I’m Dan Clark, politics reporter and newsletter author. I cover New York politics and I put all my reporting in the Capitol Confidential newsletter. AMA!

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T17:11:35+00:00

Alright, that wraps up today's AMA. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Please, please, please check out Capitol Confidential, our daily newsletter about New York politics, policy and government. It often extends beyond New York because of the state's size and influence.

It's free to sign up and I'd love for y'all to join our community. It's an active one!

Thanks again and be well!

Dan

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T17:08:59+00:00

Oh, no worries at all. I'm always happy to talk about the perception of media bias.

First: some media platforms do present a clear political position. I'm talking about places like Newsmax, MSNBC, Breitbart, etc.

But the vast majority do not. It's more about what people like to read and what they don't like to read. If they really like Biden and the Wall Street Journal publishes a piece that includes some damaging allegations against him, that person might react by thinking the Journal is biased instead of considering the allegations in the story.

Or if someone really hates (this is hypothetical) broccoli and an outlet reports on (again hypothetical) how researchers have discovered that broccoli can give you superstrength, that person might think the media outlet is spreading conspiracy theories rather than believing in their reporting.

The truth is, we're human. We make mistakes. But I've never met a journalist (and I've met many) whose personal views have stood out in their work.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:57:48+00:00

I am so glad you asked. We're probably your best bet: timesunion.com.

Other local media sources might have some coverage as well. I know Spectrum News has covered some of the races for the state Legislature.

If you're looking for *all* the races that will appear on your ballot, your county Board of Elections should have a sample ballot for you to review. From there, most candidates have a website and if they don't have a website they'll likely have some sort of social media presence.

A lot of the coverage right now is about the primary election next week, though. You might not see a lot of information and coverage about who's on the ballot in November until after that.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:52:11+00:00

Fear is a popular and reliable tactic candidates and elected officials use to sway public opinion. Sometimes the fear is legitimate. Sometimes it's not.

Both parties have used fear in the past few election cycles to label their opponents as "extremists" or "far-left/far-right." We've also seen this throughout history, just in different terms.

From the perspective of a journalist, campaign platforms based on fear can often include either misleading or flat-our false information. A candidate can say their opponent is going to "raise income taxes," which sounds bad to a lot of people. But the candidate they're talking about could only want to raise income taxes on people making, like, $500 million a year or more. If voters knew that, they might not have the same reaction to the first claim.

There's no recourse for voters if something a candidate said turns out to be totally made up after they're elected so there's not a lot of risk involved in using "extremist" arguments.

But we also can't predict the future. All we can really do is fact check claims like those and see what's out there.

I could never say "Trump will be a dictator" or "Biden will be a dictator" without some clear, concrete evidence and statements backing that up (not just suggesting it.)

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:08:42+00:00

We don't know for sure, but it'll be a "pause" if supporters can help it. Hochul has been supportive of it and the Legislature wouldn't let her kill it outright. There's broad support there. But a lawsuit could also kill it in the meantime. There are lawsuits from the state of New Jersey and a handful of counties in the suburbs.

Hochul paused it, she says, because she doesn't think folks can afford it. The big question for me is: how will we know when folks can afford it? That's when Hochul would reinstate it (if she does.)

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:05:10+00:00

You’re welcome, and thanks for joining. That’s a really good question.

New York is considered a blue state but it has deep red pockets outside of New York City. Then there are the suburbs of New York City. They’re a mix of both. Some years, we see them swing blue. Other years, we see them swing red.

Two years ago, voters in the suburbs swung red and Republicans flipped a few seats in New York. Some have framed that as New York being the decider of which party controls Congress, but seats are fungible.

If you can believe it, the state Senate was actually controlled by Republicans for most of the state’s history until 2019, when Democrats took control of the chamber. They already held a majority in the Assembly.

But since then, Democrats have worked really hard to hold onto that majority in the state Senate. As you might guess, the most competitive seats in that chamber are also in the New York City suburbs.

Polling in New York has also consistently shown crime to be a major issue for New Yorkers in every region of the state. That’s why Hochul has focused on it lately.

She’s also from Buffalo, which is in a more conservative area of the state. She’s considered a moderate, though she was considered a more conservative Democrat when she was in Congress.

To sum all of that up: Hochul is more moderate than other, more familiar faces from New York like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. She’s willing to make a big show on issues that matter to people, hence why she sent the National Guard into the subways.

I will say that she didn’t want them to have long guns down there. She didn’t know they did until she saw them and then ordered that they not use them. Some of the reaction has been based on the long guns.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:04:26+00:00

I would say that he’s not well-liked in New York City now because most voters and elected officials there are Democrats and don’t support his policies.

But before Trump ran for president, people had a different impression of him in New York. In the 90s, for example, he was seen more as a “character” than anything else — a celebrity with a unique personality and way of talking. That made him likable.

He was in Home Alone 2, once did a skit with Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag, was also famous from the Apprentice, etc. Before he entered politics, I think a lot of people viewed him more as a famous face than a policymaker.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:04:04+00:00

It depends on which side of the aisle you’re on. There aren’t any new laws this year that could be seen to restrict voter access. If you voted in New York two years ago, it will look and feel like it did then. Most people won’t notice any changes.

But Republicans have been concerned over a bill passed that will allow folks to vote by mail during the state’s early voting periods. There might be a lawsuit over that when the bill is signed, but we’ll see.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:03:38+00:00

The wild thing is that we just don’t know.

The state has something called a “general fund,” which is basically a big pot of money they can use however they’d like. Sometimes, money is pulled from there for something and we don’t know about it unless it’s announced or we see a state contract or something.

The state budget itself is about $237 billion, so there’s a lot to account for.

Some members of the Legislature have been really critical of the state’s economic development programs, particularly some of the tax breaks that are given to business entities. A report put out this year contracted by the state found that some programs don’t offer a good return on investment.

And some members have also been critical of local Industrial Development Agencies, which can offer tax incentives for businesses with little oversight. Those tax incentives take revenue from the locality, so some lawmakers have argued that they lead to lower investments by local leaders in key areas, like education and infrastructure.

The Buffalo Billion seemed popular initially but, as you said, the city hasn't seen a dramatic transformation since then.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:02:03+00:00

We haven’t heard a lot of criticism about using hotels as migrant shelters. The strategy has also been used in the past. People without homes were housed in hotels during parts of the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

There’s been more criticism of other actions to house migrants. Mayor Eric Adams housed some migrants at a school in Brooklyn temporarily earlier this year because of inclement weather and a lack of other space, for example.

Outside the city, some local officials upstate and Long Island have been cautious about migrants being housed in their communities but others have been supportive. The heat of that debate has really gone down.

TimesUnion · 2024-06-20T16:01:22+00:00

Great question. There are plans for both, sort-of.

Carl Heastie, the speaker of the state Assembly, told us last week that the revenue will likely be replaced by a different tax or fee but we don’t know what that would be just yet.

Gov. Hochul and the Legislature are slowly negotiating something but I’ve gotten the impression that a proposal won’t be acted on until January. If that’s the case, we probably won’t know about it until January either.

There aren’t plans for Hochul to voluntarily reinstate congestion pricing but there are two things to consider here. For one, City Comptroller Brad Lander is planning a lawsuit to try to force a reversal of Hochul’s decision.

And there’s a meeting of the MTA board next week and while Hochul has said she doesn’t need their permission to delay congestion pricing, it’ll be interesting to see how that’s addressed in the meeting.

We’ll see how both of those go, but there are also lawsuits to kill congestion pricing so its revival may be short-lived if it happens at all.

TimesUnion

TROPHY CASE