Andrew Cuomo

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In the minutes before a rare public appearance on June 18, Andrew Cuomo actually hid.

Rather than mingle with hospital employees and patients in an elevator bank at St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he was scheduled to announce the successful completion of an investigation into the health insurance industry, or to make his way to the 10th floor auditorium in a manner that might have led to unplanned contact with the waiting press, Mr. Cuomo stood on his own for nearly 10 minutes in an empty corridor, blocked off by a white wall and a dark-suited entourage of security agents, hospital executives and press officers.

Jimmy Vielkind

The Democrats will be in the Senate Chamber at 10. The Republicans will be in court.

ALBANY—Here's the problem. Any workable resolution to the leadership fight in the State Senate—one that isn't immediately challenged in court by one side or the other, or both—will have to be brought about by the senators. And the senators, it should be said, don't look capable of much at all.

"Ultimately it has to be the senators," said Blair Horner, the legislative director for N.Y.P.I.R.G. and a longtime Capitol observer. "Because anything at all can end up being tied up in the courts, and this is already tied up in the courts."

David Paterson insisted that a judge's ruling Tuesday by Justice Joseph Teresi would force the stalemate to end, and amended a proclamation calling extraordinary session to 10 a.

Stan Lundine

ALBANY—MapQuest tells me it's 350 miles from Jamestown to the Capitol: a pretty long way to go to be rejected as a mediator in the leadership fight over the State Senate.

That's what happened to Stan Lundine, the former lieutenant governor and congressman, who traveled here a week ago.

"I met with the governor, and Senator John Dunne and I agreed that if he parties would agree to mediation, we would be available. So in order to prepare for that, I met with the governor and his staff," Lundine said. "They came out, shook our hands, and then the governor reported to us that they had declined mediation.

Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo made what are apparently his first public remarks about the crisis in the State Senate during a rare press conference .            

"Figure out a way to share power, share control, and get on with it and do the people's business, in a power-sharing agreement," said Cuomo, putting air quotes around the words "power sharing."  "It's 50-50. Figure out a way to cooperate to the extent of doing the people's business."

He continued: "Families all across this state are facing real problems: health care issues, economic issues, mortgage issues. They need help and they need a functioning government. That's what I'm saying.

Earlier this month, Kirsten Gillibrand stood in front of the steps of City Hall to accept the endorsements of two more members of Congress and repeated her standard response to all inquiries related to her facing a potential primary challenge.

"For my part, I am very focused on being the best senator I can be," Gillibrand told The Observer. "And I really do leave the politics to themselves. I think they will take care of themselves."

But she’s preparing, just in case they don’t.

At the moment, it’s Representative Carolyn Maloney who is continuing to present herself as a threat to Gillibrand, comparing her lengthy House tenure with her former colleague's by saying, among other things, "She's, to my knowledge, never passed anything.

ALBANY—After two weeks of a paralyzing leadership struggle in the State Senate, a record 63 percent of voters surveyed in a poll released today think New York is heading in the wrong direction.

"Two-thirds of New York voters think the Senate leadership fight is bad for the people of the state," said Steve Greenberg, a spokesman for the Siena Research Institute, which conducted the poll. "An overwhelming 84 percent think the fight will make it harder to pass important legislation—legislation that voters want the Senate to act upon, including property tax reform, state government ethics reform, reducing pension costs, and legislation on same sex marriages.

Azi Paybarah

Whatever you may think of him, you’ve got to hand it to Mark Green: The man just will not give up.

He has spent the better part of three decades trying to be someone—someone big—in politics, and usually coming up short. Some actually believed we’d seen the last of him (as a candidate, at least) on that September night three years ago when, digesting his 20-point loss to Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for attorney general, Green swore to supporters that he’d never seek elected office again. 

But, like Richard Nixon after promising the press that they wouldn’t have him to kick around anymore, Green just couldn’t stay away from the game.

Ask David Paterson about Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and he will respond, without naming names, by talking about people who are “half-governing.” He does not mean this in a good way.

“I am the only one who is governing the people of this state. Others, who comment, half-govern,” said the governor, in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview on June 15.

“Let’s take this crisis,” he continued. “You haven’t heard anybody other than the governor suggest how to solve this problem. Because anyone who would be interested would know they can’t win making a suggestion here. So that’s the difference between governing and half-governing.

More sunlight for Albany.

Ben Kallos, former chief of staff to Assemblyman Jonathan Bing who is currently working on Mark Green's campaign, is launching a new Web site that allows users to search the attendance records of state lawmakers, making available information that the state isn’t so quick to provide. (Ask folks in the Albany press corps about that.)

The site is called NewYork.OpenLegislation.org, and it also allows users to see how each lawmaker voted on a particular piece of legislation.  Users will also be able to see whether lawmakers attended their committee meetings.

Kallos has already launched a Web site to help the public search voter data information.