, and the Public Advocate’s offi ce
itself — which some city pols want to abolish outright.
The crowded race is slowly thinning out, however,
with Councilman Robert Cornegy (D–Bedford
Stuyvesant) formally withdrawing his candidacy
last month after previously touting a run,
according to a Gotham Gazette report .
And Dems and political outsiders aren’t the only
ones clamoring to fi ll the watchdog role that Letitia
“Tish” James will vacate in January to become
New York State’s next Attorney General — Republican
Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich is also running
in the fi rst citywide non-partisan election expected
to take place in February, and earned the
support of the Kings County’s GOP Party on Dec.
18.
James, in one of her fi nal acts in offi ce, on Dec. 19
released her annual list of the city’s worst landlords
— which the city itself sat at the top of, due offi cials’
abysmal failure to address the needs of some 400,000
public-housing tenants across the fi ve boroughs.
“The Worst Landlords Watchlist has been an invaluable
tool to hold bad landlords accountable and
improve living conditions for countless New Yorkers,”
James said. “But for too long, the most glaring
example of this ill treatment has been at the hands
of the city itself — and this year, we are fi nally putting
Nycha on notice. New Yorkers deserve better
and it is long past time that Nycha clean up its act.”
• • •
Albany is shaking up!
The Democratic Midwood state senator who controversially
caucused with the Senate Republicans
to give them a majority will not retain a leadership
role when True Blues take over the Legislature in
January.
The state Senate’s incoming Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins (D–Westchester) on Dec. 11
named the upper chamber’s new committee chairs
ahead of the 2019 legislative session, and handed
out the powerful gigs to all of her Kings County colleagues
— except for state Sen. Simcha Felder, who
lost his chairmanship of the Cities Committee, and
was the only Brooklyn Democrat Stewart-Cousins
did not appoint to lead a committee, Bklyner reported
.
State Sen. Diane Savino (D–Coney Island), who
also caucused across the aisle as part of the controversial
and now-defunct Independent Democratic
Conference, received a similar snub, getting bumped
from her position as vice chair of the infl uential Finance
Committee for a new role as chairwoman of
the Internet and Technology Subcomittee.
Several Brooklyn newcomers to the upper house,
however, received chair positions, including Crown
Heights state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who will head the
Election Committee, Bay Ridge state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes, who will take over his Republican predecessor’s
position chairing the Civil Services Committee,
and Bushwick state Sen. Julia Salazar, who
will chair the Women’s Health Subcommittee.
And Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D–Bronx)
on Dec. 17 announced the new leadership roles in
his chamber, where Democrats will return retaining
the majority they held last session.
Most of the positions remained unchanged, but
Assemblyman Walter Mosley (D–Clinton Hill) lost
his gig as vice chairman of the Majority Steering
committee, and will instead chair the Skills Development
and Career Education Commission.