Albany’s toxic culture

Harassment continues in state government, even after #Metoo and several major sex scandals, including former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s.

A legislative aide in New York’s state capital grabbed the thigh of a lobbyist so hard at a fundraiser that he left fingershaped bruises on her skin. A top official at a state agency projected a picture of a colleague in a bikini for all to see in a meeting she was attending.

Another lobbyist described a legislator touching her thighs and feeling her chest in his state Assembly office. And a state senator said a male colleague told her she looked “like a Bond girl” as they sat near each other in the chamber.

The senator, Julia Salazar, who declined to identify her colleague, also recalled attending a fundraiser just outside the Capitol in 2019 where another legislator’s staff member began commenting on her appearance. “He said, ‘You should be on a calendar,’ ” recalled Salazar, who was 28 at the time. “I was so embarrassed that I left.”

If encounters like these are unacceptable and potentially career-ending, especially in the #Metoo era, they are also a defining part of the culture of government in Albany, and so endemic that they have continued even after sex scandals took down a governor (Eliot Spitzer) and several members of the state Assembly. Sexual misconduct in Albany has been thrown into sharp relief by allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo from multiple current and former aides who have accused him of sexual harassment and, in one case, groping during an encounter in the Executive Mansion.

“There are all of these patterns that we just keep seeing over and over again,” said Leah Hebert, a former state legislative aide and a member of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, which advocates better workplace conditions. “You could definitely look at Albany and say nothing has changed.”

Yet the allegations, which Cuomo has denied, also suggest that a new generation of women in Albany will not remain silent or tolerate behaviors that many men there saw as normal. And the sexualized environment in many offices has changed recently with the election of liberal women in greater numbers and efforts like harassment training. The #Metoo world is different from when most lawmakers knew their behavior at a bar near the Capitol would be protected by the unwritten rules of the so-called Bear Mountain Compact — what happened on the other side of the mountain stayed there.

In more than 30 interviews, women and men who have worked in Albany — including aides, lobbyists, government officials and elected leaders — described a predatory and misogynistic culture that is of a piece with Cuomo’s alleged behavior. Some say the governor and his top aides normalized intimidation in Albany over the past decade through bullying, which was common in the governor’s office, and aggressive political tactics aimed at members of both parties.

“There’s a whole community of very smart people who are jaded by the abusive behavior and accept it as normal and don’t do anything about it,” said state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who worked in the governor’s office before she was elected in 2018 among a group of new and outspoken female senators who include Salazar and Jessica Ramos.

She argued that the behavior of the governor and his staff sent a signal to others in Albany. “If they see the person at the highest level get away with it, and they align themselves with that person, then they’ll get away with it, too,” Biaggi said.

Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, said that Biaggi had “chronically misrepresented her role” during her “brief time” in the governor’s office, that “the governor did not substantively interact with her,” and that “the majority of the senior staff never knew who she was.”

In interviews for this article, several women described unwanted advances, touching and attempts at kisses by lawmakers or state officials, sometimes during meetings or at bars after hours. Sexualized comments are especially prevalent, and instances of mistreatment remain unreported or unpunished. Several women expressed fear they would face career-ending ostracism — or even retaliation — in the close-knit Capitol if they spoke out, and most spoke for this article on the condition of anonymity to protect themselves from repercussions.

Those interviewed said there were also subtler daily indignities: sexual innuendo and the expectation, still, that women wear skirts and heels.

“Female advocates who were in Birkenstocks and pants are less likely to get a legislator to talk to them than a lobbyist in heels and a skirt,” said one female lobbyist, who said legislators would often pause a conversation to comment on her legs.

Some women said they had adopted personal rules to cope: no meetings after 7 p.m. No staying in Albany for longer than a day. Several female lobbyists said they would not meet with certain legislators alone, even in their offices.

There are also more formal measures: Interns in the state Assembly are banned from any event with alcohol, or from even riding in a car alone with an Assembly member; tough new laws on sexual harassment went into effect in 2019; and the Legislature held its first hearing on the issue in decades that year.

Yet even as regulations have gotten stricter, no single code of conduct appears to exist in practice. Many women described how their experiences often depended on the men in the offices where they worked. Some agencies and lawmakers had reputations for bad behavior; others were safe and supportive.

Salazar, a Democrat who represents a part of Brooklyn, said she believed the election of more women had dampened the culture of overt harassment. But even so, Salazar, who joined the Legislature in 2019, said she had experienced sexualized comments that were inappropriate at best. She said she felt that her status as a lawmaker had allowed her to walk away from sexualized interactions without fearing consequences — something that might not be possible for those with less authority.

While many women said their experiences of sexual harassment were not unique to Albany, the misconduct permeates in the capital because of an almost college-campus atmosphere. People who are often far from home work together all day, then go to the same fundraisers or events, then go out on the town together. Consensual sexual encounters are not uncommon, nor are office romances, even for senior officials.