The Weekly Watchdog
How many phones does it take to evade the feds? Seven apparently!
Good morning! Welcome to the Weekly Watchdog. What do we have for you this Sunday? Evidence that Eric Adams lied to the feds, a victory for New York democracy, multiple examples of Albany disappointing us yet again, some policy movement from the mayor’s race, and a blast from New York’s past. Enjoy the weekend.
News Worth Clicking
| Eric Adams and the Seven Phones 👨💼📱📱📱📱📱📱📱 Eric Adams Search Warrant Records Show Scramble to Evade FBI Scrutiny The CITY By Greg Smith, Yoav Gonen, and Katie Honan |
In what is sure to be an ongoing story, nearly 2,000 pages of documents were released Friday evening related to evidence in Mayor Eric Adams’ now-dropped corruption charges. A quick scan of the documents by reporters so far has confirmed that Adams lied to the authorities and was personally involved in executing a straw donor scheme. Some absurd details include that Adams used seven (!) different phones over the course of the investigation and that the NYPD gave him one to use after the feds took the first four phones! |
| Ohhhhh, we’re halfway therrrreeee! NYS appeals court upholds plan to move local elections to even-numbered years Newsday By Yancey Roy |
Another week, another win for Citizens Union. A year and a half ago, Governor Hochul signed a law that moved all town and county elections in New York State from odd to even years. The law was immediately challenged in court and a lower court ruling found the law unconstitutional. Well, a higher court overturned that ruling unanimously last week, paving the way for the first even year elections for town officials to begin in 2026. Even year elections have increased turnout, created more representative electorates, decreased costs, and reduced voter fatigue. Sounds like a win to us! Now, it’s time for the state legislature to act so cities can follow suit. |
| NY Legislature ❤️ Big Donors Democrats made public money for campaigns even more generous than expected Times Union By Emilie Munson |
Those rumors that New York leaders were contemplating changes to New York’s historic campaign finance matching funds program we told you about a few weeks ago? Yeah, turns out they were true. Any guesses to what those changes did? That’s right! They empower big donors over little ones. Look, we’re not saying the public campaign finance matching program was perfect. Changes needed to be made, but those changes should have been made out in the open and not behind closed doors during the budget negotiations. |
| Albany gonna Albany 🤷♀️ NY budget includes deal for 2-year delay of income cap for lawmakers Times Union By Brendan Lyons |
We also wrote about this several times the last few weeks, but remember how legislators were trying to delay the outside income cap they could earn separate from their work in Albany by challenging the new law in court? They lost that challenge, but that did not stop them from getting their wish in the budget! What can we say? We’re not surprised. This is how Albany works, but maybe they should not run for reelection in two years if they’re concerned about their income in a state with the highest state legislature salary in the country. |
| City owes nonprofits $1-4 billion How New York City Routinely Fails to Pay the Nonprofits It Relies On The New York Times By Andy Newman |
One of the issues we’re hearing most out on the campaign trail is about how the City never pays nonprofits on time. How bad is the problem? Well, according to Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the City owes these nonprofits at least $1 billion, and that’s a conservative estimate. The issue has gotten enough attention that it surely looks like it will be addressed in the next administration, but this is definitely not good government. |
| Hey! Stop that! Andrew Cuomo warned: Don’t pass notes to super PAC Politico By Jeff Coltin & Nick Reisman |
Last week, we shared a story about mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo blatantly attempting to circumvent campaign finance rules to communicate with a Super PAC. Turns out the Campaign Finance Board read that story too because they released a letter reminding candidates of the new rules to stop such attempts at coordination shortly after. Cuomo wasn’t the only one practicing “redboxing” though. Comptroller candidate City Council Member Justin Brannan was too, and he immediately took down his version. |
| Putting the corrupt on blast 📣 Comptroller hopeful Brannan pitches plan to publicize ‘bad actors’ tied to NYC government corruption amNY By Ethan Stark-Miller |
Speaking of Justin Brannan, the Comptroller candidate put out a plan to combat corruption from the Comptroller’s office that would put the City’s corrupt contractors and vendors on a list together, thus making it clear to city agencies who they should not trust to work with again in the future. We like the sound of that. |
| Your Sunday Long Read All That Glitters The Atavist Magazine By Miranda Green |
New York, corruption, and a blast from the past? It’s all in this long-read piece updating us on Jona Rechnitz, the Mayor de Blasio donor convicted on bribery and corruption charges involving city officials, the NYPD, and a union leader in 2016. Apparently, he’s still finding himself involved in new legal troubles in Los Angeles while still not serving a single day of his 2019 sentence. An amazing reminder that justice in many corruption cases never is handed down. |