Common Sense: Rob Astorino

I had the pleasure of standing with Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino in front of the Bronx County Courthouse when he announced for governor last week. Although certainly at this point not a well-known name statewide, he is the very popular chief executive of Westchester County – the home of a million New Yorkers.

Astorino has strong reasons for running. He articulates an argument which he backs up with data showing the state moving in the wrong direction in a number of areas. He calls out the governor’s programs by name, explaining how they are failing us. And he goes right at the generally held belief by a number of New Yorkers that if they could move to another state they would. How can that good? How that can be an endorsement for Cuomo’s re-election, he maintains.

Astorino, who is fluent in Spanish and well regarded by the Westchester Latino community, plans to move his candidacy into all corners of the state and will likely be a regular presence in Brooklyn over the upcoming months.

Although he has not officially received the Conservative or Republican Party endorsements, he is the odds-on favorite. Locally, he is supported by myself as the local Conservative Party leader, Conservative Party State Chairperson Mike Long, State Senator Marty Golden and Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis.

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The tale of two cities was played out in the State Capitol last week when literally thousands of charter school students and parents rallied against Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to eliminate capital funding and possible locations for new charter schools. Already three charter schools scheduled to open have been put on hold because of the change in city policy.

The other tail was being wagged by the Universal Pre-K folks who support the de Blasio plan to raise taxes to cover the same program that Albany leaders are saying they can cover without raising taxes. This group coincidentally does not support charter schools, and not so surprisingly is heavily comprised of union member as opposed to parents.

This is a tale of two cities with none of it involving the class struggles of the rich and the poor, a struggle that de Blasio has somehow succeeded in making between different groups of onetime supporters.

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I am going to be generous and give our new Borough President Eric Adams the benefit of the doubt and take his word that he knew nothing of his office’s active attempts to solicit donations for a non- existent not-for-profit. I am taking his word because I sincerely do not believe anyone would intentionally do such an outrageous thing and not expect to be caught.

Now that does not exempt the borough president’s office from liability for inaccurate statements made claiming that it has been in constant contact with the Conflicts of Interest Board. The board said it has had no conversations up to that point. Nor does the borough president’s plea of ignorance exempt him from a charge that his staff could be doing a better job.

Certainly, his counsel — who normally would take responsibility for ethics type issues and according to Adams is actively involved in setting up the not-for-profit — dropped the ball and should have caught this obvious violation. And how about the consultant, minister, staffer who was soliciting the funds and seems by all accounts to be a walking conflict of interest. How does the borough president justify her activities?