After the election - real life set in . We accomplished or felt we accomplished some good things and faced the inevitable now what. Some of us got distracted (me) with real life. Others kept plugging away and laying the ground work for 2007.

COMIDA and local development

December saw my first post about COMIDA. There were a couple of posts that BTP has completed earlier in the year but this article sparked my interest. Who knew we could be covering COMIDA in detail. Actively working and posting about the Wellesley Hotel and their supposed single job creation.

But this really was part of good progressive values discussion. We were discussing sustainable development and Big ticket items for Downtown.

The buzz was Spitzer and changing New York

Remember this story from October - well after Spitzer was soundly elected - expectations ran high. They also ran high for the State Assembly and Senate. Frankly we wanted change. The Senate was hiding its earmarks. They didn’t even want to publish a document outlining earmarks. This is where the Albany Project created a searchable PDF.

Legislator Pay raises? How about some reform first and pay raises didn’t happen. Baiting to Switch - the history of Joe Robach maybe he switches back? Spitzer’s first move to flip the Senate - appointing a Republican Senator to a State Administrative security position

Clean Money Clean Elections. Spitzer is a fan as is Sheldon Silver. The Senate seems to be a problem

Bruno investigated by the FBI? Hevesi resigned and Morelle’s name was floated to replace him (how did that work out anyway?)

We were learning about the Monroe County Legislature’s brand of closed door politics

Yeah, what a difference a year makes. The recent MC County legislature headlines are what? the unFAIR plan? Democrats and their ideas being shut out of government. Political appointments - hyper partisanship. Well - What a difference a year doesn’t make.

The D&C started calling on the GOP legislature to work with the Democrats (then a year later, endorse a mostly GOP field - heck of a track record) but we were hopeful with regards to Lawrence’s editorial page. In the end, the $1 billion dollar budget passed on party line votes - all Democratic ideas were ignored. That is so unFAIR but that would come a year later. One of the ideas shot down was a bit about open government. Yeah, that was going to happen.

Oh - remember MAPCO and backdoor deals? We even agreed with Lonsberry about it. Heck, who needs youtube to remind folks about the Water Authority scandal.

National change was looming as well

John Bolton - UN Ambassador - soon to be gone. (what a difference a year makes with Harry Reid keeping Congress in session over Thanksgiving and Christmas break).

Saddam was hanged. My how far we have come? We were talking about Rudy. The movie Taking the Hill, about the 2006 Congressional Campaign and featuring among others, Eric Massa was released. Meanwhile, Congressman Kuhl’s staff aid was appointed a Naval reserve office and assigned to Capital Hill.

Goodbye to the 109th Congress, and a preview of what was to come in Congress.

Finally, what we hope politics is really all about.

What will January bring?