Dem Sweep: The Story Of 2006
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Mayor Bloomberg, Congressmember Crowley and former Assemblymember McLaughlin.

Overwhelming everything in its path, the awesome Democratic Party sweep into power on the national and state levels in the November 7 elections was clearly the story of the year 2006 in the world of politics.

Startlingly, the only Democrat not enjoying the party’s good fortune was New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who became the first high-ranking state official in history to lose his job over an ethics lapse.

Other major news was made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he won his fight with the state legislature over billions of dollars of education funding.

Other major news was made in 2006 by:

•Bloomberg, who pressured the state legislature into giving the city billions of dollars for school construction.

•Congressmember Joseph Crowley, who emerged as a new political power as he succeeded the late Thomas Manton as Queens Democratic leader and also moved up the power ladder in Washington.

•Brian McLaughlin, Assemblymember and labor leader who was shot down by an FBI investigation.

•And several would-be 2008 presidential candidates who emerged after the fall elections.

The Democratic sweep to power in those elections was almost assured in the New York state elections, but came as a shocking surprise on the national level as President George W. Bush’s stance on the war in Iraq dragged the party down, giving the Dems control of the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years.

On the state level, Eliot Spitzer, winning as governor, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, winning a second term as United States Senator, led the ticket that was helped considerably by the collapse of the state GOP organization.

Andrew Cuomo easily defeated Jeanine Pirro to become the new state attorney general and Hevesi survived his race over Chris Callaghan, a little-known upstate pol, but that turned out to be a momentary victory because late in the campaign, Callaghan revealed that Hevesi had used a state worker to chauffeur the comptroller’s wife, Carol, on state time for about three years.

Eventually that revelation led to a state Ethics Commission finding that Hevesi had violated state law by having the state worker chauffeur his wife.

Late last week, Hevesi resigned and pleaded guilty to a felony in an attempt to head off an indictment by an Albany County grand jury. The deal was said to include the proviso that Hevesi would serve no jail time. Hevesi’s attorneys and state officials met on Thursday, December 21 to finalize the deal. The grand jury was to hand up any indictment on Friday, December 22.

It was a shattering finish for the 60-year-old official who five years ago had bungled a promising opportunity to win the mayor’s job in New York City, which could have possibly led to the governor’s chair in Albany.

However, unbelievably, Hevesi took another tumble and it appears there will be no recovering from this fall.

Bloomberg, the man who eventually won the mayoralty, which Hevesi blew early in the year launched a campaign to get Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno to agree to give the city billions of dollars in education funds, a move that Bruno had blocked in previous years.

The plan threatened Bruno’s grip on GOP senate control when the mayor used his personal funds to back Democratic candidates in senate election races. A story was leaked to the media saying one Republican eyed by Bloomberg was state Senator Serphin Maltese (R–C, Middle Village), the Queens Republican leader with whom Bloomberg had clashed on a local political matter.

U.S. Senator Schumer, Congressmembers Ackerman, Weiner and Maloney.

The mayor’s strategy seemed to be working when Bruno came down to the city one weekend to meet with him. Eventually Bruno and Governor George Pataki joined Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in agreeing to place the school construction funding the mayor had been seeking in the budget. Bloomberg never fulfilled his threat to oppose Maltese in the Senate campaign and the lawmaker won re-election.

The Democratic sweep in New York state was emulated on the national level, where the party took control of both houses of Congress. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and every congressmember from New York City moved into important committee positions, which should benefit the city.

Schumer, who had contributed enormously to his party’s takeover of the Senate through his job as Democratic Senate Campaign Finance Committee chairman, emerged after November 7 as the Number Three Democrat in the Senate majority. The funds raised by the committee he headed went into several campaigns which were won by Democratic candidates. He was rewarded with a position in the Democratic hierarchy where he will have a voice in setting policy and other decision-making duties.

In the House, Crowley, already Democratic Deputy Whip, was appointed a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee after being given a nudge by the panel’s incoming chairman, Congressmember Charles Rangel of Harlem. Crowley will also continue on a subcommittee to the International Relations Committee.

Also winning appointments were Congressmembers Gary Ackerman, Carolyn Maloney and Anthony Weiner. Congressmember Nydia Velazquez, who has had a portion of Western Queens in her congressional district for many years, won a major appointment as chairperson of the Small Business Committee, becoming the first Hispanic to head a major committee.

Collectively, the appointments for the Queens congressmembers should translate into considerable benefits for New York City.

A companion story to the Democrats’ successes in 2006 was the collapse of the state Republican Party, which made the Democrats’ victories much easier.

A key factor in the sharp GOP decline was Pataki’s precipitous drop in popularity which not only forced him to abandon any plans for reelection to a fourth term, but also rendered him virtually powerless in party matters.

There was no credible candidate to challenge either Spitzer or Clinton because Pataki’s pick as state GOP leader, Stephan Minarik, could never get support for his choices from party leaders. As a result, William Weld stepped aside and John Faso became a weak candidate against Spitzer.

At the same time, Jeanine Pirro, who would have been the Republicans’ best choice to challenge Clinton, never achieved unified support. She then became the candidate for state attorney general against Cuomo and any chance she had against him evaporated as her personal problems and a threatened federal investigation were revealed.

Brian McLaughlin’s indictment came as a surprise, although he had announced his retirement from the Assembly earlier in the year. He was held in high esteem because his Assembly work was heavily oriented toward his community and district. He also had influence in citywide politics owing to his dual roles as legislator and union leader.

Finally, as the 2006 elections became history, Clinton’s superb re-election victory positioned her much more clearly as a prospective presidential candidate in the 2008 election. Some possible opposition in the person of U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois also seemed to move Clinton into a more overt candidate mode.

On the Republican side, the end of the election season brought former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Senator John McCain (R–Arizona) further into the open as possible 2008 presidential candidates.

However, they all seem prematurely thrust onto the presidential scene, in large part because of the media attention they are all receiving. It is far too soon to take any of them seriously. The beginning of real campaigning is still a year off and the election almost a year further away. We can only watch closely their daily moves, but we won’t draw any conclusions at the moment.