Ruben Diaz

ALBANY—The political reality of David Paterson implementing his proposed cuts may be difficult.  read more »

ALBANY—Senators in the now "gang of three" remain uncommitted for a Senate leadership vote after a marathon meeting Tuesday afternoon.  read more »

Al Sharpton just finished a press conference with friends and family of Sean Bell, saying they hoped justice would be dispensed by the trial judge, who will announce a verdict Friday.

Sharpton also refuted the notion that their supporter need to be reminded not to act violently if they are unhappy with the decision.

He went on to say that it was the police who acted recklessly when they approached and fired on Bell and his friends without just cause.  read more »

Democratic Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. of the Bronx says there us a budget that needs to be passed, and he doesn't think it is important if Eliot Spitzer is around to pass it or not.

“We’re still going to move forward,” Diaz, told me just now. “Either this governor or Governor David Paterson is going to sign the budget. There has to be a budget,” he said, reminding me that it is due on April 1.

I asked why he and more of his colleagues haven’t taken the position that Spitzer needs to stay in office in order to accomplish the Democrat’s legislative goals.  read more »

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A State Senator who criticized the dismissal of the top Latina on Hillary Clinton's campaign now says he’ll support Barack Obama as a result.

When reached by cell phone Monday night in Albany, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. said, "I never supported anyone yet, so, you know, if I support Obama? Yes. I am with Obama, yes."

Diaz, who has had a history of criticizing his fellow Democrats in New York, said, "Hillary's campaign has been going down because of Bill Clinton, William Jefferson Clinton. Because people like Charlie Rangel, who called Obama stupid."

But the final straw, Diaz, said, was the removal of Patti Solis Doyle as Clinton's campaign manager, which was announced over the weekend. The next day, Diaz, along with Assemblyman Jose Peralta, sent a letter to Clinton's campaign saying they felt the Hispanic community was being ignored, and Doyle treated as a scapegoat.

"It is hard to understand how the Hispanic community that has been there to keep your campaign alive could remain in your corner when the first Hispanic woman to serve as your presidential campaign manager has 'resigned' from her post," Diaz and Peralta wrote.

More after the jump.   read more »

It's barely 2008 and likely Bronx Borough President candidate and City Councilman Joel Rivera has already spent $144,852 of the $201,996 he raised.

According to the city Campaign Finance Board's rules, Rivera has exceeded his out-year spending limit for a borough president candidate, which is $129,000. Any money spent beyond that limit will be counted towards the $1,386,000 spending limit for the 2009 primary.

More after the jump.   read more »

Here’s Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., a Democrat from the Bronx, at the Nation Action Network headquarters in Harlem today:

“See, the Latinos try to front a little bit here. They say, ‘Well, Dr. King is not about us. He’s about the African American community.'" But, he said, "This Latino right here is serving up in Albany because of Dr. King.”

Eliot Spitzer’s style may be humbler, but his goals aren’t.

In his second State of the State speech to lawmakers in Albany, Spitzer stuck to his vow to cap property taxes while at the same time providing free S.U.N.Y. tuition for veterans, expanding S.U.N.Y.’s teaching ranks by 2,000 professors, building $400 million of housing for cops and teachers, and expanding health care coverage for children.

The speech won praise from people like Michael Bloomberg, who told reporters afterwards, “I thought that a lot of his proposals were big ideas that are the kind of thing that we need to try. That’s what leadership is all about.”

Some lawmakers, though, weren’t happy.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester said Spitzer’s plan to fund the S.U.N.Y. endowment by selling off future proceeds of the state lottery will create “hundreds of millions of dollars” in transaction fees that would be siphoned away from the state coffers. “Every time we sell off a state asset, the private sector makes out and we get burned.”

State Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. of the Bronx, a Democratic ally of the governor, said he was happy to hear about the investment in S.U.N.Y., but “telling more and more of our folks to buy lottery tickets in order to pay for it? I don’t’ know how well that is going to fly.”

After the death the death of Eliot Spitzer's plan to give undocumented residents driver’s licenses, the new debate is about who's to blame for the way things turned out.

During a roundtable discussion with legislators on Inside City Hall, Democratic Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. of the Bronx said it was Spitzer’s fault for not holding out for some concession.
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One Hispanic lawmaker said he’s not going to the Somos El Futuro conference this weekend in Puerto Rico, in part, because he’s angry at Eliot Spitzer for his new driver’s license policy allowing illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses but not other forms of government ID.

“I don’t want the governor coming back and saying we all support him,” said state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx.

“I’m very upset with the governor. I’m angry. He failed me and he failed the immigrants.”

For the record, a number of other elected officials and operatives have already left the city to head down to the event, and I'm not aware of Diaz's decision being part of any larger anti-Spitzer boycott.

Ruben Diaz, Jr., an Assemblyman from the Bronx, supports Hillary Clinton. He also opposes Eliot Spitzer’s latest driver’s license policy.

But when it comes to blaming someone for Clinton’s awkward answers during the debate on this issue, Diaz says Spitzer is catching a bad rap.

Diaz told me just now:

“Let’s not blame Spitzer for Hillary Clinton’s woes on the DMV issue. You got to blame who you need to blame, and that’s Hillary Clinton. She’s the one who wants to, you know, dilly dallied on the issue. She should have a position on this. She should have a definitive position on this issue. So, if somebody is taking shots at Hillary because she didn’t answer the question appropriately, that’s not Spitzer’s fault.”

 

Here's Ruben Diaz, Jr., the Assemblyman from the Bronx who is running for Borough President in 2009, explaining why campaigning seems to start earlier and earlier.

All the finger-pointing by Michael Bloomberg about the stall-out of his congestion pricing plan is misdirected, according to State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx.

“Bloomberg has to blame himself,’ Diaz told me earlier today. “Number one, he didn’t deal with us right. He was arrogant. Number two, we are tired of people using our pain and suffering to get what they want.”

“When they want education reform, they use black and Latino children. Now they want to get this money, and Bloomberg goes around using the pain of black and Hispanics, where we have high asthma rates."

Diaz said that while pointing to the “pain and suffering” of minorities in his district, Bloomberg was pushing a plan that may make things worse.

“In my Bronx, in my district, asthma rates may increase, because there was not an environmental impact study.”

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

UPDATE: Adolfo Carrion, Brian Kavanagh and Adam Clayton Powell IV also attended.

Pedro Espada Jr., the former Bronx state Senator, is considering forming an alliance with Bronx Republicans that could lead to his return to public office, according to two people briefed on the plans by Espada.

According to these sources, Espada, who is still a registered Democrat, would help recruit enough county Republican committee members to oust current Bronx GOP leader Jay Savino and install someone else.  read more »

That new borough-wide infrastructure would then help Espada run for elected office, like the Borough Presidency, which has been talked about recently.

I just got off the phone with state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., who is reportedly the subject of a federal investigation into voter fraud, along with his son, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr.

Which was all news to the elder Diaz.

"I don't know anything about it. They haven't contacted me yet. Nobody has called me. Nobody has contacted. So, I know as much as you do," he said when reached by cell phone just now.

"I have tons of enemies out there trying to get me. Because of my position. You know, I've been outspoken on certain issues, like gay marriage, abortion. All those things. I might create enemies."

He continued.

"But to me, this is a political hit. I don't know what they're talking about."

I asked him whether he thought the investigation was initially targeted at him or his son.

"My son is a clean guy. He's a candidate for borough president. I mean, he's not running. He's one of the candidates that's been mentioned. And you know, me, I've been outspoken in the state Senate."

He went to say, "So, what's going on, I don't know. The FBI hasn't contacted me yet."

-- Azi Paybarah

The city school bus fiasco continues to be a boon for critics of the Bloomberg administration and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Elected officials like Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson and state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., never managed to gain much public traction when they've criticized the mayor on his educational policy in the past, when the arguments often focused on incremental philosophical differences and varying interpretations of statistical trends.

But the bus issue has provided a way in -- and will doubtless continue to do so for as long as there's snow on the ground -- for officials skeptical about the administration's ambitious but little-understood plans for the city's public education system.

Little kids, bad weather, missing school buses. Nice and simple.

How long before this story dies down and the administration gets the bus issue behind them? And how much damage has it done to their ability to implement an education agenda between now and 2009?

-- Azi Paybarah

As an astute reader notes, state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who in 1994 moved to prevent the Gay Games from coming to New York on the grounds that they could lead to an increase in AIDS, seconded the comptroller nomination moments ago of Martha Stark.

Stark is openly gay.

-- Azi Paybarah

The Times has this intriguing item about an impending announcement of charges against a state Senator who defrauded the public out of $400,000 in member items. -- Azi Paybarah

UPDATE: The AP just reported that the Senator in question is Efrain Gonzalez Jr.

Also, an apology: My original post here said that the Senator was rumored to have been Ruben Diaz Sr., and included a response from his office saying that the only people to have contacted them about the investigation were reporters. It turns out that there was a reason for that.

The Times reports that the state assembly has overriden over half of George Pataki's budget vetos; and has the obituary for Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, who passed away last night.

The Sun writes about the looming budget crisis.

And the Albany Times Union reports on possible misuse of taxpayer-funded member items by Ruben Diaz Sr. and Ruben Diaz Jr.

—Nicole Brydson

Tthe Albany Times Union reports Senator Ruben Diaz may have violated senate guidelines for use of member item expenditures; and reports on Eliot Spitzer's CSEA endorsement.

The Daily News reports on Tom Suozzi's new hires.

The Times reports on the latest from Newark.

And the Sun offers a run down of George Pataki's vetoes.

—Nicole Brydson

So last week, Freddy "completely disassociate[s]" himself from Ruben Diaz's racially charged attack on Mike Bloomberg. And today, Freddy's website links to that very same attack.  read more »