Federal Court OrdersMcCain On Ballot In New York State

Now that the way has been cleared for United States Senator John McCain to challenge George W. Bush in the Mar. 7th Republican presidential primary in New York state, it remains to be seen whether Governor George Pataki and legislative leaders will now rewrite the laws governing ballot access so that it doesn’t require a federal court ruling for some candidate or other to run for public office.

Four years ago, Steve Forbes had to go the federal court route to run in the Republican presidential primary. This year was McCain’s turn. The Arizona lawmaker won his fight in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn when Judge Edward Korman ruled the state’s ballot access laws were too restrictive and violated McCain’s constitutional right to run in the primaries.

UFT President Visits Albany

The judge then got all the parties to sign an agreement clearing the way for not only McCain but also Alan Keyes to be on the ballot in all 31 congressional districts in the state. Bush and Forbes already had secured places on the ballot, Forbes by spending about $1 million to get the required signatures, Bush by the grace of his being anointed as Pataki’s choice in the contest.

Korman’s decision left Bush and Pataki with egg all over their faces. For Pataki it was nothing new. In 1998, Korman had inflicted the same embarrassing treatment on the governor and his major supporters when he opened a place for Forbes on the ballot.

With the strong prospect that Korman would act as he did last Friday, Pataki and Bush both made the lame gesture a day or two before, of agreeing to give McCain a place on the ballot. The action by the pair of governors came in the face of growing criticism of their undemocratic actions in blocking McCain.

As the opposition to Pataki and Bush grew, McCain weighed in with yet another convincing reason that he be allowed to run here—his thrashing of frontrunner Bush in the New Hampshire primary.

While Pataki comes out of the ballot mess looking sheepish, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani comes out looking good. The mayor had come out in favor of giving McCain a chance to run, even at the risk of drawing Pataki’s ire.

Big labor support for Gore, which helped him significantly in both his Iowa and New Hampshire primary victories, was out in force on Monday for the V.P. In an operation coordinated by the state AFL–CIO, 1 million pieces of campaign literature were given out at selective workplaces throughout the state.

Hevesi had declared last week that the Giuliani Administration had not followed competitive bidding regulations in issuing several of the contracts, so his office would not approve them. Fighting back, the mayor defended the decision to go around the normal bidding procedures, saying it was "completely legal." He also said the short cuts were taken because of "time constraints."

But Hevesi, who had kept the kid gloves on when announcing his non–approval decision early last week, came out swinging on Thursday, accusing the mayor of "trying to obfuscate reality" by accusing Hevesi of being politically motivated in deciding to block the contracts.

City Councilmember Bill Perkins (D–Manhattan) used even stronger language in denouncing the contracts, saying it was "a classic back–room kind of a deal to take care of his (Giuliani’s) cronies."

Two day’s earlier, Perkins had lashed out against ex–Giuliani top aide Richard Schwartz who, it turned out, was a sub–contractor on one of the disqualified contracts and his firm stood to earn about $10 million from the deal.

Meanwhile, final action on the contracts, which could amount to a $500 million outlay, is still pending. Somewhere down the line we can expect to be hearing from the mayor’s Senate opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the moral and ethical aspects of the mayor’s scheme.

Tickets for the dinner, which is one of the organization’s mayor fund–raising events, are $200. State Senator Serphin Maltese, the Queens GOP chairman, and Council Minority Leader Thomas Ognibene, the second in command, head the host committee. It also includes veteran district leaders Marge Adams of Glendale, Ed Coyne of Woodside, and Philip Ragusa of Whitestone.

Serving as journal chairperson is Astoria’s Vincent Tabone and other familiar names on the dinner committee are Dennis Gallagher of Middle Village; former Astoria leader Al Buzzeo, and present officials Frank Kenna, Robert Adler and Anthony LoGuidice.

County leader Thomas Manton is expecting the usual full house and, this being a full election year, should get it. Besides the elections for President and the U.S. Senate, all Congressmembers and state Senate and Assemblymembers are up for reelection in November.

Mike Long is an important political figure these days. The former Brooklyn party leader has more than doubled the party membership in the 10 years since he succeeded Serphin Maltese as state chairman and turned out 300,000 votes for Pataki in his 1998 reelection victory. No Republican candidate in a statewide election has won without the Conservative line, so Mayor Giuliani, the expected Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has some serious talking to do with Mike Long if he’s to get the state Conservative organization’s endorsement in the next month or two.

If there are any questions about the meeting, Tom Long can be reached at (718) 474-3826.

In accepting the honor, Brown commended his staff and recalled that the state bar had previously cited him with a similar award 12 years ago when he was an Appellate Division judge.

So, the Queens DA is tops with the state’s lawyers both as a judge and prosecutor.

Maloney also pleaded for the safety of Sister Stephanopoulos and another nun who have refused to leave the monastery for the past two weeks. Sister Stephanopoulos is the sister of former Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos. Maloney (D–Manhattan/Astoria), chairperson of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, has kept in contact by phone with Sister Stephanopoulos and also with the nun’s mother, Nikki, a Manhattan resident.

Under Padavan’s bill, senior couples 65 and over with annual income of $50,000 and singles with $35,000 yearly income would be eligible to join the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program. Presently income limits for the program are $35,000 for couples and $18,500 for singles.

Padavan said annual fees for the program would also be reduced, cutting the average participants’ current annual out–of–pocket costs from $549 to $429, a 22 percent saving.

Under the proposed eligibility change, Padavan noted, 229,000 more seniors would qualify for the program.