Net Neutrality

Recently President Obama has shown his support to Net Neutrality, I have also noticed that a lot of people do not even know what that means or are told to support it or go against it. I am going to try to sum it up as simply as possible. 

The basic principle of Net Neutrality is everyone should have equal access to websites and the web. Without Net Neutrality, Internet Service Providers like the infamous Comcast or Time Warner Cable could block websites that they do not want their costumers accessing. They can also make you pay an extra fee just to access a certain website like Facebook, Google or Netflix. Think of basically paying for cable and then having to pay for HBO as well. In cities and suburban areas this is not a problem but in rural areas some cable companies have one service provider and are forced to go to that one if they want access to the internet. In Potsdam we are forced into Time Warner Cable and there is no choice or say. They have a hold on the market and can control however they like. 

Google has taken the mantle of showing everyone the problem with the ISP's. With their "Google Fiber", and it is a faster internet service at around the same cost of internet that ISP's are giving out. Google gives one gigabit of data per second for $70 a month while I am currently pay near $60 for 15 megabits of data per second. We all know that these ISP's have large amounts of money and can build the infrastructure that is available but with a control over the market, why would they? 

Then again though President Obama in October, 2007 promised for Net Neutrality if elected President why did it take him almost exactly 7 years to come out again to show his support?  In any event the President wants to make the internet a utility so that the government can protect its people from the ISP's. 

Andrew Cuomo and The NYS Senate

In the wake of this months election we see the overwhelming takeover of our states Senate by the republican party. For a Democratic Governor that could spell disaster. With Andrew Cuomo's reelection, and more so campaign, he has been determined to hold a strong and point driven agenda.

Since the Republicans took the senate it was a bit of a set back for Cuomo. Yet as he has stated in previous terms and during campaigns, he has a great way of getting people to com to agreements.“You have wild liberals, you have ultraconservatives,” said Cuomo in an after election interview,“My job is to figure how to work with them, and figure out how to get all of them to a place where they’re satisfied or they have a win.”

                                                                   (NY Times)

With the democratic agenda being quiet liberal it will be a miracle to get anything done says Thomas Kaplan from the New York Times.  Some things mentioned in Andrew Cuomos campaign were, Abortion Rights, Minimum Wage efforts, and even campaign finance laws. Yet on another note with some similarities between Cuomo's positions and Republicans, Cuomo is in a very good spot. Waiting to play motivator. He gets to play deal maker for another two years says Kaplan.

                                                                 (Google)

In several interviews with Republican senators, they said their views math up surprisingly with The governors. His drive to create more jobs and lower property taxes line up directly with republicans. “He’s been able to get the kind of results that have eluded the powers in Washington,” said the president of the Partnership for New York City Kathryn Wylde, “I think we’re in a good place for that to continue.”

Post Election Roundup - 24th and 25th Races

Incumbent Louise Slaughter (D) finally won her reelection bid yesterday, though Dan Maffei (D) wasn't so lucky. The 25th race ended when the absentee ballots were tallied that retained Slaughter's slight 50%-49% edge against her challenger Mark Assini, but John Katko's crushing 20 points victory in the 24th district against Congressman Maffei could never be contested.

zimbio.com

Despite spending almost six times more than Assini, Slaughter captured just over 50% of the vote. She was able to raise an impressive $1 million compared to Assini's $150,000, but she had to spend over half of it to barely squeak past the finish line. Assini had to spend all of his money, but it translated into a better dollar/vote ratio than the long-time incumbent. His fundraising consisted solely of small and large contributions; no PAC contributions unlike Slaughter, who attained half of her money from business and labor PACs.

Syracuse.com

A mirroring financial story can be shown from neighboring district race between incumbent Dan Maffei and John Katko, complete with an alternative ending than the 25th race. Maffei raised around four times more than Katko, and spent close to his $2.4 million mark while Katko sat comfortably with a $250,000 chunk of his $800,000 raised. Ninety percent of Katko's contributions came from inside New York, compared to 2/3rd of Maffei's, and looking deeper tells us that 2/3rd of that came from out of the district.

The incumbent fundraising advantage certainly helps, just ask Louise Slaughter. However, during an election largely viewed as a referendum of the Democrats and President Obama, Democratic incumbents faced challengers who were able to raise considerably less money and getting a larger portion of votes than their better-funded counterparts. Sometimes the incumbency can have its disadvantages.

2015 Agenda for Senate GOP's

Six days after Election Day, the New York State GOP’s met to discuss what their 2015 agenda will be when the next legislative session begins in January. Improving public education, especially raising the cap on charter schools seems to be a top priority for the newly elected GOP representatives in the Senate. Another top priority of the GOP controlled Senate is to cut taxes and rid the business sector of unnecessary regulations.

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos talked about the Senate’s 2015 agenda by saying “We want to make sure we continue to improve our public education system, but we also believe in charter schools, where we can help kids get education, especially within the minority communities,” He also stated “We want to continue to cut taxes, but in a more dramatic way so that we can create private sector jobs. And we have to look at regulations that are unnecessary. …. Sometimes regulations hurt businesses even more than taxes.”

The expansion of charter schools in the state does seem to be something that’s in our near future. A major reason for that is because the GOP now controls the State Senate, after they picked up 7 new senators this past election. Republicans traditionally support charter schools because they feel that they give parents more options for their children’s education, and can boost student performance. They also support charter schools because private groups and organizations run them. They believe because of this, and the competition between the different charter schools that would result from this would make our education system better and boost performance.

Two main reasons why I believe that we will see a lot more charter schools in the state get created in 2015 is because an Independent PAC called StudentsFirstNY, who favors charter schools, spent over 4 million dollars in 2014 on ads and efforts supporting Republican candidates in key Senate districts. So you can expect the senators that they endorsed will be paying them back by increasing the amount of charter schools in the state. This will be an easy task for them to accomplish not only because the have a majority in both houses but because the Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo also supports charter schools so if you’re a betting man, bet on seeing more charter schools in 2015.

AG on Taxi Wars

Getting back into the swing of things, New York's reelected Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has lots to do now back for another term. With elections just passed it is imperative that politicians, especially executive politicians, keep on task and are swift with there actions.


                                                 
                                                      (Google.com)

For most of the past year there has been a proposed rule within the Taxi and Limousine Commission. This proposal will in turn make app-based car services at the whim of for-hire car services. Another way put, the in-app company's would need permission from "real" taxi company's to go pick up a costumer. This rule would prohibit fair competition as Schniederman said.


                                      

                                            (Capital News)

App services, such as Lyft, and Uber would be disenfranchised by this rule and in fact be malleable to monopolies. While in the previous months, Eric Schneiderman spoke agents these company's Uber and Lyft. His position has changed. Schneiderman states "From a competitive standpoint, these advances may lower the cost of entry for new for-hire vehicle services and encourage existing services to compete more effectively for both drivers and passengers," Similarly, "Requiring agreements between competitors raises serious antitrust issues. Ultimately the proposed rule is likely to lead to market consolidation around a small number of the best-capitalized and most well-known services, " 


The proposal is currently being decided upon and they expect a ruling November 20th. also David Mack a Spokesperson of Lyft, thanked Schneiderman for his support and hope to get this issue resolved before the new year. It will be interesting to see whether these new age (very convenient) taxi companies survive or gets thrown to the curb by big business.

The Emergence of the Women’s Equality Party

The Women’s Equality Party, created by Andrew Cuomo accomplished its mission last week on Election Day. Their mission was to get enough votes to be on the ballot for the next set of elections in New York State. The Women’s Equality Party was able to receive 51,052 votes to become an official party and be on the ballot permanently for the next four years. Many politicians and citizens of New York are asking the same question about this party. What is next for the newly formed Women’s Equality Party? Right now the future is up in air as Governor Cuomo has stated that the party has a lot of work to do. Now becoming an official party, the W.E.P can focus their time on encouraging women to vote in New York. In order for the W.E.P to be successful, they will need politicians to register as members of the party so they can hold important positions such as party chairman, treasurer, and secretary. (Just to name a few.) Governor Cuomo’s campaign spokesman Matt Wing explained that this new party would be a women’s advocacy party. And the main goal is not only to get women out to vote but to “engage women more actively in the political process.”

Campaign finance reports showed that the Women’s Equality Party committee raised just $69,500, with $30,000 coming from one single donation. To be become a more influential political party the Women’s Equality Party has to raise more money. Bill Lipton, co-chair of the Working Families Party called the Working Families Party a “sham” as he questioned the validity of the party. Gloria Matter, co-chair to the New York State Green Party believes that the W.E.P is a party that is heavily influenced by Governor Cuomo and does not have the same intentions other third parties share in New York State.

 

What is Lee Zeldin going to do next?

In a shocking election, in the first district of New York, Lee Zeldin upset Timothy Bishop, the race caught the attention of the Jews across America. As Zeldin is now the sole Jewish representative in the House. Now Zeldin sees his opportunity that some say was given to him from the Obama administration backlash the district has. Zeldin is saying, “Just because the president, going forward, may indicate that any of this legislation that is going to be going through Congress will be vetoed by him does not make that acceptable.” 

Zeldin wants to get legislation passed and get work down at Congress, good. Will it happen? Probably not, the GOP is making Obama out to be a super villain from comic books. He is evil and they need to treat him to some justice. Well it is safe to say when you treat someone poorly he is going to do the same back at you. With Obama in the last two years in political office I doubt he is going to mind vetoing things the Republicans give him unless they change their strategy around. 

Zeldin went on to say, “This president has to be very careful in working with his colleagues and Republicans and Democrats in Congress and working with him. There’s no way to get things done if your only version of compromise is to have it 100 percent of your way all of the time.” Who does not agree with that? Again though he is putting it on the President shoulder’s when it should be on both of there shoulder’s. If this fighting and bickering continues, it will be a long two years until the democrats take back every seat they lost. 

What is Next for Rob Astorino?

Last Tuesday Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino lost to Governor Andrew Cuomo in a race that was closer than what many people had expected. Rob Astorino lost to the incumbent Democrat, Cuomo by 13 points. However he was able to win 46 of the state's 62 counties, capturing a surprising 41 percent of the popular vote. Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long believes that Astorino has established himself as the front-runner for the next governor’s race. He went on to say that the Astorino campaign was very impressive, as many Republican elected officials and a “few big GOP donors” supported Cuomo or do not participate in the campaign. In his first interview since the loss on Tuesday, Astorino explained that his inability to raise enough money was one of the main reasons why he lost. By the end of the election Governor Cuomo had raised more than $45 million. Astorino explained that money is a key factor in campaigns and if he was able to get more money at the right time the campaign could have been a “nail biter.” “It is tough running a race when you are outspent basically ten to one.” Astorino said.

Astorino also believed that Chris Christie comments about the Astorino campaign hurt his chances becoming governor of New York State. In July, Chris Christie said the Astorino campaign was a lost cause. As the head of the Republican Governor’s Association, Chris Christie believed it would have been a waste of time investing any kind of money towards the campaign. Astorino believed that those comments did not send the best signal and around that time Christie and the RGA could have been raising money or sent help towards the campaign. The Republican Governor’s Association did not contribute any money towards the Astorino campaign.

So what’s next for Rob Astorino? Well, Astorino has not given a clear answer on if he will run again for governor in 2018. For now, Astorino goes back to Westchester where he will introduce a budget proposal, which will potentially not increase taxes in the county of Westchester for the fifth year in a row.