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Carl Paladino is a millionaire slumlord turned failed New York gubernatorial candidate who defaulted on his failed campaign’s debts to staffers, consultants, and vendors to the tune of around $130,000. For many outside of New York, Paladino is not really a household name, so please allow me to introduce Trump’s ‘New York Muscle.’ In Carl Paladino’s world, problems are solved by going upside peoples’ heads with baseball bats. His failed campaign was notorious for his crazy audience shouting out about how we “need you Carl!” and how it’s “the media’s fault!” during his concession speech. Paladino was and currently is...

United States Attorney Preet Bharara feels emboldened, sources say, following the conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver -- on all of seven corruption charges. Despite lacking a 'smoking gun' to constitute an explicit quid pro quo, the jury handed Bharara a sweeping win. Such is the public's appetite for corrupt politicians, observers say. Three sources are confirming that Bharara intends to indict Governor Andrew Cuomo on January 2nd -- along with a half dozen associates and former staffers -- on public corruption, racketeering, conspiracy, and honest services fraud. The Chronicle is unable to confirm widespread rumors that the former...

Three men who created the infamous SAFE act in New York have been accused of extortion and corruption.  One of them, Sheldon Silver, has been convicted.  The second, former Senate Leader Dean Skelos, is undergoing trial.  The third, Governor Cuomo, has shown up often in testimony, but has not been charged. The charges against Mr. Silver upended the status quo in Albany, and were followed in short order by the indictment of another one of the room’s three men, former Senate Leader Dean Skelos. Mr. Skelos, a Republican, is on trial just across the street from the courthouse where...

Dean G. Skelos, the leader of the New York State Senate, and his son were arrested on Monday by federal authorities on extortion, fraud and bribe solicitation charges, expanding the corruption investigation that has cast a renewed spotlight on Albany’s intractable corruption problem. The charges against Senator Skelos, 67, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 32, were detailed in a six-count criminal complaint that quickly became mandatory reading material in the Capitol building. Politicians and their staff members pored over the 43-page complaint — an often titillating document that included references to burner phones, secretly taped conversations and strong-arm tactics...

The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged. Former state Republican Party Executive Director Michael Lawler — who managed Rob Astorino’s ill-fated gubernatorial run against Cuomo — told The Post that he learned of the alleged bombshell deal between Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos and Cuomo just days ago, after suspecting for months that it existed. Lawler said he found out about the alleged Skelos-Cuomo arrangement from a...

Carl Paladino, the conservative businessman who pulled off an upset to win the Republican primary in the 2010 New York's governor's race, is counting on Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney to pull off a similar upset in the state's 22nd Congressional District. Paladino said today he will back Tenney, R-New Hartford, in her GOP primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, the two-term Republican who faces his second consecutive challenge from his party's conservative base.

Gov. Cuomo has secretly joined with former US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and other top Republicans to stop Democrat Tom Suozzi from recapturing his old job as Nassau County executive, key Nassau Democrats angrily charge. Cuomo, who has yet to endorse Suozzi two weeks after Suozzi’s victory in the Democratic primary, has taken several important steps to strengthen Republican incumbent Edward Mangano, including firing his leading critic, the Democrats say. D’Amato, a lobbyist with multiple clients who, as senator, was credited with leading the effort that defeated then-Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1994, has emerged as “an important player in Cuomo’s re-election...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor David Paterson will appeal a Nassau County court's ruling that found he lacked the power to appoint a lieutenant governor and blocks him from carrying out his role, Paterson's spokesman said. Spokesman Peter Kauffmann, in a statement late Tuesday, said: "Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch as Lieutenant Governor is legally sound and we are confident the appellate courts will ultimately rule in our favor." The court fight could interfere with the state senate's ability to approve bills and again casts doubt on who would succeed Paterson, a Democrat, if he could not...

Coup plotters have always rationalized their devious plots as necessary to realize the will of the people.The Republican-led junta that seized control of the state Senate yesterday was no exception. "This is a new beginning for New York State," propagandized one of the Democratic turncoats that made the coup possible, Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada. "A new beginning of bipartisan government, a new beginning of real reform." What a crock. This was a GOP power grab, plain and simple. The Republicans saw a chance to overturn last fall's election results, which put Democrats in the majority for the first time since...

. . . Republicans have retaken control of the New York Senate after at least two Democrats, Senators Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) and Pedro Espada (D-Bronx), crossed party lines to caucus with the GOP. The Albany Times-Union has reported that Dean Skelos (R), former minority leader, has been elected majority leader and Espada has been elected Senate president. What this political change portends for the firearms microstamping bill (S.4397) is unknown; however, the legislation has been removed from today's schedule. The NSSF government relations team is on the ground in Albany monitoring this situation. NSSF would like to thank the thousands...

CHAOS IN ALBANY: GOP Coup Upsets Balance In Senate Malcolm Smith Ousted As Senate Majority Leader; Dems Turn Off Lights, Cut Internet Power In Attempt To Stop Coup Paterson Goes Ballistic: I'm Here To Stand Up For DemocracyALBANY (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 Sens. Dean Skelos (l) and Pedro Espada (r) are sworn in in the New York Senate chambers on June 8, 2009. CBS Republicans, who lost control of the New York State Senate last November have apparently regained control, and without an election! The GOP power play involves two renegade Democrats and a billionaire businessman. Welcome...

In an attempt to keep Republican control of the state Senate, Majority Leader Dean Skelos is wooing three rebel Democrats with a proposal to form a "coalition government." Skelos made the offer at a dinner meeting Tuesday night on City Island with the so-called "Gang of Three" - Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, and Pedro Espada and Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, several sources familiar with the meeting said. The Democratic rebels have thrown the Albany political world into a frenzy by refusing to back fellow Dem Malcolm Smith of Queens for majority leader. Without their votes, the Democrats, who...

Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders failed to reach a resolution on the state’s deepening financial crisis on Sunday, throwing into doubt the chances that an agreement could be reached before an emergency legislative session scheduled for Tuesday. Mr. Paterson met with the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, in his Midtown Manhattan office on Sunday afternoon. But by the time the meeting ended, after about an hour, it was not clear that the Legislature would even vote on Mr. Paterson’s plan to close the state’s budget deficit. In a statement issued after...

For years, when Republican state senators met privately in their elegant, high-ceilinged conference room in the Capitol, most senior members clustered around the room’s center table, close to Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader. But Dean G. Skelos, the hard-driving Long Island Republican and deputy majority leader, sat in a back corner. From there, he studied the scene, taking in members’ facial expressions, their tones of voice and their reactions to other senators’ ideas. “My grandfather taught me a long time ago, be a buyer, not a seller,” said Mr. Skelos in an interview on Thursday. He added: “I like...