The world has found itself tuned into the political soap opera that is unfolding daily in New York City, as not one, but two municipal elections become swamped in controversy. In a city that revels in the eccentric, the extremes that the 2013 city races have taken a month shy of the primaries may be taxing the patience of the city’s residents.
In the comptroller race, candidate Kristin Davis (L – Manhattan), formerly the “Manhattan Madam,” was arrested and charged with multiple counts of selling prescription drugs illegally, according to a Tuesday announcement from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney Office.
Davis, 38, is the former madam of the Emperors Club VIP, who provided fellow comptroller race candidate Eliot Spitzer (D – Manhattan) with the call girl — Ashley Dupre (legally, Ashley DiPietro) — that ultimately led to his resignation as governor.
The comptroller of New York City controls a staff of 700, a budget of $70 billion and a pension fund of $140 billion. The comptroller chairs a 58-member board which directly controls the fund, which consists of labor union representatives and other officials, with many major NYC corporations counting at least a few members on the pension fund board of directors. Investment managers receive their fees from this fund, which makes the board a quagmire of egos and a magnet for corruption.
In addition, as city auditor, the comptroller has audit oversight over the city’s transaction and is charged in leading challenges toward recouping misused taxpayer funds. The comptroller must also audit the city’s agencies at least once every four years.
According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, Davis allegedly bought and sold drugs to an undercover informant, starting in 2009. Between January 2013 and March 2013, there have been three occasions in which Davis sold about 200 different types of prescription pills per sale, including Adderall, Xanax, Ambien, Oxycodone and Soma.
George Venizelos, assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI said in a statement, “As alleged, Kristin Davis sold prescription pills not once, but rather four different times in four months to an FBI cooperating witness. This type of criminal activity is illegal for citizens, and is especially unbecoming for a person seeking public office in the City of New York. The FBI and our partners in law enforcement remain committed to investigate and bring to justice those individuals who illegally distribute prescription medicines for their own financial gain.”
Oxycodone is a Schedule II controlled drug that is the active ingredient in OxyContin and Percocet. As a painkiller, it is highly addictive. Adderall’s active ingredient is amphetamine, also a Schedule II drug that is colloquially known as speed. It is used as an adjunct substitute to cocaine. Xanax’s active ingredient is Alprazolam, which is Schedule IV-controlled. Alprazolam is the adjunct substitute to LSD and heroin. Ambien’s active ingredient is Zolpidem, also Schedule IV. Zolpidem, as a hypnotic drug, has been used as a substitute to MDMA (Ecstasy). Finally, Soma’s active ingredient Carisoprodol, a Schedule IV drug that has been used with “date rape” drugs.
Davis faces four counts of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. If convicted, each count carries a possible sentence of 20 years imprisonment. The informant provided information to the FBI in exchange for leniency on his own drug charges.
The return of the sheriff
Elsewhere in the comptroller race, there is a tie for the lead between Spitzer and Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer (D – Manhattan), who, prior to Spitzer’s announcement to run, was running unopposed. Spitzer, the “Sheriff of Wall Street,” made his name as the state’s attorney general, where he led a one-man crusade against the shady dealings of the nation’s major banks years prior to the banking industry collapse that led to the Great Recession. Driven partially by his theory that true reform on Wall Street cannot happen without the cooperation of the major municipal funds that own the majority of the nation’s stock and bonds portfolio, Spitzer has interjected himself in a race most opinion-makers feel is below his station.
“This is going to be an office — if I’m lucky enough to win — where we can do so much in terms of shareholder power, in terms of corporate governance, in terms of protecting pensions, in terms of making sure the city’s money is invested well, spent well,” said Spitzer.
Many feel that Spitzer is overreaching. Spitzer will not have the support of the unions, which are essential in managing the pension board. He will also not have access to the same set of impressive tools he used as attorney general to take on Citigroup. He cannot call on the Martin Act to force the banks to reveal their secrets to him, he will not be able to take unilateral action without the consent of the pension board and many argue that what Spitzer is trying to attempt is not new.
“Municipal finance has historically been a cesspool of conflicts of interest — investment firms help fund the campaigns of officials who dole out underwriting assignments, and the revolving door swivels rapidly,” writes Daniel Gross, global business editor at Newsweek.
“Eliot is so late to the game,” Stringer said in an interview with Bloomberg. “City pension funds have a proud history of corporate governance and responsibility, going back decades to disinvestment of South African companies for its racial policies in the 1980s.
“You have to be aggressive with corporate-governance work, and need to press for reforms that improve accountability, transparency, efficiency and performance because that’s good for business,” Stringer continued. “But you have to approach this work with balance and maturity and work with a lot of people. It’s wrong to think you’re the sheriff of our pension fund.”
Stringer has proposed a less global and more local approach to financial management, including establishing a new bureau in the auditing unit to oversee disbursement of the $15 billion the city will receive from the federal government to pay for Hurricane Sandy.
And then there is Weiner…
This war of style extends to the mayoral race, in which former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens) fell from one-time frontrunner to fourth place in the Democratic primaries in light of revelations that he continued to text sexually-explicit content after he resigned from Congress for sending a link to a photo of his genitalia to one of his Twitter followers. On July 23, it was revealed that as late as April — under the alias “Carlos Danger” — Weiner sent explicit photos to a 22-year-old woman.
For a man who previously never received less than 59 percent of the vote in any election he participated in, his fall toward being known as “an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man” is especially harsh, particularly considering that with no other recognizable names in the mayoral race, the race was his to lose.
Weiner, like Spitzer, sought to put behind him the sex scandal that jeopardized his career. Unlike Spitzer, however, the lack of complete disclosure continues to haunt Weiner.
Weiner’s fall is compounded by revelations that his sexting partner, Sydney Leathers, has filmed an adult video, appeared on the Howard Stern Show and has penned a 10-point manual on how to seduce politicians for XO Jane.
“For me, Anthony Weiner was a weird science experiment,” wrote Leathers. “I wanted to see how far it could go. How far could I push it? How long could it go on?
“Indulge his crazy alter-ego, and whatever you do, don’t laugh at him,” Leathers continued. “When in doubt, use a smiley-face and tell him you actually mean it. It’s hard sometimes, but you have to keep a straight face,” she added. “Like, Anthony would thank me every time he had an orgasm. I don’t think I ever said ‘you’re welcome.’ Who thanks someone after an orgasm?”
Weiner, claiming that he disclosed the existence of other photos, refuse to concede his candidacy. Many now feel that while it’s unlikely that Weiner can win, he can play spoiler. Short of outright campaign self-destruction, Weiner will likely garner enough votes in the primaries to force a runoff. As pointed out by Newsday, this is less than ideal.
“The New York City Board of Elections has made it clear for months that it can’t competently handle the fast turnaround required for a runoff if it must to use the computerized scanner voting system it initiated in 2010, especially if recounts are required. This admonition petrified everyone, from the New York State Legislature to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. When the board itself warns us of its incompetence, we’d better trust it. So the old lever-pull machines, invented in the 1890s, will be brought out of mothballs for (we hope) a last hoorah. The problem? While the old contraptions can do a recount expeditiously, they can’t produce a paper trail. So if a tally is wrong on a machine, it stays wrong. There’s no way to eyeball a ballot to determine voter intent.”