There are (at least) two key political battles going in New York State. Over on the upper left-hand part of the state, in a Republican-dominated congressional district that stretches from just west of Rochester to just east of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, a Democratic congressional candidate is besting the Republican.
But watch out. The district has a third candidate -- an outspoken eccentric and frequent candidate who is now the Tea Party candidate in the race. Jack Davis is the kind pol who makes voters roll their eyes. But the facts are clear: even as Democrats are cheering their own candidate for her unexpected surge in the polls, the Tea Party candidate is a threat.
Jack Davis believes Republicans "are obviously out to get him." And they are. They want to clear their field of pretenders and to concentrate on knocking out the upstart Democrat. The Democrat, Kathy Hochul, could pull off a win almost entirely because upper New York state Republicans do not like the threats against Medicare. No more than they do in Wisconsin. They may well find this to be the case right across the country, from sea to shining sea.
Many Republican voters have been persuaded to dismiss "Obamacare." But darned if they want any changes to good old Medicare, at least when it comes to anyone either 60 or older or anyone planning for retirement. It's probably fair to say that anyone now in their early 50's or older want to make sure nothing takes away their just desserts.
Health care reform -- the presidential achievement Republicans are so eager to destroy -- is tough territory for both parties. Voters are wavering, uncertain, mouthy and uninformed. They rejected what they call "Obamacare" out of hand... Until, that is, they acquainted themselves with the reality of what is, in fact, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. In targeting Democratic reforms with so much energy and noise, the Republican politicians may find themselves the villains by 2012. Meanwhile, they're operating in a political territory as slippery as an ice rink in northern New York State and right across to Wisconsin and beyond. The revolt against efforts to destroy Medicare is just the beginning.
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In the southeastern part of the state of New York -- in Albany and New York City -- the state's attorney general is going after Wall Street. You might say that Eric Schneiderman up in Albany is doing the job Eric Holder, down in Washington, hasn't exactly been getting gold stars for.
The New York attorney general has requested information and documents in recent weeks from three major Wall Street banks about their mortgage securities operations during the credit boom, indicating the existence of a new investigation into practices that contributed to billions in mortgage losses.
Officials in Eric T. Schneiderman’s, office have also requested meetings with representatives from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. The inquiry appears to be quite broad, with the attorney general’s requests for information covering many aspects of the banks’ loan pooling operations. They bundled thousands of home loans into securities that were then sold to investors such as pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies. ...NYT
Atorney General Schneiderman's predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, did remarkably little to punish Wall Street. Schneiderman, who has inherited the files from Cuomo's investigations, appears to be more aggressive.
By opening a new inquiry into bank practices, Mr. Schneiderman has indicated his unwillingness to accept one of the settlement’s terms proposed by financial institutions — that is, a broad agreement by regulators not to conduct additional investigations into the banks’ activities during the mortgage crisis. Mr. Schneiderman has said in recent weeks that signing such a release was unacceptable.
