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Congressman Scott Murphy faces a strong challenger in a tough political year. This story was published in Metroland on September 2nd, 2010.

The race for the 20th Congressional District seat between incumbent Democrat Scott Murphy and political neophyte Republican Chris Gibson is very close, according to recent polls. In terms of experience, Murphy beats Gibson hands down. However, in an electoral climate where constituents are anxious to change the political oil, anything can happen.

“We feel good that we’re going to get reelected but I think it’ll be a close race,” said Murphy. “That’s the nature of the year that we’re in.”

Gibson, a proponent of free market policies and limited government, criticized Murphy’s support of President Obama’s healthcare bill and the economic stimulus. Gibson is strongly against the recently passed healthcare bill.

“I think that as a consequence of that bill we’re going to end up with higher premiums, higher taxes, more regulation, and more big government at a time that we need to be reducing the size of the federal government,” said Gibson.

“That is totally and absolutely untrue,” said Murphy. “That is something he just says over and over again, but that doesn’t make it true.”

Gibson called into question the methods by which the Congressional Budget Office created their cost-savings forecast, which helped the healthcare bill pass. Murphy has certainly taken flak in his district for supporting the healthcare plan, but that decision was partly responsible for him getting the Working Families Party endorsement, as they are on record saying they would not support any candidate opposed to the bill.

Gibson said that the Independence Party chairmen from Columbia and Warren counties endorsed his campaign. However, Murphy won the larger NYS Independence Party endorsement. Gibson said that was mainly due to Chairman Frank MacKay deciding there wasn’t going to be a primary. MacKay could not be reached for comment.

Gibson has the Republican Party nomination and recently enjoyed the fundraising clout of Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) at a private function in Saratoga Springs. According to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, Gibson has a $452,000 campaign fund, compared to Murphy’s $1.3 million.

Both candidates agree that government transparency is a key issue; however, they differ on the means to that end. Gibson said that every major effort to get corporate money out of politics is struck down by the Supreme Court.

“We need a creative, new approach to reforming the political process” said Gibson. “I’m an advocate for term limits.” Gibson said that if he were elected he would draft legislation that would prohibit legislators from serving for more than two terms, a total of eight years.

Murphy has sponsored clean- government bills, such as the Fair Elections Now Act, and supports movements by progressive political organizations, including Moveon.org’s “The Other 98%” initiative, that focused on limiting corporate influence on politics and repealing the recent Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations the same first amendment rights as citizens.

Gibson has stated he is against the now-defunct Disclose Act, a law that would enhance campaign donation disclosures.

“The bill was meant to combat corruption, the problem is the bill itself was corrupt, because it didn’t treat all organizations the same,” said Gibson. “I don’t even think the bill would be constitutional.” Plus, he said he opposes the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill that would provide public financing for independently funded candidates, because that would mean more government spending.

Murphy characterized Gibson’s stance on issues of government transparency as typical of the Republican attitude. “The Republican leadership told him key Republicans are going to stand firmly opposed to any disclosure and he just does what he’s told,” said Murphy.

Both candidates stressed the importance of creating jobs and growing small business in the 20th district.

“Companies I’ve started and helped build have created over a thousand jobs,” said Murphy. “I don’t think people are particularly going to be worried about partisan politics as much as they are who can get the job done, and the job is very clearly getting the economy moving and getting people back to work.”

Gibson said the biggest impediments to job growth in the 20th are tax regulation and healthcare costs. “I believe that we’re going to revitalize the economy by removing impediments to growth,” said Gibson. “Not by sending money to Washington and doing it through a stimulus bill.”

Murphy said his constituents are familiar with him and his track record. “I think what people are looking for is the candidate that is going to be better at getting the economy moving and helping create jobs and I think my experience is absolutely on point for that project. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.”

ALBANY, NY – Moveon.org kicks off a new campaign for political change. This story was first published in Metroland on August 12th, 2010.

‘Nobody here can afford to pay a corporate lobbyist, right?” asked Joe Seeman, a volunteer coordinator for Moveon.org. “One or two percent of the population can afford a corporate lobbyist. We’re not them, we’re the other 98 percent.”

Capital Region members of Moveon.org kicked off their campaign, the Other 98 Percent, in downtown Albany on Tuesday afternoon. The campaign has three goals: Overturn Citizens United v. FEC; pass the Fair Elections Now act; and pass the Lobbyist Reform Act. Aug. 10 marked a national day of action for the five-million-member progressive movement that is seeking to highlight corporate corruption in Washington.

In January, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United in a five-to-four decision to grant corporations the same First Amendment rights as private individuals. The ruling rejected a limit on how much a corporation can spend on an election and is sure to have an impact on the upcoming midterm elections in November. In a spirited 90-page dissent, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that “the majority cavalierly ignores Congress’ factual findings and its constitutional judgment: It acknowledges the validity of the interest in preventing corruption, but it effectively discounts the value of that interest to zero.”

“A corporation isn’t a person,” said Doug Bullock, an Albany County legislator representing the 8th District. “Give me its name if it’s a person. Does it have a home?”

Tuesday’s rally was held in West Capitol Park in downtown Albany and featured guest speakers from Democracy Matters and Veterans for Peace, as well as local activists and grassroots organizers. Local musician and activist Taina Asili [Metroland, Listen Here, July 22], also performed. Poems by Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were read between speakers.

In the open mic portion of the event, Moveon.org’s Wendy Brown took the opportunity to defend President Barack Obama, who until that point had been targeted by previous speakers. Brown exchanged barbs with a heckler who made it clear he wanted Obama out of office.

The exchange highlighted Seeman’s earlier argument about the need to forsake the peripheral issues and focus on getting money out of politics. “We want the elections to be about the underlying problems that prevent us from having a functioning democracy,” he said.

Moveon.org has succeeded in getting the support of congressmen Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.) for the Other 98 Percent. Meetings with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are ongoing. The campaign has support from about a dozen other lawmakers across the country and numerous candidates nationwide have pledged their support.

The Other 98 Percent’s three goals were decided upon in town hall meetings conducted by Moveon.org, in which they asked their members what problems in Washington they believe are most pressing.

Of the three goals, passing the Fair Elections Now act seems to have gained the most ground. A state version of the law was adopted in Maine in 2000 and the state now boasts that 80 percent of their elections are carried out along the law’s guidelines. In Maine’s current gubernatorial race, three candidates are using the system, including the Democratic Party nominee. Other states are following suit, albeit less successfully.

Under the federal bill, donations would be matched publicly at a four-to-one rate for candidates who adhere to certain guidelines.

The Lobbyist Reform Act’s biggest provision is that it would set a five-year moratorium on lobbyists switching to carreers in government service and vice-versa. Seeman said that one of the biggest reasons corruption in Washington is so systemic is that corporate lobbyists have been allowed to slip in and out of government posts, using their personal and professional relationships to grease the wheels of governance.

Cara Benson, another volunteer coordinator for Moveon.org, said she was encouraged by the turnout at the rally and that Moveon.org was going to continue the fight by pressuring lawmakers into supporting the Other 98 Percent and signing up citizens for the cause. “Movement building is slow,” she said. “But it’s effective.”

“We’re talking about some basic reforms,” said Seeman. “About trying to get corporate money out of the political system.” Seeman noted that while these weren’t radical ideas, seeing real change in a system that protects itself so effectively is a daunting task. “I don’t know if we’re going to be successful,” he said. “But I can tell you one thing, if we don’t do anything we’re certainly not going to be.”

Update 09/03/2010: NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has recently endorsed Moveon.org’s political campaign The Other 98%.

TROY, NY – Rensselaer County district attorney drops questionable case. This story was first published in Metroland on July 22nd, 2010.

In 2005, Bryan Berry and Terrence Battiste were charged by federal prosecutors for armed robbery in connection with their activities with a gang who robbed area drug dealers in 2001 and 2002. In 2002, around the time this gang was operating, Samuel Holley and his girlfriend, Arica Schneider, were found murdered in their Brunswick Road apartment. Holley was an alleged drug dealer, so it made sense to federal investigators that the double murder was a botched robbery that ended badly.

Fred Rench, a lawyer for Berry, said that federal investigators informed him in 2005 that Berry and Battiste were the prime suspects in the murders. Both men have maintained their innocence since the beginning, even when threatened with the death penalty and offered deals by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak.

“These men were never going to make a deal,” said Rench. “Bill Pericak threatened to invoke the death penalty in this case, and each guy said ‘No, you’ve got to kill me.’ ” Rench said it is very rare for codefendants to refuse a deal to testify against one another in a case where the possibility of the death penalty exists.

Pericak stopped pursuing the case against Berry and Battiste and it was turned over to the Rensselaer County district attorney’s office, which at the time was headed by Patricia DeAngelis. Her office indicted the pair in 2007, based largely on the testimony of a jailhouse informant named Izel Dickerson. However, his testimony in 2007 did not match his testimony during pretrial hearings in January of this year, when he was called as a witness by the defense. This discrepancy was the basis for the current district attorney, Richard McNally, dropping the charges against Berry and Battiste last Friday.

Other facts surrounding Dickerson’s testimony call into question why he was used as a witness by DeAngelis’ office in the first place. Dickerson told prosecutors in 2007 that Berry confessed to the murders while they were incarcerated together in a Washington County jail. But during the time the confession allegedly happened, Dickerson was already testifying for the district attorney’s office in a separate murder trial in which he received time off his sentence for a host of convictions. Also, according to Rench, Dickerson was charged for crimes in Rensselaer County, but somehow wound up in Berry’s cell in Washington County where he eventually testified against Berry. Given these facts, Rench called the use of Dickerson’s testimony “disturbing.”

“At the exact same moment that Izel Dickerson is bunkmates with Mr. Berry in Washington County, Mr. Dickerson is being debriefed by the Rensselaer County district attorney’s office on another homicide,” said Rench. “That’s a little bit curious.”

McNally said that while he doesn’t suspect anyone in the investigation did anything sinister, the use of Dickerson’s testimony was something that “raised eyebrows.”

“I had some real difficulty with that when it was brought to my attention,” said McNally, but he had no choice but to take over, as years of work and thousands of pages of documents were compiled during the course of the investigation.

“Would I have presented this case to a grand jury? I don’t know, I wasn’t there at that time,” said McNally. “Twenty-twenty hindsight tells me probably not. But I wasn’t there when that decision was made. It was Patricia DeAngelis and her office.” DeAngelis could not be reached for comment.

Another compelling point brought by the defense was that the murder weapons were steak knives found at the scene, likely taken from Holley’s kitchen, which both McNally and Rench characterized as “weapons of opportunity.” Murder by steak knife does not fit with the MO of the gang that was robbing drug dealers in 2001 and 2002. Rench said he believes the murderer was one “crack-crazed” individual whom Holley knew and sold drugs to in the past.

The case against Berry and Battiste was also dropped because a suspect who evaded detection for eight years, Michael Mosely, was identified in February of this year, four days before jury selection was to begin in the trial of Battiste.

“The reason why these things happen is most jurors have difficulty believing that so many people could be pressured into lying,” said Terrence Battiste’s attorney, Trey Smith. “In my opinion, to indict that case was prosecutorial malpractice.”

“Obviously the case against Battiste and Berry is dismissed,” said McNally. “But the case against Michael Mosely gets better every day.”