Suitably Flip

Pigging Out In Capital City

On day one, the cholesterol level changes.

People attending Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's inauguration on Monday will have the opportunity to nosh their way across New York state.
...
The food lineup includes knishes from the Yonah Schimmel Bakery in New York City, savory meats from Syracuse's Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and a pair of Buffalo stand-bys -- chicken wings from Buffalo's Anchor Bar and "beef-on-weck" sandwiches from Charlie the Butcher's restaurant. Potato chips made from spuds grown on Long Island's century-old Martin Sidor farms will also be available, along with a Rochester favorite -- cheeseburger "Garbage Plates" from Nick Tahou's (TAH'-hohz) restaurant.

Yes, please.

Thanks to press credentials being provided by Urban Elephants, on whose behalf I'll be doing some videoblogging from the coronation site on Monday, I'm going to have the honor of gorging on all the above.

Beyond the gastronimical extravaganza, until recently, there didn't seem to be too much of substantive note developing in Albany on Inauguration Day.  Plenty of pomp and ceremony, but not so much on the newsy side.  The overdue resignation of Comptroller Alan Hevesi, announced last week, added a little zest, but it was this Tuesday when the bigger bomb dropped.

On that day, Governor-elect Spitzer tapped Republican State Senator Michael Balboni as his new Deputy Secretary for Public Safety (the state's homeland security chief).  The superficially bi-partisan move is in fact a shrewdly partisan political maneuver.  Spitzer will tell you his motives were pure, but either way, the move has a foreseeably and potentially significantly beneficial effect on his party.  Balboni's district (western Nassau County on Long Island) is one where Democrats enjoy a narrow majority among the electorate.  With Balboni coaxed out of his seat, the thin 3-seat Republican majority in the State Senate will shrink to 2 if Democrats can capture the seat in a special election due to be called by Spitzer in February.

This could tee up the nightmare scenario in 2008, whereupon, if only 2 more seats are poached by Democrats, both houses of the State Legislature as well as the Governor's Mansion would be in Democratic hands.  Despite New York's comically hostile existing tax environment, Democrats currently hold only the Assembly.  The prospective environment following an incremental leftward sashay is nightmarish indeed.

That's not to say Balboni's seat is a lost cause, nor that the remaining 2 seats required would be easily flipped (this year, despite the Democratic tide, only 1 of the Republicans' 35 seats was poached), as the inertia of incumbency is - for a variety of unseemly reasons - unusually strong in New York.  As luck would have it, my own opponent in this year's election, as chair of the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, is charged with the very task of toppling the Senate majority.  Spitzer may wind up having relieved her of a full third of that workload with his ostensible magnanimousness.

I'll try to catch up with as many of the above cast as possible on Monday for blog-bound video chats.  And if I can't, the cheeseburger garbage plates alone should make the trek worthwhile.

Tune in Monday for the excitement.

Comments

Pigging Out In Capital City

On day one, the cholesterol level changes.

People attending Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's inauguration on Monday will have the opportunity to nosh their way across New York state.
...
The food lineup includes knishes from the Yonah Schimmel Bakery in New York City, savory meats from Syracuse's Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and a pair of Buffalo stand-bys -- chicken wings from Buffalo's Anchor Bar and "beef-on-weck" sandwiches from Charlie the Butcher's restaurant. Potato chips made from spuds grown on Long Island's century-old Martin Sidor farms will also be available, along with a Rochester favorite -- cheeseburger "Garbage Plates" from Nick Tahou's (TAH'-hohz) restaurant.

Yes, please.

Thanks to press credentials being provided by Urban Elephants, on whose behalf I'll be doing some videoblogging from the coronation site on Monday, I'm going to have the honor of gorging on all the above.

Beyond the gastronimical extravaganza, until recently, there didn't seem to be too much of substantive note developing in Albany on Inauguration Day.  Plenty of pomp and ceremony, but not so much on the newsy side.  The overdue resignation of Comptroller Alan Hevesi, announced last week, added a little zest, but it was this Tuesday when the bigger bomb dropped.

On that day, Governor-elect Spitzer tapped Republican State Senator Michael Balboni as his new Deputy Secretary for Public Safety (the state's homeland security chief).  The superficially bi-partisan move is in fact a shrewdly partisan political maneuver.  Spitzer will tell you his motives were pure, but either way, the move has a foreseeably and potentially significantly beneficial effect on his party.  Balboni's district (western Nassau County on Long Island) is one where Democrats enjoy a narrow majority among the electorate.  With Balboni coaxed out of his seat, the thin 3-seat Republican majority in the State Senate will shrink to 2 if Democrats can capture the seat in a special election due to be called by Spitzer in February.

This could tee up the nightmare scenario in 2008, whereupon, if only 2 more seats are poached by Democrats, both houses of the State Legislature as well as the Governor's Mansion would be in Democratic hands.  Despite New York's comically hostile existing tax environment, Democrats currently hold only the Assembly.  The prospective environment following an incremental leftward sashay is nightmarish indeed.

That's not to say Balboni's seat is a lost cause, nor that the remaining 2 seats required would be easily flipped (this year, despite the Democratic tide, only 1 of the Republicans' 35 seats was poached), as the inertia of incumbency is - for a variety of unseemly reasons - unusually strong in New York.  As luck would have it, my own opponent in this year's election, as chair of the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, is charged with the very task of toppling the Senate majority.  Spitzer may wind up having relieved her of a full third of that workload with his ostensible magnanimousness.

I'll try to catch up with as many of the above cast as possible on Monday for blog-bound video chats.  And if I can't, the cheeseburger garbage plates alone should make the trek worthwhile.

Tune in Monday for the excitement.