In Case You Missed It (v2)

In case you missed any of this week's posts, here's a recap.

Amy Klobuchar was front and center in this week's Sunday School post, talking with both Chuck Todd (MTP) and Jake Tapper (CNN's SOTU). Here she talking about being a moderate in a field full of progressives.

I do believe I may be more moderate in tone than some of the people running for office. But I am betting that people don't want the loudest voice anymore. They've had that right now. That's the guy in the White House. That they want someone who's going to be honest with them and tell them that, "No, we are not going to erase rich kids college debt." We're not going to do that, even though some of my opponents have put that forward as their proposal.

Also on Sunday, I did a Grains of Salt post, focusing on the new collaboration between the City of Syracuse and Syracuse University, which will allow city data to be analyzed by SU students to help find ways to gain efficiencies, improve city services, or both.

We just have a lot of information and we're going to collect a lot more of it in the coming years. We will never have the staff to be able to analyze all of it and make the decisions  that we need to make. Tapping into expertise and resources at the university is kind of a no-brainer to me. 

Monday, more Grains of Salt were spilled. We were told of allegations by the Onondaga County Comptroller  Matt Beadnell against the Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, leading to a criminal referral -- and a political firestorm.

Beadnell inexplicably briefed the Onondaga County GOP Chair, Tom Dadey, before making his announcement. I can't fathom any reason that would be necessary - it simply doesn't pass the sniff test... In  addition to Dadey and Fitz, Beadnell also shared his findings with the County Exec Ryan McMahon, County Attorney Robert Durr, the County Legislature, and NY AG Tish James.

Things quieted down a little on Tuesday here in Syracuse, but Meanwhile, Back in Albany, I shared that a second NY State Supreme Court Justice ruled against the limits on outside income for most legislators. The income limits accompanied a substantial raise - $50,500 paid over three years to our part time legislators, but have left the raises in place, at least for now. And I'm not happy.

So, what next?  It would be nice if they asked the governor to call them back for a special session and erase the raises for 2020 and 2021, come up with better language around outside income, and show us that they're more concerned about our tax dollars then they are about how many dollars they get.

Wednesday was another two-post day. In a Quick Takes entry, I lamented that the Democratic State Attorneys General Association (DAGA) and their Republican counterparts (RAGA) both accepted money from defendants they are actively suing - including opioid drug companies., for Pete's sake.

RAGA, which represents 24 GOP state attorneys general, got a total of $385,000 from defendants and the pharmaceutical trade association PhRMA between Jan. 1, 2019 and June 30, 2019, according to late June filings....

DAGA, which represents 27 officials, got a total of $365,000 from defendants and PhRMA during the same time period...

And, of course There was Wondering on Wednesday, as there is most weeks. This time, one of the wonder-full topics was Republicans behaving badly, under cover of 9/11. You honestly can't make this stuff up.

Incredibly, the GOP, the party of patriotism and flag-waving and chest-thumping and all that, decided that the best time to override the Democratic governor's budget was to call a vote while Democrats in the legislature were attending a 9/11 memorial service...

On Thursday, I was busy at the Update Desk bringing you up to speed on my social experiment with the top ten Dems for 2020. Here's a snippet of this week's tally of candidate communications.

• I received 140 emails from the candidates, over 70%, of which (99 emails) included a direct ask for money.
• Cory Booker (22), Kamala Harris (21), and Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (15 each) led the way in total emails. In the second tier? Beto O'Rourke and Elizabeth Warren with 14 each, Mayor Pete with 13, and Amy Klobuchar with 11. Andrew Yang (8) and Julian Castro (7) brought up the rear. 

And finally, in this week's TGIF, all eyes were turned towards Houston and the first one-night debate of the campaign season. Here's how the experts called the winners and losers:

• Joe Biden: 3 wins, 1 lose, 1 neutral
• Cory Booker: 2 wins, 1 neutral 
• Pete Buttigieg: 2 wins, 1 lose
• Julian Castro: 1 win, 4 lose
• Kamala Harris: 3 wins, 3 lose
• Amy Klobuchar: 3 lose
• Beto O'Rourke: 2 wins, 1 neutral
• Bernie Sanders: 1 lose, 2 neutral
• Elizabeth Warren: 3 wins, 2 lose, 2 neutral
• Andrew Yang: 1 win, 3 lose

I agreed with them on some, but not on others - especially on the front-runner.

So that's this week in a nutshell; next week, I'll get you that polling update I promised, at least a couple regular features, and whatever else catches my eye. And if something catches your eye, let me know.