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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, July 27, 2017, 6:27 PM

ALBANY A former one-term state senator who had the backing of Mayor de Blasio is considering challenging Gov. Cuomo from the left in the Democratic primary next year.

Terry Gipson represented Dutchess and Putnam counties for two years before losing his re-election bid in 2014 to Republican Sue Serino.

The involvement of de Blasio and his fund-raising operation in the race caught the attention of investigators, who looked into whether they skirted campaign contribution laws. Ultimately, the offices of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney and the Manhattan District Attorney declined to bring charges even as they raised ethical questions.

Gipson, who lost a rematch to Serino in 2016, has been critical on social media of Cuomo on a host of issues, including his handling of the mass transit crisis. He is said to have been reaching out to liberal groups about a potential primary run.

Voters blame Gov. Cuomo for city's subway troubles: poll

One Democratic insider called Gipson a two-time loser who never even broke 50% in his own community. The one time he won it was a three-way race.

While Cuomo has faced public criticism from many in the left wing of the Democratic Party, the insider noted a recent Siena College poll found the two-term governor is still strong among self-described liberals. The poll found 68% of liberals have a favorable view of Cuomo. And by a 54% to 37% margin, liberals said they are prepared to re-elect Cuomo in 2018.

Cuomo faced a surprising strong primary challenge in 2014 from liberal Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout, who captured about a third of the vote but has said she does not intend to run again in 2018.

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Upstate Democrat Terry Gipson mulls 2018 run against Cuomo - New York Daily News

For a shrewd political tactician who seldom says or doesnt say anything without political purpose, Mr. Cuomos positioning has raised questions from allies and opponents alike: Is he a savvy politician playing the long game, or being too clever for his own good?

The first and biggest test of his nonaggression approach came on Wednesday, as Mr. Cuomo made his first trip to Washington since the start of the Trump administration. He met with the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, to lobby for additional federal funding for the states infrastructure needs.

While in Washington, Mr. Cuomo took time to respond to Mr. Trumps directive, announced on Twitter, that transgender people be barred from the military. In his own Twitter post, Mr. Cuomo criticized the policy as wrong and intolerant, but blamed Washingtons directive, not Mr. Trump.

The governors elliptical phrase received some ribbing online. News flash it came from trump. Not George Washington, replied Elizabeth Soto, the executive director of the Hudson Valley Labor Federation. The governors office also issued a news release that cited the Trump administration.

Two of Mr. Cuomos advisers who have spoken with the governor about his choice not to attack Mr. Trump in personal terms said he decided not long after Novembers election to forge a verbal dtente with a president who, like Mr. Cuomo, has a long memory for those who cross him.

Advisers to both Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Trump describe them as aggressive counterpunchers, and Mr. Cuomo seems determined not to throw the first jab.

Those in Mr. Cuomos orbit pointed to two factors in the decision: first, the possibility of working with Mr. Trump to procure federal money for state projects, and second, the fear of alienating working-class white voters upstate whom Mr. Cuomo wants to capture in his 2018 re-election effort.

He decided early on he wasnt going to stick a finger in Trumps eye, said one of Mr. Cuomos advisers, who was not authorized to disclose internal strategy discussions.

Mr. Cuomo has criticized some of the presidents policies. After Mr. Trump announced Americas withdrawal from an international climate accord, Mr. Cuomo helped organize a coalition of states to fill the breach, criticizing this administration and the White Houses reckless decision. He has also spoken out against the administrations immigration and deportation policies.

But the governor has remained loath to go after Mr. Trump by name, even as the presidents popularity has plunged to historic lows, and as other Democrats, who signaled an early willingness to work with the president, like Senator Chuck Schumer, have adopted a harder line. Hours after Mr. Cuomo held a rally against the Republican health care bill last week in Manhattan and did not mention the presidents name in his 15-minute speech, Mr. Schumer branded that days setback a failure of Trumpcare.

In June, when Mr. Cuomo wrote an op-ed lamenting the Trump administrations immigration policies, he blamed the federal government, not Mr. Trump, for having forgotten who we are as a nation. In July, when Mr. Cuomo wrote about the health care bill, he cited the White Houses insistence that the legislation had heart, though it was Mr. Trump himself who had said so.

And when reporters recently asked Mr. Cuomo about Donald Trump Jr.s email with a Russia-linked lawyer, he took a pass. Ive been working, he said. Mr. Cuomo also skipped commenting on Mr. Trumps Twitter attacks on the MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. Let me read them first, he replied.

The nonanswers sounded more like the comments of congressional Republicans who have grown skilled in the art of the Trump dodge than those of a nationally ambitious Democrat.

In contrast, at the recent rally where Mr. Cuomo left the president unnamed, the Democratic state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, introduced himself as a guy who sues Donald Trump. It earned some of his loudest applause.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, a Democrat, traveled to Germany this month in hopes of casting himself as a foil to the president. And Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who also could be a 2020 presidential contender, has been buying up online search ads calling herself a leader of the resistance who is standing up to Trump.

Cuomo could, if he wanted, attack Trump 20 times a day and it wouldnt hurt him a bit in the state of New York, said Robert M. Shrum, a longtime national Democratic strategist. Mr. Shrum said the governor had demonstrated a habit of not getting involved in national politics, though he added, Im not saying this would be my strategy.

Some of Mr. Cuomos own allies are privately hoping he will soon take a harder line against Mr. Trump, both to cut off oxygen for any potential 2018 Democratic primary opponents he faced a surprisingly stiff challenge from Zephyr Teachout in 2014 and to energize the progressive base he would need to win over in support of any presidential run.

The political left is frothing with anti-Trump energy, marching by the millions and pouring money into the coffers of leaders of the resistance. Bill Hyers, a Democratic strategist who was Mr. de Blasios 2013 campaign manager and is a frequent critic of the governor on Twitter, called Mr. Cuomos decision to avoid verbally confronting Mr. Trump a million percent tone deaf.

Hes wanting to be Trumps favorite Democrat. It makes no sense that he rips on the mayor of New York with pleasure but wont say one negative thing about Donald Trump, even mention his name, Mr. Hyers said. Thats the cowards way out.

Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Trump have a decades-long personal history, dating to the 1980s, when Mr. Trump was a developer and donor to Mr. Cuomos father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. The day after last Novembers election, the governor called Mr. Trumps election a bonus. He knows New York, he knows the challenges, Mr. Cuomo said then.

In January, when Mr. Cuomo went to Trump Tower to meet with the president-elect, they spoke about New York issues, including infrastructure and local tax deductibility.

It was not adversarial, Mr. Cuomo told reporters in the lobby afterward.

Joel Benenson, Hillary Clintons chief strategist in 2016, who served as communications director for the 1994 campaign of Mr. Cuomos father, approved of Mr. Cuomos restraint because there is ample time before a possible 2020 campaign. I dont think you have to make everything about Trump, he said. My advice would be to stick to your knitting and keep doing what youre doing on behalf of New York.

That is how Mr. Cuomo cast his trip to Washington.

I am a vocal critic of many Trump proposals, such as his health care, environment and tax policies, Mr. Cuomo said in his statement. At the same time, my job is to make progress for our state and improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and the federal government must approve and fund many necessary projects especially transportation and infrastructure which is the subject of my discussion with Transportation Secretary Chao.

People close to Mr. Cuomo say he is aware that transportation issues are a potential vulnerability: A recent Siena College poll showed his approval rating dropping to 52 percent from 61 percent since May, with all the erosion in New York City and its suburbs, areas gripped by problems with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

When it comes to Mr. Trump, Jay Jacobs, a former chairman of the New York Democratic Party during Mr. Cuomos first term, said the governor is walking a fine line because he wants to get re-elected in 2018 and he wants to get re-elected with good numbers and a good part of his popularity has come from Republicans, particularly upstate Republicans.

Last week, Mr. Cuomo reported a re-election treasury of more than $25.6 million among the most cash on hand of any politician in America including another $5 million raised in the first six months of 2017, even as he has yet to draw any serious challenger.

Attacking Mr. Trump might be something in the short term that works and gets everybody up into a lather, Mr. Jacobs added, but Cuomo is about the long game.

A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2017, on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: As Democrats Assail Trump, Cuomo Takes a Different Tack.

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As Democrats Lay Into Trump, Cuomo Takes a Different Tack - The ... - New York Times

Longtime clean water advocate and liberal firebrand James Ehlers is running for governor in 2018, when he hopes to unseat Republican incumbent Phil Scott in a race that will feature stark ideological contrasts between the two candidates.

Ehlers, whos running as a Democrat, says its too early to outline the key planks of his campaign platform. But the executive director of Lake Champlain International, whos long called for greater public investments in government programs, says the differences between him and the first-term incumbent will soon become readily apparent.

The attitude and the culture of the campaign will be one that offers people a fundamentally different choice in philosophy, Ehlers said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Ehlers has most recently criticized Scott for failing to identify a long-term source of public revenues for a water quality initiative expected to cost more than $1 billion over the next 20 years.

Ehlers says his campaign will try to galvanize the public buy-in he thinks is needed to improve environmental and economic conditions in the state.

I guess I would say its a modern day barn raising of sorts, where we all come together to invest in our homes, our forests, our rivers, our lakes, as well as Main Street, Ehlers says.

Ehlers has never before run for political office, but he says its time to expand his advocacy beyond the environmental issues hes been working on for 20 years.

It seems like its time for me to take my skills and leadership ability and advocate for Vermonters on all the issues that are impacting us and our children, Ehlers says.

Asked about Ehlers announcement Thursday, Scott said he intends to seek a second term in office, but isnt ready to begin talking about the campaign.

Its a long time between now and then, Scott said.

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Water Quality Advocate James Ehlers To Run For Governor, As Democrat - Vermont Public Radio

On Thursday morning, Rep. Al Green will propose a constitutional amendment that would explicitly bar the president from granting himself a pardon.

"Nobody wants to see that," the Texas Democrat told BuzzFeed News. "Bigger than the current president, this is for all presidents. If we can't stop one, we'll stop the rest."

Green said on Wednesday evening that he doesnt think such an amendment is needed he thinks the Constitution doesnt allow such a self-pardon. But hes laying the groundwork to try to pass an amendment like this, should it become necessary.

Our president has given signals that he is reviewing the Constitution and, in the process of reviewing it, it has been published that the review includes that possibility of his considering pardoning himself, Green who already has filed articles of impeachment against President Trump said.

Trump has discussed pardon issues in the Oval Office, his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, acknowledged this past week. The president himself tweeted over the weekend that all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon. Its not clear whether the discussion or the presidents tweet related to any possible self-pardon consideration. But the vagueness of the explicit references to pardon power and Trumps general unpredictability have raised speculation about how the president might want to use it.

In hearing that, Green said, and also after hearing that constitutional scholars differ on whether the president can or cannot pardon himself, it seemed appropriate as a matter of fact, it seemed absolutely necessary that we take some action so as to bring clarity to this issue.

The presidential pardon power is both simple and expansive in the Constitution. [H]e shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, the Constitution states, except in cases of impeachment.

The amendment proposed by Green also is simple:

The president shall have no power to grant to himself a reprieve or pardon for an offense against the United States.

Green said that he sides with scholars like Laurence Tribe, Norm Eisen, and Richard Painter who wrote recently in the Washington Post that Trump cannot pardon himself. They cite a 1974 opinion of the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel concluding the same thing.

I dont believe this is necessary, Green said of the proposed amendment, and he plans to enter that view into the congressional record in his Thursday morning floor speech. Nonetheless, he acknowledged, others disagree and, regardless, Trump or another president could do it anyway (although legal fights could, and likely would, follow).

Im not doing this with the expectation of the committee taking this up any time soon. I want the legislation to be there in the event there is a need for it, Green said. It may take such an amount of time that the first president to try to do it might succeed, but the legislation would still be there so as to prevent the next.

He told BuzzFeed News that at least two other Democratic House members Seth Moulton and Brad Sherman will be co-sponsoring the resolution at its introduction.

As the resolution to be introduced notes, an amendment introduced through Congress would require a two-thirds vote by both chambers. Then, it also would require ratification by three-quarters of all 50 states.

Chris Geidner is the legal editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC. In 2014, Geidner won the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association award for journalist of the year.

Contact Chris Geidner at chris.geidner@buzzfeed.com.

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A Democrat Is Proposing A Constitutional Amendment To Ban Presidents From Pardoning Themselves - BuzzFeed News

Calling it an emergency rally, local progressive and Democrat groups raised their voices and their protest signs in the center of town Wednesday evening in opposition of the pending Senate health care bill.

Gathering on the corner of Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway, members of CA25 United for Progress, Womens Initiative Network, SCV Young Democrats and Democratic Alliance for Action gathered to voice their support for the Affordable Care Act.

When you bring more numbers out, it shows there is more support for the Affordable Care Act, Philip Germain, chair of CA25 United for Progress said.

The rally of about 30 people came a day after the Senate voted 51-50 to begin discussing a future health care bill. On Wednesday, the Senate failed to approve a repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a set replacement in a 45-55 vote.

The groups have done a collaborative rally once before, the first time in February in front of Congressman Steve Knights (R-Palmdale) Santa Clarita office on Center Point Parkway.

Knight voted in favor of the House Republicans American Health Care Act in April, receiving backlash from local ACA supporters.

We want him to know the majority of his constituents oppose this, Germain said.

The progressive groups chair shared his personal connection to the ACA, saying he feared the implications of its repeal for his father who has cancer.

President of SCV Young Democrats Andrew Taban cited similar concerns, saying he knows someone who would be at risk of losing their home in order to continue paying for health insurance.

This isnt just another rally or protest, Taban said. These are humans lives.

While all the groups in attendance have different mission statements, they all have the same common goal, according to Taban. It would be productive if legislators could work together as the groups were doing at the rally, he said.

Specifically concerned about women and children, Womens Initiative Network Co-founder Julie Olsen said it was important for government officials not to repeal the ACA, but to address the parts of it that need fixing.

Community members have been especially politically involved recently, Olsen said, participating in the movement for health care by participating in protests and emailing and calling their elected officials.

Whats wonderful about this is everyone feels there is something that can be done, Olsen said.

Democratic Alliance for Action member Tom Gapen said living in a traditionally Republican area makes it important for him to voice his ideals as a Democrat.

As Democrat, liberal and progressive thinkers, we need to band together against the three branches of governmentwho are making really poor decisions, Gapen said.

One local Democrat was riding his bicycle by the protest when he decided to spontaneously join in.

If I can support people like this, I can have my voice heard, Santa Clarita resident Sam Eze said.

Eze said he and his sister are currently looking to get documented for school under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), so he wants to rally with Democrats.

I think I am a Democrat now, Eze said. They are the only ones who seem to care about people in general.

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Democrat groups rally together to continue health care conversation - Santa Clarita Valley Signal