Failed State

Seymour P. Lachman

Description

Failed State is both an original account of a state legislature in urgent need of reform and a call to action for those who would fix it. Drawing on his experiences both in and out of state government, former New York State senator Seymour P. Lachman reveals and explores Albany's hush-hush, top-down processes, illuminating the hidden, secretive corners where the state assembly and state senate conduct the people's business and spend public money. Part memoir and part exposé, Failed State is a revision of and follow-up to Three Men in a Room, published in 2006. The focus of the original book was the injury to democratic governance that arises when three individuals—governor, senate majority leader, and assembly speaker—tightly control one of the country's largest and most powerful state governments. Expanding on events that have occurred in the decade since the original book's publication, Failed State shows how this scenario has given way to widespread corruption, among them the convictions of two men in the room—the senate and assembly leaders—as well as a number of other state lawmakers. All chapters have been revised and expanded, new chapters have been added, and the final chapter charts a path to durable reform that would change New York's state government from its present-day status as a national disgrace to a model of transparent, more effective state politics and governance.
Acknowledgments

1. When Poetry Met Prose

2. Son of Immigrant Parents

3. A Can of Worms

4. Like a Meeting of the Supreme Soviet

5. In a Lofty Place

6. The Great Gerrymander

7. Lobbyists and Legislators Gone Wild

8. The Overcoat Development Corporation

9. Other People’s Money

10. The Road to Reforming a Failed State

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Local history
• Region
• History of the Americas
• Regional
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 07 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438465753
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Failed State
“Seymour Lachman writes about Albany dysfunction as only an insider can. He knows firsthand what it is to be bullied and extorted by political bosses, to have to cast votes on massive, secretly negotiated budget deals on a few hours’ notice, to be the target of nakedly partisan gerrymandering, and to watch a parade of his colleagues go to prison for corruption. Failed State vividly documents a sordid era of New York history and provides a practical guide to real reform.”
— Bill Hammond, The Empire Center
“The unifying theme here is that New York State government is broken and is not likely to mend itself. Lachman proposes a number of reforms that he believes will restore democracy—among them, the holding of a constitutional convention, which New Yorkers will vote on in November 2017. Timely and valuable, Failed State will help voters understand what the stakes are when making that decision.”
— Peter J. Galie, coeditor of New York’s Broken Constitution: The Governance Crisis and the Path to Renewed Greatness
Praise for Three Men in a Room
“Startling: a political book that actually informs the public.”
— Jimmy Breslin
“ Three Men in a Room is a perceptive account of a state legislature in urgent need of reform, and of how to accomplish it. Senator Lachman had a front-row seat in Albany, as I once did. He also brings years of academic experience to this compelling and important book. Read it and take it seriously—for democracy’s sake.”
— Hugh L. Carey, New York State Governor (1975–1983)
“Required reading for any New Yorker who wants to understand what’s gone wrong in Albany—and why. This book provides an invaluable dissection of Albany’s dysfunction from the perspective of an idealistic insider who emerged from the experience with his principles and credibility intact.”
— Edmund J. McMahon Jr., Director, Empire Center for New York State Policy
“Both edifying and horrifying: Lachman’s privileged perspective on New York’s legislative practices is essential reading for would-be reformers.”
— Artvoice
FAILED STATE
FAILED STATE
DYSFUNCTION AND CORRUPTION IN AN AMERICAN STATEHOUSE
SEYMOUR P. LACHMAN
with
Robert Polner
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2006, 2017 Seymour P. Lachman and Robert Polner
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
This new work includes revised and updated material that was originally published in 2006 as Three Men in a Room.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Cathleen Collins
Marketing, Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lachman, Seymour, author. | Polner, Rob, author.
Title: Failed state : dysfunction and corruption in an American statehouse / by Seymour P. Lachman, with Robert Polner.
Other titles: Three men in a room
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Series: Excelsior Editions | “THREE MEN IN A ROOM Revised and Updated.” | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016032662 (print) | LCCN 2016033465 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438465739 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465753 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: New York (State). Legislature—Ethics. | Political corruption—New York (State) | Power (Social sciences)—New York (State) | New York (State)—Politics and government—1951–
Classification: LCC JK3474.7 .L32 2017 (print) | LCC JK3474.7 (ebook) | DDC 328.747—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032662
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Susan,
Our Children, and Grandchildren
Contents
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
When Poetry Met Prose
CHAPTER 2
Son of Immigrant Parents
CHAPTER 3
A Can of Worms
CHAPTER 4
Like a Meeting of the Supreme Soviet
CHAPTER 5
In a Lofty Place
CHAPTER 6
The Great Gerrymander
CHAPTER 7
Lobbyists and Legislators Gone Wild
CHAPTER 8
The Overcoat Development Corporation
CHAPTER 9
Other People’s Money
CHAPTER 10
The Road to Reforming a Failed State
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank and acknowledge the following interviewees (through conversations or letters) and notes that they do not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in this book: Ben Akselrod, Warren Anderson, Frank Barbaro, Gerald Benjamin, Preet Bharara, James Brennan, Richard Brodsky, Hugh Carey, Alan Chartock, Daniel Chill, Bill Colton, Michael Costelloe, Jeremy Creelin, Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo, Michael Cusick, Dick Dadey, Thomas DiNapoli, Richard Dollinger, Robert J. Freeman, Sandy Galef, Peter Goldmark, David Grandeau, Stephen Greenwald, Blair Horner, David Jaffe, Todd Kaminsky, Abe Lackman, Marc Landis, Franz Leichter, Rachel Leon, Susan Lerner, Albert Lewis, Tarky Lombardi, Mary Louise Mallick, John Marchi, H. Carl McCall, E. J. McMahon, Manfred Ohrenstein, David Paterson, Richard Ravitch, David Reich, Felix Rohatyn, Debi Rose, Eric Schneiderman, Adam Simms, Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Robert Straniere, Tom Suozzi, and Mark Treyger.
Though much of this book is based on my personal experiences, it also relies on the following publications and organizations: the Associated Press and Bloomberg News; Boston Globe , Buffalo (NY) News , City and State , City Journal , Crain’s New York Business , the Economist, Elmira (NY) Star Gazette , Gannett newspapers, Gotham Gazette, London Telegraph, New York Daily News , New York Observer , New York Post , New York Times, Newsday , Newsweek , Politico New York , Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), Staten Island Advance , Times Union (Albany, NY), and Wall Street Journal ; National Public Radio, NY1 News, WNYC Radio, CUNY TV, WLIW/21 (Long Island, NY), WMHT (Albany, NY), and WNET/Thirteen (New York); the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, the Citizens Union, Common Cause New York, the Empire Center for Public Policy, and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
My great appreciation goes to Wagner College President Richard Guarasci for this and other publications produced by the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform and his complete support for the institute since its inception. I would like to thank my present and past administrative assistants Suzanne D’Amato and Susan Rosenberg. I would also like to thank my former graduate assistants at Wagner College over the last ten years: Christopher Allen, Danielle Arena-Jacobsen, Amanda Cortese-Ainly, Alexa Marin, and Megan Marin.
Importantly, my lasting thanks to the late Norman Redlich for helping to get the project off the ground. I am especially indebted to Marc A. Rivlin, senior fellow and former interim director of the Carey Institute, and to my longtime friend and colleague Murray Polner, for their writing, editing, and research contributions. We are very grateful for the assistance of SUNY Press and its codirector James Peltz, as well as the copy editor Therese Myers.
Finally, my personal debt to Robert Polner—for his writing, research, and editing—is enormous. This book would not have been possible without him. Thanks!
1
When Poetry Met Prose
D emocracy requires decades, even centuries, to take root and flourish. It is a fragile flower. My own state, New York, has learned that it takes just three men in a room to cause devastating harm to a democratic system of governance. More than the foibles of individuals, the structural fault lines that run through the legislature have made possible a cascade of corruption that shows no signs of abating.
I spent nearly a decade as an insider of sorts in the state’s capital, never venturing, however, behind the closed doors where the most important deals are decided. Before first winning a special election for a vacant state senate seat in February 1996 and soon after winning a full term, I had served as a dean at the City University of New York (CUNY), at which I also taught political science and educational administration. I lectured at times on the imperfect dynamics and relative merits of the classical liberal arena so well envisioned by English political theorists of the early eighteenth century. Within that arena, conflicting interests—those of business, labor, wealthy and influential individuals, and the broader public—grappled toward compromise that one hoped would benefit the greater good and resemble at least an approximate fairness.
As my early years as a New York State senator unfolded, those lectures seemed hopeful but in some ways quite innocent. Over time, I grew surprised, distressed, and finally repelled by the routine subversion of democratic values and processes in a state that was once among America’s most progressive and activist, a trailblazer in economic development and the nurturing of a middle class, workers’ rights, education, public health, and poverty amelioration.
By the end of 2004, after spending nearly ten years in the senate, representing large chunks of Brooklyn and, following a redistricting, Staten Island, I had had enough of New York State politics. I took academic positions, f