The Ending, the Beginning, and the Continuing
So here we are, ready to turn the counter once more for the year column. Some things may be coming to an end, still others are about to begin, and because life is never that simple, yet more things will transfer from this year to the next.
What is ending:
Gifford Miller's tenure in the Council Chamber. In fact, the City Council's website has been updated to exclude those who were term limited or voted out of office this year. The new members of the Council have not been placed as of yet, so there are several districts missing.
Any real hopes for Pataki to win the Republican nomination for President. This year has not been kind to Pataki, a lot of it his own doing, or more precisely, of his not doing. He's turned himself into a lame-duck over a year before his term is over and has not provided any features that primary voters would consider when they vote or caucus in 2007. Unless something very big happens and he doesn't completely mess up and excluding any influence he might retain in the state, Pataki will fade into the sunset.
What is beginning:
The calendar year for the New York state races, the Senator Hillary Clinton re-election campaign, congressional races across the state, and also elections in the State Assembly and Senate. It seems more than it really is, as many of these races are already decided. However, there should be some interesting events in the races for Governor and Attorney General as well as the U.S. Senate race and also to see if anything changes in the Legislature. Will this finally be the year the "three men in a room" system of state government is over? Probably not. But a new year brings hope.
The new terms for Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council. The Council is set to elect a new Speaker. After reading some of the insider details from Backroom Deal Breaker, I'll venture a prediction and say Lew Fidler will become Speaker by default. It will be a compromise choice, to be certain, with the frontrunning candidacies of Bill deBlasio and Christine Quinn as well as the voice of the Queens Democrats splitting up the Council. I'd see Quinn getting the chair of the Land Use Committee, given that the Far West Side battlefield of last year resides in her district and can be a thorn in Bloomberg's side should that fight start anew. DeBlasio would be shut out of the very top positions if such events were to happen.
It will be interesting to see how the Council and Bloomberg work together or fight each other. There will be many battles ahead between the Mayor and the Council, but also opportunities to work together.
Lastly, it's anybody's guess what the Council may do on term limits. Yes, the Speaker candidates and some of the Council have declared their support for an extension by Council fiat, but things hardly seem to work out as planned.
What is continuing:
The MTA and TWU Local 100 mess. The pension refund issue has become a new battleground, links to newspaper stories provided by Urban Elephants. It seems no matter what, the MTA and the TWU Local 100 are trying to find ways around the Taylor Law, which mandates pensions not be a part of contract talks and deals, and the right of the state government to oversee the pensions for public employees. This might even jeopardize the tenuous peace after the strike. What a mess.
Additionally, there will likely be official figures for the damage that the union's illegal and nearly pointless strike caused. Hopefully, those fines on the union will not be repealed.
The World Trade Center site is still caught up in strings with players vying for influence all around. Let's at least figure out what the heck we're doing and rebuild already. If the plan to rebuild the area were such a great plan, the reconstruction might be underway by now.
And nationally, problems for the federal government everywhere will continue to be very nasty thorns in the sides of Congress and the Bush administration. No further descriptions are needed for this. Can these people put their heads together and fix these monumental problems already?
With all that said, let's forget about it all until after the New Year! Happy New Year to whomever happens to be reading this!
What is ending:
Gifford Miller's tenure in the Council Chamber. In fact, the City Council's website has been updated to exclude those who were term limited or voted out of office this year. The new members of the Council have not been placed as of yet, so there are several districts missing.
Any real hopes for Pataki to win the Republican nomination for President. This year has not been kind to Pataki, a lot of it his own doing, or more precisely, of his not doing. He's turned himself into a lame-duck over a year before his term is over and has not provided any features that primary voters would consider when they vote or caucus in 2007. Unless something very big happens and he doesn't completely mess up and excluding any influence he might retain in the state, Pataki will fade into the sunset.
What is beginning:
The calendar year for the New York state races, the Senator Hillary Clinton re-election campaign, congressional races across the state, and also elections in the State Assembly and Senate. It seems more than it really is, as many of these races are already decided. However, there should be some interesting events in the races for Governor and Attorney General as well as the U.S. Senate race and also to see if anything changes in the Legislature. Will this finally be the year the "three men in a room" system of state government is over? Probably not. But a new year brings hope.
The new terms for Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council. The Council is set to elect a new Speaker. After reading some of the insider details from Backroom Deal Breaker, I'll venture a prediction and say Lew Fidler will become Speaker by default. It will be a compromise choice, to be certain, with the frontrunning candidacies of Bill deBlasio and Christine Quinn as well as the voice of the Queens Democrats splitting up the Council. I'd see Quinn getting the chair of the Land Use Committee, given that the Far West Side battlefield of last year resides in her district and can be a thorn in Bloomberg's side should that fight start anew. DeBlasio would be shut out of the very top positions if such events were to happen.
It will be interesting to see how the Council and Bloomberg work together or fight each other. There will be many battles ahead between the Mayor and the Council, but also opportunities to work together.
Lastly, it's anybody's guess what the Council may do on term limits. Yes, the Speaker candidates and some of the Council have declared their support for an extension by Council fiat, but things hardly seem to work out as planned.
What is continuing:
The MTA and TWU Local 100 mess. The pension refund issue has become a new battleground, links to newspaper stories provided by Urban Elephants. It seems no matter what, the MTA and the TWU Local 100 are trying to find ways around the Taylor Law, which mandates pensions not be a part of contract talks and deals, and the right of the state government to oversee the pensions for public employees. This might even jeopardize the tenuous peace after the strike. What a mess.
Additionally, there will likely be official figures for the damage that the union's illegal and nearly pointless strike caused. Hopefully, those fines on the union will not be repealed.
The World Trade Center site is still caught up in strings with players vying for influence all around. Let's at least figure out what the heck we're doing and rebuild already. If the plan to rebuild the area were such a great plan, the reconstruction might be underway by now.
And nationally, problems for the federal government everywhere will continue to be very nasty thorns in the sides of Congress and the Bush administration. No further descriptions are needed for this. Can these people put their heads together and fix these monumental problems already?
With all that said, let's forget about it all until after the New Year! Happy New Year to whomever happens to be reading this!
posted by Will at 5:18 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting....
Hmmm.. did the Patriot Act get continued or did it finally die?
It's been continued...one month. They essentially let it be a problem for after their long holiday break and when the next Congress comes in (which looks a lot like the old Congress). Expect a larger fight then.
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