Friday, January 26, 2007
DiNapoli: Still In, No Remorse Over DEC
Liz Benjamin Capitol Confidential
I feel very bad over this.......here is a guy that has paid his dues to the Democratic Party....for many many years........took on an impossible situation in Nassau County and brought a divided party back to life as party chair and was the catalyst for leading Nassau county back to the Dem column.....who has reinvented what the word bipartisan really means...always looking out for the greatest good of his constituency....is well respected and admired by just about anyone that knows him...both Dem's and reps...and yet is passed over.......Tom deserves this opportunity to serve all of new yorkers as comptroller.........I hope and pray that when the dust settles....Tom DiNapoli...will be every one's choice .......including Spitzer's............it is the right and just thing to do.......andy
"Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, D-Great Neck, is the third of the four legislative candidates for state comptroller to personally confirm that he considers himself still in the running for that post.
“Until somebody’s selected, I think the answer is ‘yes,’” DiNapoli said when I asked if he was still in the mix. “It’s not over. Tuesday is going to be a real soul-searching day for the conference, and it’s hard to predict where it ends up. But I don’t think it’s by any means a settled question as to who’s going to emerge.”
So, DiNapoli, Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) and Joe Morelle (D-Rochester) are all still in. I haven’t heard back from Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn. If anyone has spoken to him, please let me know.
A lot of DiNapoli’s fellow Assembly Democrats have told me today how angry they are at Gov. Eliot Spitzer because of their perception that he bigfooted the independent screening panel. (Members said Spitzer aides made calls today to assure them the governor had nothing to do with the three-not-five decision, but the legislators are understandably skeptical).
DiNapoli, however, said he is “more mystified than upset,” adding: “I’ve been in politics too long to be upset by anything.”
“I do think that the two missing names from the list of five were probably legislators who, for some reason, the panel decided they couldn’t keep on the list,” DiNapoli said. “The intent of the process was a good one, and it’s just disappointing that the Legislature having a menu of five names to choose from wasn’t fulfilled.”
One thing about which DiNapoli insisted he is not upset is seeing the job of DEC commissioner go to his fellow assemblyman, Alexander “Pete” Grannis. DiNapoli, chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, has ben widely viewed as a frontrunner for that post, but he made it clear he wasn’t interested.
“I love being in elected service and having the independence that comes with that,” DiNapoli said. “Being a regulator is just not what I had in mind. I think Pete Grannis is going to do a great job. He’s an absolutely fabulous pick.”
I feel very bad over this.......here is a guy that has paid his dues to the Democratic Party....for many many years........took on an impossible situation in Nassau County and brought a divided party back to life as party chair and was the catalyst for leading Nassau county back to the Dem column.....who has reinvented what the word bipartisan really means...always looking out for the greatest good of his constituency....is well respected and admired by just about anyone that knows him...both Dem's and reps...and yet is passed over.......Tom deserves this opportunity to serve all of new yorkers as comptroller.........I hope and pray that when the dust settles....Tom DiNapoli...will be every one's choice .......including Spitzer's............it is the right and just thing to do.......andy
"Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, D-Great Neck, is the third of the four legislative candidates for state comptroller to personally confirm that he considers himself still in the running for that post.
“Until somebody’s selected, I think the answer is ‘yes,’” DiNapoli said when I asked if he was still in the mix. “It’s not over. Tuesday is going to be a real soul-searching day for the conference, and it’s hard to predict where it ends up. But I don’t think it’s by any means a settled question as to who’s going to emerge.”
So, DiNapoli, Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) and Joe Morelle (D-Rochester) are all still in. I haven’t heard back from Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn. If anyone has spoken to him, please let me know.
A lot of DiNapoli’s fellow Assembly Democrats have told me today how angry they are at Gov. Eliot Spitzer because of their perception that he bigfooted the independent screening panel. (Members said Spitzer aides made calls today to assure them the governor had nothing to do with the three-not-five decision, but the legislators are understandably skeptical).
DiNapoli, however, said he is “more mystified than upset,” adding: “I’ve been in politics too long to be upset by anything.”
“I do think that the two missing names from the list of five were probably legislators who, for some reason, the panel decided they couldn’t keep on the list,” DiNapoli said. “The intent of the process was a good one, and it’s just disappointing that the Legislature having a menu of five names to choose from wasn’t fulfilled.”
One thing about which DiNapoli insisted he is not upset is seeing the job of DEC commissioner go to his fellow assemblyman, Alexander “Pete” Grannis. DiNapoli, chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, has ben widely viewed as a frontrunner for that post, but he made it clear he wasn’t interested.
“I love being in elected service and having the independence that comes with that,” DiNapoli said. “Being a regulator is just not what I had in mind. I think Pete Grannis is going to do a great job. He’s an absolutely fabulous pick.”
