Progressive Politics Gets a Boost in New York

While right-wing multimillionaire Carl Paladino's win over former Rep. Rick Lazio in New York's Republican gubernatorial primary attracted most of the media attention, progressives scored victories in key races lower down on the Democratic side.

In the only Democratic statewide race with a significant contest, State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, running as an unabashed liberal, won the five-headed battle for state attorney general. He narrowly edged out Kathleen Rice, district attorney for suburban Nassau County and the candidate favored by gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo.

Schneiderman, who represents Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx, touted his endorsements from the Nation and the National Abortion Rights Action League and pledged to "vigorously enforce every statute that protects the rights of the LGBT community." He also emphasized his sponsorship of the bill that reformed the state's harsh "Rockefeller Law" mandatory-minimum drug sentences, and criticized Rice for opposing it. (Rice said she had supported reforming the law, but like most of the state's prosecutors, she lobbied against the provision that let judges sentence drug offenders to treatment instead of prison.)

In the Bronx, state Sen. Pedro Espada, arguably the worst legislator in New York's notoriously dysfunctional state government, lost to challenger Gustavo Rivera, who was backed by unions and tenant groups.

Espada became the living symbol of Albany's dysfunction in June 2009, when he switched to the Republican side, creating a 31-31 deadlock in the state Senate that paralyzed state government for two months, until he switched back. (There was no lieutenant governor available to break the tie, because David Paterson had moved up to governor after Eliot Spitzer's resignation.)

Espada did more to kill attempts to strengthen New York State's rent regulations than anyone in Albany. His move came the day before his committee was scheduled to vote on a bill to repeal the 1997 deregulation of vacant apartments that rented for more than $2,000 a month, the tenant movement's main demand of the Democrats. Naturally, he later received a few hundred thousand dollars in contributions from the real estate lobby. He may well be indicted for corruption now that he's out of office, as he is under investigation for allegedly filching funds from health clinics he owns for personal and political gain.

"We asked you to imagine an Albany without coups, corrupt lobbyists and backroom deals," Rivera said in his victory speech. "We asked you to imagine a community where tenants won't have to fear homelessness because their rent laws are being written by wealthy landlords."

In Harlem, State Sen. Bill Perkins, another progressive (pro-tenant and pro-gay) legislator, turned back a challenge from a candidate backed by billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and funded by wealthy charter-school advocates. And in Queens, former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate lost his bid for an Assembly seat. Monserrate, an Espada ally, was expelled from the Senate last February after he was convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. (He escaped a felony assault conviction after his girlfriend changed her story from "He cut my face with a broken glass" to "I was drunk, and he tripped when he was bringing me a glass of water.")

The Gubernatorial Race

Carl Paladino's win over Rick Lazio probably has more to do with personalities and local conditions than with the strength of the far right in New York. Lazio is widely considered a lightweight. His most prominent campaign issue was his opposition to the proposed Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan. Paladino opposed it too. So given a choice between a genuine bigoted wingnut and an establishment Republican taking up bigoted-wingnut issues, the GOP grassroots is going for the real thing.