The widely anticipated DeSantis-Haley debate is just a day away! Followed next week by the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa! Try to contain your excitement.
Here are some facts, observations, and heard-on-the-streets concerning government and politics:
- Something less than 200,000 Iowans will participate in the Republican presidential caucus next week. It is a state with less than one percent of the nation’s population and its demographics are hardly representative of the United States. Interesting fact: the winner of the Republican caucus in Iowa has won the party nomination in less than half of the elections dating back to 1972.
- Iowa Democrats, after the fiasco of their 2020 caucus, have changed to a mail-in voting process and will select their convention delegates in March.
- House Democrats, undisputed by Republicans, have issued a report indicating that the Trump Organization was paid $7.8 million by foreign countries, mainly China and Saudi Arabia, in the four years of the Trump presidency. The emolument clause of the Constitution is there to prohibit such things, but heck, what’s the Constitution among Republicans? That money does not include Jared Kushner parlaying his Middle East connections to produce $2 billion for his personal businesses, nor Eric and Donald Jr. flying around the world with Secret Service agents in tow as they promoted their businesses. Would you refer to all that as the work of the Trump Crime Family?
- The State Legislature is off and walking as they begin their 2024 session. There are a total of 61 legislative meeting days on the calendar between January 3 and the first week in June. The annual legislative salary is $142,000, the highest in the country.
- The New York League of Conservation Voters recently released their 2023 State Environmental Scorecard which rates members of the Legislature on their votes for or against 14 bills. Here are the results for Western New York legislators:
- 100 percent – Senator Tim Kennedy
- 93 percent – Assemblywoman Monica Wallace
- 92 percent – Assemblyman Pat Burke
- 86 percent – Senator Sean Ryan and Assemblyman Bill Conrad
- 79 percent – Assemblywoman Karen McMahon and Assemblyman Jon Rivera
- 43 percent – Senator Pat Gallivan
- 38 percent – Senator George Borello
- 23 percent – Assemblyman Andy Goodell
- 21 percent – Assemblyman Angelo Morinello
- 7 percent – Assemblyman Michael Norris and Assemblyman David DiPietro
- No rating was listed for Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes
- New York Presidential convention delegate petitions will be filed next week. Next up: the regular petitioning process that will kick off on February 27.
- Will the Republicans in Erie and Niagara counties come up with a candidate for Congress in NY26? No names have surfaced.
- Senator Tim Kennedy remains the only declared congressional candidate and he is actively raising money – something he is very good at. We will know what the first haul has been later this month. For the record there are two others who have filed a committee in NY26 with the Federal Election Commission, James Paul Speaker and Mohammed Jahangir Alam.
- Republicans in Erie County are reportedly settling on James Gardner, who currently works for County Court Judge Kenneth Case, as their candidate for District Attorney. Gardner is a member of the Butler-Righter family that owned the Buffalo News for more than one hundred years. Gardner reportedly is telling people that he is prepared to put $500,000 of his own money into the campaign.
- Michael Keane is the Democratic candidate for DA. His dad started his career as a Buffalo firefighter and once owned a tavern in South Buffalo.
- The Buffalo Common Council reorganization went off without a hitch. The hitch, however, may come at budget time. The federal pandemic relief funds, which have been covering operating deficits for the past three years, are running out. Does the mayor or Council have a “plan B” when that money is all gone?
- The efforts of Buffalo Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams to downplay the issue of city employees who have been on extended paid leave sort of begs the question of, why? It’s a very important and relevant issue. That was a relatively easy lift but not handled well. What role will the Comptroller play in the much more challenging project to produce a budget “plan B?”
- I welcome my friend Geoff Kelly of Investigative Post to the growing list of weekly political newsletters in town (PoliticalPost). Growing is an exaggeration but in addition to this humble blog, Charlie Specht of the Buffalo News set up his Politics Now weekly newsletter after he became the paper’s new political reporter last year. The subject is important, so the more the merrier!
- Politics and Other Stuff will begin its 10th year in March. That’s 572 posts with 615,000 words and counting.
- Not wanting to brag or anything, but this is what I wrote in my August 28th post about where the Bills were heading in 2023:
- Assume they lose two of the three premier games with Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. [They lost to Cincinnati and Philadelphia.]
- Assume they win four of the six games with the AFC East, which will be difficult. [They won four of the six games.]
- They would then need to win six of the other eight games to get to eleven wins for the season. Those other eight games include the Giants, Cowboys, Chargers, and Jaguars. They have one of the toughest schedules in the league this year. [They won six of the other eight games including wins over the Giants, Cowboys, and Chargers.]
- Eleven and six should be enough to win the East Division; a lower record would probably get them into the playoffs as a Wild Card. [Eleven and six won them the East Division and second seed in the AFC.]
- Once in the playoffs, who knows? Do they get inspired or do they run out of gas once again? [TBD]
- A trip to the Super Bowl is not out of the question but it is hardly a slam dunk. [TBD]
- Despite my clairvoyance I don’t plan to start a second blog as a sports betting newsletter, although Football and Other Stuff does sound nice.
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