The Weekly Watchdog

Welcome to the Weekly Watchdog. CU had a fun week announcing our new Executive Director Grace Rauh and beginning the launch of our new website. Check it out if you have a moment and catch up on all things good government and anti-corruption below. Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!

News Worth Clicking

Commentary New York’s historic open primary chance New York Daily News By John Avlon	We’ll start with a piece from our Chair John Avlon. New York City has a massive chance to ensure everyone gets a fair say in determining our City’s leadership if the Charter Revision Commission is brave enough to reform the way our City conducts its primary elections. Long story short? Our current closed primary system bars 22% of the City’s electorate from having a key say in who the next City’s mayor is, and by the time they do get to participate in November, the race is largely considered over. This needs to change.
Weaponizing the DOJ Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target The New York Times By Devlin Barrett	President Trump just can’t seem to stay out of New York politics. Just a month after getting the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams dismissed, the DOJ opened an investigation into one of Adams’ political rivals, former Governor Andrew Cuomo (who could very well be on a ballot with Adams this fall for Mayor of New York City) for lying to Congress in testimony about his handling of the pandemic. We’ll obviously wait to see where this goes, but so far, this screams of another Trump hit job that politically weaponizes the DOJ.
You get a Super PAC! And you get a Super PAC! We all get Super PACs! Special Interests Spend Big to Reshape City Council The CITY By Gwynne Hogan	15 years later, it seems like the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision are in full effect, influencing all races for elected office from Mayor to City Council and everything in between. In city elections of years past, independent expenditures have often existed for Mayoral candidates, but not as prolifically for City Council ones. That has changed. Companies like Airbnb and Uber, unions like the UFT, and Wall Street executives like Mike Jenkins of Jane Street Capital are all in, spending sometimes millions just to elect your local council member.
How can you say no to a friend? Lobbying firms power frontrunner Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign Politico By Nick Reisman & Sally Goldenberg	ou often can’t, and Tusk Strategies probably knows that! It looks like the CEO, Chris Coffey, is giving some very valuable advice to Governor Cuomo’s campaign as an informal advisor. We’ll see if Cuomo wins and whether Tusk Strategies gets a big four year long payday as a result, but campaigning for and then lobbying the same candidate once he or she is in office would seem like a large conflict of interest. Luckily, we know a bill that would help address that!
Beep! Beep! Coming through! 🚘 Who’s Running for Borough President — And Why You Should Care The CITY By Rachel Kah	Last week, The CITY published a great guide on what a Comptroller is and why the office matters, and this week, the newsroom keeps its excellent election coverage rolling with an overview of the Borough President’s office (or more often known as BPs or Beeps!). There are two competitive Borough President primary elections this June: one in Manhattan and another in the Bronx. Make sure you read up so you can decide who to vote for in just over four weeks!
Mayoral Candidates on Policy 12 questions for New York City’s mayoral candidates Crain’s New York Business By Nick Garber	Speaking of great election guides, Nick Garber from Crain’s is out with one of his own, asking eight of the top nine mayoral candidates where they stand on certain issues, from A.I. to subway safety and everything else. We know we keep sharing these, but we don’t know anyone in our office that is fully decided on how they’re ranking their top five! And we kind of doubt you do too!
New York Forever! 🗽 Everyone Got Cities Wrong Vital City By Richard Florida	New York City’s population rebounded for the first time since the pandemic earlier this year, and it looks like the same can be said for leading cities around the country. Furthermore, NYC is the only large city in the country to see its share of venture capital investment increase over the last 15 years. Clearly, the constantly repeated message about the demise of big cities is just incorrect at this point. Yes, we have our fair share of problems (so does every town and city in this country) and we need to rethink our approach to government, but this city is a great place to live.