Well, we don’t want to be on the honeymoon, but we need to be at the table when the wedding gifts are distributed.

First read this story by Elizabeth Benjamin in The Daily Politics and then see our response:

Espada is ‘Senator of the Year’

Say what you will about Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., but one thing is certain: He has a following in the Bronx.

The controversial lawmaker, who was largely responsible for the 31-day Senate gridlock, will be honored tonight at the Edward A. Stevenson Community Service Awards Gala, at which he will be deemed “senator of the year.”

The event is organized by Eric Stevenson, a district leader in the 79th AD, in memory of his grandfather, who represented the district in the Assembly and founded the Jackson Democratic Club.

Espada was selected to receive this title prior to the June 8 coup, but that incident - and the month-long stalemate that followed - apparently did little to diminish his stature in Eric Stevenson’s eyes.

“You may not agree with the way he went about it, but the fact is he achieved reform in the Senate that was a long time coming,” Stevenson said in a press release.

“His high profile and willingness to make tough decisions makes him an easy target for criticism, but that’s also what makes him a passionate and dedicated leader. You have to look at the entire body of work - everything he has done for our communities and people of color in the Bronx. When things gets (sic) rough, we can count on him to be there for us.”

Also scheduled to be honored is billionaire Tom Golisano, whose upset over former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith’s BlackBerry etiquette (or lack thereof) spurred his involvement in the coup, as well as NY1’s Dominic Carter; state Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Thompson; and comptroller candidate/Councilman John Liu.

Expected to be in attendance at the gala, which is being held at Maestro’s, are: Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., Assemblymen Jose Rivera and Nelson Castro, City Council members Maria Baez, Bill DeBlasio and Eric Goia, Bronx Democratic Chairman Carl Heastie and Comptroller Bill Thompson (the evening’s guest speaker).

UPDATE: Diaz Jr.’s spokesman John DeSio says his boss did not attend this event and never planned to do so.

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Sue Susman, who created and manages an important tenant list serve, forwarded Benjamin’s post to us. Benjamin is reporting on New York politics as sharply as anyone who comes to mind. (Wayne Barrett and his researchers are in a class of their own.) Reporting on what’s really going on appears to be Benjamin’s sole agenda, and she does it very well. So that’s a heartfelt endorsement and a thank you by us at Bloomberg Watch.

This is an interesting event. We don’t know Eric Stevenson, the district leader. Nor do we know Bronx politics. Except for its long history of corruption that dates back to the beginning of political time and came to its most recent, public but by no means fullest flowering during the Koch-Friedman years, it has been pretty much the insiders whacking up the profits beneath the surface and the occasional indictment to give rise to tip of the iceberg clichés.

So we have no comment on the importance of Stevenson’s support. We suspect it isn’t much. But that isn’t the point. He merely catered the event and made the flattering press release noises. This was the Espada – Golisano – Thompson party. They made the deals to establish what appears to be a nascent coalition of “leaders,” a slate of people and financiers with Espada and Thompson representing someone other than themselves. So let’s examine what that might mean.

“You may not agree with the way he went about it, but the fact is he achieved reform in the Senate that was a long time coming,” Stevenson said in a press release.

“His high profile and willingness to make tough decisions makes him an easy target for criticism, but that’s also what makes him a passionate and dedicated leader. You have to look at the entire body of work - everything he has done for our communities and people of color in the Bronx. When things gets (sic) rough, we can count on him to be there for us.”

That the kind of thing one hears at funerals. The eulogist must acknowledge the departed’s more controversial habits for the sake of verisimilitude but the legacy is incomparably vast and deep. The great man was courageous and generous: Everybody got a piece.

What is it about Espada’s methods that we might not agree with? Is it the stalemated legislative session? The oscillation between Republicans and Democrats until the auctioneer closed the bidding? (We have yet to learn with any precision what the terms were or even who the auctioneer was?) Was it the setting up of shell non profits and the receipt of big infusions of taxpayer dollars that sealed the deal? A pardon for alleged past transgressions? If it isn’t quite clear which people are with Espada, we know at least that Espada is with Espada.

The member items are flowing – the millions of dollars in unrestricted and unaudited cash may have been divided up to give the Republicans a taste, but the taxpayer money flows copiously and the indictments of Espada’s employees are pretty much all you need to know on that side of the ledger. The reforms on term limits, increased member and committee powers, reduced powers of leadership, and all the rest of that jazz, even if you believed it, still leaves unanswered the question: to what end?

It isn’t the “high profile” or the “tough decisions” that concern us, it’s the decisions. What are they? The claim is made that the man’s record should be viewed in its entirety. O.K., presumably that is meant to suggest that while the man is taking care of himself, he’s also giving leadership to “the community” and providing a pushback against the Bloomberg/Real Estate/Fraudster regimes that New Yorkers have endured for too many years. He’s doing well but he’s also doing good. In a corrupt culture such as ours, where some sit on billions and others starve, maybe that’s all anyone can hope for. Espada might be thought of as the Hispanic Al Sharpton. It is a model with which we are familiar. Maybe it isn’t all bad; let’s say it’s a mixed bag.

If that is the model and if the community is supposed to buy into it, apart from the professions of pride that Puerto Rican constituents are supposed to feel in Espada’s rise to power as a state legislative leader, what is he going to deliver, to whom, and when?

If, in fact, Espada is doing things for “our communities and people of color in the Bronx”, what are those things? Do they include, for example, things like repeal of Urstadt, of vacancy decontrol, passage of legislation that locks rent stabilization in place and requires an act of both chambers and the governor’s signature to repeal it rather than leaving in place the sunset provisions that require periodic renewal and leave tenants at the mercy of the real estate lobby and opaque negotiations in Albany where tenants are never at the table or even represented by serious people? We know we have a president who is doing his best to represent the people. We don’t know who represents us in New York.

Poor, working, and middle-class people throughout the city have seen their rents rise astronomically during the Republican reign of the last 16 years. Many have been driven from their homes and out of the city altogether. Their children have been relegated to crumbling public schools. They need relief. Now that the Democrats are in control of all three branches, there is no excuse. for failing to deliver it. The recalcitrant Republican senate can no longer be used as a fig leaf to cover up the obscenity of Bloomberg and landlord-developer payoffs to politicians of both parties. And we trust that despite all the bobbing and weaving and the celebration of tenant leaders by those who have been screwing tenants, fewer of them can be fooled any longer. There should be no more one-house bills and meaningless gestures. And certainly no celebrations hosted by Quinn and the gang to honor tenant leaders.

Espada has negotiated himself a deal, that much is clear and quantifiable. But he wants and needs the support of people who aren’t on his payroll. In that, he is much like Bloomberg. So why should he have it? Who speaks for the people? What are his or anyone else’s credentials for claiming that role? There is so much self-dealing bull pouring out of Albany and from Democratic Party candidates in New York City, and so much fear and reluctance to take on Bloomberg and the Barons that these questions demand immediate and clear answers. Not words, deeds.

A casual observer of the goings on in Albany would think that the real estate lobby with Espada and Golisano as his chief financier have cut a deal and that the tenants are screwed again. Nothing but David Paterson’s signature on a host of bills and clear marching orders given to DHCR should convince tenants otherwise. Richard Ravitch, the developer-landlord who forced tenants out of Waterside by exiting Mitchell-Lama and driving up the rents to what he considered fair leaves little room for optimism.

Apparently, the unions who pay the freight have given the Working Families Party the green light to make a meaningful fight out of this mayoral election. It saved the party’s credibility, which, despite its achievements, remains shaky. The WFP has a mixed agenda. It has done some good, progressive things. Sadly, out of what it and its supporters deem political necessity, it supports people like Christine Quinn and the other fraudsters. We often disagree with the WFP’s political calculus. We think that more distance between the unions and the party, would benefit both and wring more power away from the fraudsters and materialize concessions for working families. But that’s their call. The people are just in the bleachers.

We make the point to say that the WFP is a potential political instrument of but not a voice for advancing a progressive agenda on behalf of Fed Up New Yorkers.

This brings us to Thompson, the chief speaker at the Espada event, the guests who are seeking re-election, and the other insiders who aren’t on the ballot. It’s a good thing if the Espada coronation party means blacks and Hispanics, led by Thompson and Espada, intend to come together for this election. It’s the best possible way, maybe the only way, to defeat Bloomberg and the fraudsters. A rerun of all the bitter ethnic and racially driven Democratic primaries that have allowed the few to rule the many and enabled them to impose their sterile plans on a once-great city should finally cease

So if that’s what this event is supposed to tell us, we suppose we can hold our noses to rid ourselves of Bloomberg and the three-termers. But only if they have come together to give Fed Up New Yorkers a better deal across a range of issues that FUNY is attempting to give voice to. Affordable housing and tenants rights are just one. The boyz in the backroom can make a big down payment in Albany before November 3. As for anyone who voted to override term limits, no matter what office they now seek, now or in the future, there is no salvation. Thompson should jettison them and Espada should get important things passed in Albany – now.

- Neil Fabricant