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Bio: Jimmy Vielkind is the political reporter for the Albany Times Union and principal contributor to its Capitol Confidential blog. He is also a regular contributor to 'New York NOW,' a weekly public television program examining New York politics and government. Jimmy has covered the Capitol for the New York Observer and TU. He lives in Troy.
ALBANY—On Wednesday, as the Capitol yawned its way through passage of the state’s $132.6 billion spending plan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo went on an insider radio show to explain why it was actually a big deal.
“It has not been easy, Fred,” Cuomo told New York Post state editor Fred Dicker, who frequently has him on as a guest. More
Posted on March 30th, 2012 5:09pm
ALBANY—Even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo leveled a threat to veto new legislative district lines that legislators have drawn for themselves, he left himself open to a negotiated solution that would preserve their control over maps that will be in place for the next ten years. More
Posted on January 27th, 2012 12:10pm
Sheldon Silver is not normally given to outward displays of anger, or excitement, or, well, any human emotion.
But the even-tempered, unrushable Lower East Side Democrat, ambling along toward the record for longest-tenured speaker of the State Assembly, betrayed some uncharacteristic joy last week just before he reached an agreement with Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Republican-controlled State Senate to salvage half of a high-earner tax surcharge he spearheaded in 2009. More
Posted on December 12th, 2011 9:00am
ALBANY—There are no more than three dozen of them during the day, milling, munching, strumming and holding signs amid the 75 tents they plopped in a park between the Capitol and City Hall.
Occupy Albany isn’t very menacing on its face—it's much smaller and more poorly endowed than its big brother, Occupy Wall Street. But like most things here it has been pulled into the orbit of state government and its guiding star, Andrew Cuomo.
Last Thursday about 90 people marched from “Cuomoville” to the governor’s office across the street, decrying him along the way as “Governor One Percent” for refusing to reauthorize an income-tax surcharge on New Yorkers making more than $200,000 a year.
Make no mistake: Cuomo has faced pressure on his left flank before, from coalitions with far more boots and money than the demonstrators have. They have brought hundreds, at times over 1,000, people to the Capitol halls. More
Posted on November 1st, 2011 1:00pm
ALBANY—LATFOR, the legislative task force charged with drawing new district lines for New York legislators and members of Congress in time for the 2012 elections, will have its last hearing Nov. 2.
That’s where the certainty ends. It’s unclear when LATFOR will release draft maps for Congress, where national population shifts are shrinking the Empire State’s delegation from 29 to 27, how much population variation will be allowed between districts and, in the case of the Senate, how many districts there will be. More
Posted on September 29th, 2011 1:37pm
Andrew Cuomo said the bill, which became law last year, would tip the balance back in favor of taxpayers. In reality, it hasn’t worked because there’s no concrete plan for when balloting begins. Ten villages have petitioned to dissolve under the new law, and nine have failed. People who have used the law—like Kevin Gaughan, a Buffalo attorney who campaigned to downsize its suburbs—lament that “the Albany-protectors came, looked at it, and crafted a very clever counternarrative: How can you possibly vote for something for which there is no specific plan?” More
Posted on August 25th, 2011 6:45pm
ALBANY—We had been standing at attention for over an hour last Friday, waiting for someone to emerge from the second-floor conference room where Governor Andrew Cuomo was taking meetings. The legislative session was building to a noisy end, with the possibility that New York would become the sixth and largest state to legalize same-sex marriage; national television networks had sent correspondents to join the more weathered wretches of the Capitol press corps. More
Posted on July 1st, 2011 2:50pm
ALBANY—The State Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference was waiting upstairs in an unadorned Capitol conference room on a Wednesday in May, during the hangover period between the budget and the end of the legislative session. They were about to issue their 15th report since seceding from the troubled Democratic conference in January. The room was their de facto headquarters. More
Posted on June 2nd, 2011 7:00am
ALBANY—“I would like to get some sort of resounding expression of support for those brave men and women that are filling up the statehouse in Wisconsin fighting for their rights and our rights,” Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, began a speech earlier this month to the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators. “Let’s hear it! They are truly, truly patriots.” More
Posted on February 28th, 2011 7:14am
The Democratic Party, like just-resigned congressman Chris Lee not too long ago, is trolling for talent.
To be precise, the Democrats are looking for a candidate willing to run on their line in the heavily Republican 26th Congressional district in western New York district. Ideally, but not necessarily, this person would be a resident of one of the seven counties between Rochester and Buffalo, someone with a business background and no voting record, the means to self-fund and a wholesome biography. More
Posted on February 16th, 2011 1:34pm
erickuo: @JimmyVielkind @DNDailyPolitics depends, are you on the state-owned section or the city-owned section?
Z_Hutch: @JimmyVielkind unless you're "rolling on dubs" I think you'll be ok.
thegoldston: @jimmyvielkind love the datelines from the train, tip of the hat sir
NYDNHammond: @JimmyVielkind "being told"?
adamlisberg: @JimmyVielkind @CityAndStateNY Dude, I'm still a small-i independent.NYDNHammond: @JimmyVielkind It's always happy hour somewhere.
klnynews: @JimmyVielkind @TUCapCon so?
NickReisman: @JimmyVielkind If we get art on the two kids at the walk of shame, it's "Gotcha!".
