The Queens Machine three kahunas suddenly gets all transparent.

Beginning next month, the Eagle will devote even more coverage to the
court officers, law clerks and other workers who make our courts run.

Why? -QC

 

The Queens Machine is suffering from AOC derangement syndrome

NY Post

 If the Queens Democratic establishment was badly rattled by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning victory against incumbent and kingmaker Joe Crowley last year, then a largely ignored civil court race this summer shook the city’s most powerful political machine to its core.

During primary elections in June, a Hispanic woman from the Bronx routed the candidate hand-picked by the Queens County Democratic Party for a seat on the county’s Civil Court — a race that had not been contested in nearly four decades.

“It was an incredible moment, and it was as important as AOC’s victory,” said a political strategist active in Queens and the Bronx. “Suddenly, people smelled blood.”

Insurgent candidate and lawyer Lumarie Maldonado Cruz, 47, beat Wyatt Gibbons, 56, with nearly 62% of the vote compared to 38% for Gibbons, a Queens attorney.

“AOC’s victory reminded me of my obligations to stand up for what is right,” Maldonado Cruz said when she entered the race earlier this year.

Still reeling from the victory of Ocasio-Cortez over Crowley, a 10-term Congressman and longtime Queens party boss who was also chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the party was again caught “asleep at the wheel” with no discernible strategy during the June primaries, said the strategist. He, like many of the political consultants and elected officials interviewed by The Post, did not want to be identified for fear of antagonizing the Queens party or AOC.



In addition to the judicial race, the party nearly lost the election for Queens district attorney. Party-backed candidate Queens Borough President Melinda Katz should have trounced little-known, late-to-the-race progressive Tiffany Caban, but instead squeaked by, after a month-long series of recounts, by 60 votes.

“They hate AOC,” said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio, referring to the leaders of the Queens County Democrats. “She killed their meal ticket.”

But as they battle for relevancy against a progressive wave, the moderate Democrats in the Queens party are still mired in the past, observers say.  The party is still controlled by Crowley’s old backers — “the three white men in the room” who have controlled Queens politics for more than three decades and reaped the benefits.

Michael Reich is the longtime executive director of the political party, and Frank Bolz is the law chairman. Gerard Sweeney has held his appointment as counsel to the Queens public administrator since 1992. In that capacity, he has raked in tens of millions of dollars for the law firm, administering estates of those who die without wills in Surrogate’s Court.

In March, party delegates elected a scandal-scarred lawmaker as the new kingmaker. But observers told The Post that Rep. Gregory Meeks, an 11-term Congressman from southeast Queens, is a lightweight.

“Meeks is essentially a backbencher in Congress, who lacks Crowley’s gravitas,” Muzzio told The Post. “He’s their puppet.”

The true political powerhouse in Queens is obvious.

AOC has national stature, demanding the attention of the House Speaker and the president. She has more than 5 million Twitter followers.

Prosecutors mum on Queens Machine

From Progress Queens:

Nearly one week after a special report was published by The New York Daily News, raising questions about the political influence wielded by a Queens law firm, Sweeney, Reich & Bolz, LLP, the top prosecutors with jurisdiction over Queens remained mum about whether the report will trigger any investigations. According to the report, three attorneys at the firm earn enormous profits from, or wield considerable influence as a result of, their connections to the Queens County Democratic Committee.

Last week, the press offices for each of Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde, who is the top Federal prosecutor for New York's eastern district, and District Attorney Richard Brown (D-Queens) declined to answer advance questions submitted for this report.

The special investigation published by The New York Daily News raised questions about how the attorneys, Gerard Sweeney, Michael Reich, and Frank Bolz, are referred cases before the Surrogate's Court, are able to gate-keep political primary races, or are able to exercise discretion over which judicial candidates receive support from the county committee.

Daily News exposes the Queens Machine

From the Daily News:

For 30 years, the same three men have effectively controlled one of the largest Democratic organizations in America.

They are Gerard Sweeney, Michael Reich and Frank Bolz, the powerful attorneys who serve Rep. Joe Crowley, the chairman of the Queens County Democratic Party. Reich is the executive secretary of the party, a spokesperson and wrangler of district leaders. Bolz is the law chairman, entrusted with keeping county-approved candidates on the ballot and knocking their rivals off.

Sweeney wears no official hat within the party infrastructure. But Queens insiders say he is arguably its most important strategist, helping guide the party’s political machinations on the homefront as it jousts for influence in City Hall and Albany.

He is also the one who gets to be very rich.

As the appointed counsel to the Queens public administrator, a job he has held without interruption since 1992, the 63-year-old Sweeney raked in just over $2 million last year administering in Surrogate’s Court the estates of people who died without leaving wills. Over the past decade, his haul is even more stunning: $30 million since 2006, according to an analysis of court records.

It’s impossible to know how many millions Sweeney received in his first 14 years on the job because the state’s Office of Court Administration, which oversees Surrogate’s Court, says it doesn't keep those figures.

The three men, with Crowley’s blessing, still determine what type of justice is served in Queens County. No Queens judge rises through the ranks without the party’s blessing and regular donations to its housekeeping account.

The way things work for the Machine

From the NY Times:

All of this might have Democratic Party leaders — Representative Joseph Crowley is the party boss in Queens — wailing and rending palm cards. Except that isn’t how it works in Queens. Power and money are found not so much in the voting booth as in the machine-controlled judicial conventions that pick judges, and in the courthouse on Sutphin Boulevard.

That is where you find Surrogate’s Court, otherwise known as widows and orphans court. This court appoints guardians who make handsome fees processing the estates of those Queens residents who die without wills.

To enter this court is to stumble upon Ponce de Leon’s own spring, an eternal source of easy money for the politically wired. The Surrogate’s judge appointed the public administrator, Lois M. Rosenblatt, who is a fierce and battle-tested elections lawyer, Democratic division.

Ms. Rosenblatt reappointed the court’s counsel, who for about a millennium has been Gerard J. Sweeney. In 2010, Mr. Sweeney’s office pulled down $2.284 million administering estates. This year has been slower; through the end of October, his take was $993,764.

As legal sinecures go, it is bearable.

Mr. Sweeney’s law firm on Queens Boulevard is a beehive of Queens Democratic worthies; Michael Reich and Frank A. Bolz III are partners and top party officers.

The geographic metaphysics of their party membership is curious. All three “Queens” Democrats — Messrs. Sweeney, Reich and Bolz — live on Long Island. The current Surrogate’s judge, Peter J. Kelly, is admirably frank about the ways of this world. He even frames the questions for you.

“Do I know Sweeney’s related with the Democratic Party and close to Congressman Joe Crowley?” the judge offers. “I would be a moron if I didn’t know that.”