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Stringer Endorses Kellner for Grannis Seat
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is the latest elected official to endorse the unofficial candidacy of Micah Kellner, who wants to succeed Alexander "Pete" Grannis in the Assembly. The official endorsement will come Thursday.
Grannis hopes to leave the Legislature when and if confirmed as the new commissioner of the Department of Environmental Commissioner. When those confirmation hearings will be scheduled, whether Grannis will be confirmed and when Gov. Eliot Spitzer will schedule a special election to fill the seat remains unknown.
Stringer pushed for rules reform during his last few years representing the West Side in the Assembly, with some success. His slogan in his successful 2005 borough president campaign, "A Reformer Who Gets Results," stressed that aspect of his experience.
Grannis has also been known as a strong supporter of changing the structure and approach of the Legislature.
In a statement, Kellner said, "I pledge to do my best" in continuing Grannis' work "by vigorously working to advance a major overhaul of the State Legislature's outdated self-governing process."
He laid out 12 points of a reform agenda:
o Co-sponsor and advocate for legislation introduced by Assemblyman Michael Gianaris to create a double-blind independent redistricting commission to end gerrymandering, so voters once again pick their representatives instead representatives picking their voters
o Facilitate the process of filing a 'discharge petition' to move an important bill directly to the floor for a full vote if it is blocked in committee or by the leadership
o Make holding office in the State Legislature a full time job
o Advocate for the creation for a standing conference committee and a regularized process to negotiate differences between similar bills that lack identical language
o Support Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's reforms to review and register all "member items"
o Move to enact term limits on chairs and leadership positions in the Assembly, including Speaker
o Abolish 'lulu' bonuses given to chairs, ranking members, and other leadership positions, and refuse to accept one if offered
o Work to ensure that committee members of each party have the ability to elect their own chairs and ranking members
o Fight to allow chairs and ranking members to hire and fire their own committee staff;
o Fight to ensure all Assembly members receive equal staff budgets and resources, regardless as to party affiliation or length of service
o Change New York State's arcane special election law that requires that party county committees elect party nominees in the event of an irregularly occurring vacancy in either the State Legislature or in one of New York State's congressional districts
o Sponsor and fight to secure passage of legislation providing for an abbreviated primary for each party in special elections, with a reduced signature-gathering requirement to allow as many of each party's voters as possible the chance to select their choice for public office
In the same statement, Stringer called Kellner "the clear choice in this race for voters who want a legislator to build on rules reform that I implemented in the Assembly and to effectively partner with Governor Spitzer in his efforts to breathe new life into our state government."