NJ-adjacent Scandals and Indictments

All right. Here’s the landing spot for discussing nearby states with public officials who find themselves embroiled in scandals, indictments and other assorted “whoopsies”. Where shall we start?

An interesting fact I didn’t know - Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Eric Adams from office. I think that would be an extraordinary move on the governor’s part. It might be very risky politically.

As for who would replace Adams, it would be public advocate Jumaaane Williams. 
https://enewssl.nj.com/data/53402/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/53402/pub/91205/page/1/alb/2974602

Some more info here, including about the requirement for a special election. 

If Adams resigns before the last week in March, the acting mayor is required to put one on the calendar. The winner would serve out Adams’ term.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/26/politics/eric-adams-new-york-democrats/index.html

Apparently Andrew Cuomo is lurking in the wings and is considering a run if there is a special election.

There are national implications to this situation as well. There are a couple of close congressional races in the NYC suburbs, which could certainly be tilted away from Democrats by the scandal. Every House seat is going to matter in the coming election. 

mrincredible said:

Apparently Andrew Cuomo is lurking in the wings and is considering a run if there is a special election.

Yuck.  That dude needs to crawl back under a rock and stay there.

Hochul is giving Adams a few days to assess his situation.

Seems to me that if he doesn’t resign she will fire him.

She has to serve him with charges and give him a hearing to defend himself.  It'll take 30 days.  Then we get a special election, which will be non-partisan and use ranked choice voting.

As for me, I would be happy to see Cuomo back. 

Bill Maher argued that he thought the Adams charges were being blown out of proportion. Ian Bremmer disagreed.

I know from former posting that Bill is too centrist for many. I'm sure he's picked up more viewers now that CNN airs his HBO show. I've been a fan of Bill's forever and usually agree with his position but I'm not sure how Adams survives this.

Morganna said:

As for me, I would be happy to see Cuomo back. 

Why? He's horrible. In so many ways.

Morganna said:

As for me, I would be happy to see Cuomo back. 

Leaving aside the rapey stuff, replacing an indicted mayor with the guy who disbanded the Moreland Commission would seen like a step in the wrong direction.

Viva Ed Koch…!!!

GoSlugs said:

Leaving aside the rapey stuff, replacing an indicted mayor with the guy who disbanded the Moreland Commission would seen like a step in the wrong direction.

Any woman who had been actually raped would be offended by that comment. I had major problems with aspects of the Me Too movement.

Did he hit on women? Probably. Do I throw that in with rapists. Absolutely not.

Let's recall the accusations about Biden smelling someone's hair.

Maybe my life's experiences afford me a different perspective.

Morganna said:

Any woman who had been actually raped would be offended by that comment. I had major problems with aspects of the Me Too movement.

Did he hit on women? Probably. Do I throw that in with rapists. Absolutely not.

Let's recall the accusations about Biden smelling someone's hair.

Maybe my life's experiences afford me a different perspective.

 

You are right, he was accused of groping women, so, under NY criminal code, definitely not rape. I apologize for my inaccurate comment.

My point, though, was that, leaving all that very yucky stuff aside, the guy still has a terrible track record when it comes to corruption.  Why would anyone want someone like that in the NYC mayor's office?

Morganna said:
Let's recall the accusations about Biden smelling someone's hair.

LOL!  I had forgotten about that.  Borrowing from W, if I may, that was some weird ****!

Creepy old men.....

GoSlugs said:

Morganna said:

Any woman who had been actually raped would be offended by that comment. I had major problems with aspects of the Me Too movement.

Did he hit on women? Probably. Do I throw that in with rapists. Absolutely not.

Let's recall the accusations about Biden smelling someone's hair.

Maybe my life's experiences afford me a different perspective.

 

You are right, he was accused of groping women, so, under NY criminal code, definitely not rape. I apologize for my inaccurate comment.

My point, though, was that, leaving all that very yucky stuff aside, the guy still has a terrible track record when it comes to corruption.  Why would anyone want someone like that in the NYC mayor's office?

"On March 11, the New York State Assembly authorized an impeachment investigation into the allegations. In August 2021, James released an investigatory report that stated that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women during his time in office, with actions such as unwanted groping, kissing and sexual comments."

This guy should never serve in any office again.

yahooyahoo said:

"On March 11, the New York State Assembly authorized an impeachment investigation into the allegations. In August 2021, James released an investigatory report that stated that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women during his time in office, with actions such as unwanted groping, kissing and sexual comments."

This guy should never serve in any office again.

yeah, even apart from the harassment allegations, he was just generally bad. he completely screwed over the Dems in NY by cozying up to the Republicans in the state legislature.

definitely not his father.

Your life can change dramatically in one year 

yahooyahoo said:

"On March 11, the New York State Assembly authorized an impeachment investigation into the allegations. In August 2021, James released an investigatory report that stated that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women during his time in office, with actions such as unwanted groping, kissing and sexual comments."

This guy should never serve in any office again.

As I said, my perspective is quite different. I followed Cuomo for a couple of years. During the pandemic I watched his reports regularly as did a few of my female friends who were Dems. It was a worrisome period and as I'm from the city, my whole family was impacted. I found it informative. 

I did comment that I had some issues with the direction and ramifications of the "me too" movement. Some good came out of it. I know that years ago in the city it was difficult to prove rape and truly I was all for listening to allegations. But, I came from a culture in the city in clubs where everyone kissed everyone and as I worked in that environment most of us were used to hugs, and sexual remarks and jokes and never felt victimized. I've worked in other areas, worked for men all my life, liked them and just felt some of the complaints could have been handled differently. Quite frankly that's what I mean when I tell people I'm liberal. 

Along with this tolerance came a casual attitude towards working with and hanging around people of all sexual preferences. I was at Studio opening night and every night off after and I worked at all of the clubs during that period. Again this kind of tolerance is expected of liberals.

Different strokes.

What was surprising to me was how grossed out some people were by some of the actions like Biden's. I meant it as an example of how silly an issue it was but apparently It is still taken seriously.

We lost a good politician in Al Franken. I often get my news actually watching Congress in session and he was excellent in debates and discussion.

I watched Hardball with Chris Matthews, smart guy and seems that he was eased out due to allegations that I never heard elaborated.  A clip of his interview of Trump, getting him to say women should be punished legally for having an abortion but not men, should be played as the best political ad against Trump. 

I miss Glen Thrush and the list goes on. 

Some allegations are not specific. Some, even I might think were gross. But I'm just not ready to condemn politicians quickly, particularly since most of us remember the quick to forgive Democratic Party when it came to Bill Clinton. Now that was gross.

Morganna said:

I worked in that environment most of us were used to hugs, and sexual remarks and jokes and never felt victimized. 

The fact that you personally are ok with a sexualized workplace doesn't make sexualizing workplaces ok. Abusers thrive in environments where non abusers are willing to overlook "locker room talk" and friendly grabass.

That said, the point everyone up thread was making was that even if you overlook the CLEARLY INAPPROPRIATE sexual misbehavior, Cuomo's other flaws (corruption, obstruction of justice, etc.) ought to disqualify the man from ever holding another public office.

Cuomo's sexual behavior was, by far, the least of his faults.

GoSlugs said:

Morganna said:

I worked in that environment most of us were used to hugs, and sexual remarks and jokes and never felt victimized. 

The fact that you personally are ok with a sexualized workplace doesn't make sexualizing workplaces ok. Abusers thrive in environments where non abusers are willing to overlook "locker room talk" and friendly grabass.

That said, the point everyone up thread was making was that even if you overlook the CLEARLY INAPPROPRIATE sexual misbehavior, Cuomo's other flaws (corruption, obstruction of justice, etc.) ought to disqualify the man from ever holding another public office.

I thought that Morganna was highlighting the problem with MeToo in the early days. It was a one size fits all approach that made no distinction between people like Al Franken and Harvey Weinstein 

tjohn said:

I thought that Morganna was highlighting the problem with MeToo in the early days. It was a one size fits all approach that made no distinction between people like Al Franken and Harvey Weinstein 

I think that was the general gist of her post and I agree with much of what she said but the snippet I quoted is just straight up wrong.

That said, again..... even if Andrew Cuomo had never even met a woman, he would still be unfit for office.  

GoSlugs said:

The fact that you personally are ok with a sexualized workplace doesn't make sexualizing workplaces ok. Abusers thrive in environments where non abusers are willing to overlook "locker room talk" and friendly grabass.

I am talking about Studio, Xenon, Visage, Regine's. Not environments where people were overlooking abuse but environments where people were there to dance, drink and meet each other. Not sure how one could monitor the remarks of 1500 people in a crowd. As a manager at Visage I saw 3,000 people in a night.

That said, I'm less offended by a flirtatious remark then by casual cruelty. I classify cruelty as a person who is proud of shooting birds. I classify as insensitive a candidate enthusiastically announcing that her running mate is a hunter. In that political scenario I would never send a donation or place a lawn sign outside my home which welcomes turkeys and deer.