True or false
OK, students, grab your blue books. I’ve been trying my best to teach you about state government but still you resist! This is a true or false quiz – no cheating!
T or F: Andrew Cuomo’s brother’s name is Joe.
T or F: If the Supreme Court forbids gerrymandering, the State Senate will surely turn Democratic.
T or F: The majority parties in both houses of the state legislature use computers to draw their districts, reminding us of impending anti- democratic totalitarianism.
T or F: Senator Jeff Klein of the Bronx is the head of their Independent Democratic Conference.
T or F: The Independent Democratic Conference, who have been helping to keep the Republicans in power, have been aided and abetted by Governor Cuomo despite his protestations to the contrary.
T or F: The single vote that has kept the Senate Republicans in power is that of Brooklyn’s Simcha Felder.
T or F: Governor Cuomo’s plan to change the state income tax to a payroll tax will work and make a lot of employers and employees happy.
T or F: The McDonnell v United States Supreme Court decision means that it will be very hard to convict any politician of bribery.
T or F: Ethics reform in New York is an oxymoron.
T or F: Donald Trump will be impeached.
T or F: Governor Cuomo spends most of his work time in New York City except when his former colleagues are on trial in Manhattan.
T or F: Many senators and assembly members would rather be city council members except for the fact that the city council is term limited.
T or F: New York City cops are the fattest in the country. Former police commissioner Patrick V. Murphy did his best to put a stop to that designation.
T or F: Governor Andrew Cuomo has a history of attacking the excellent state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli.
T or F: The late Mario Cuomo wasn’t happy about former Lieutenant Governor Al DelBello. Is it possible that both Cuomos were worried about having toomany Italians on their tickets? Nahhh, couldn’t be.
T or F: Both former Speaker Sheldon Silver and former State Senator Dean Skelos will beat the federal raps against them.
T or F: State legislators have to take sexual harassment sensitivity training.
T or F: A state senator and a local party leader once went to the president of New Paltz College demanding that I be fired.
T or F: A proposed state constitutional convention was turned down by the voters because people were so disgusted with legislators who they thought would run the convention in the same way they run their own houses.
T or F: No Republican candidate can beat Andrew Cuomo.
T or F: Law and Order Actress Diane Neal considers herself a progressive Democrat.
T or F: Law and Order Actress Diane Neal will run as an independent against Republican John Faso in the 19th Congressional District, thereby splitting the Democratic vote (a la Ralph Nader) and helping to ensure Faso’s reelection.
T or F: It is against the law for a candidate for political office to get a third party candidate to run and split the vote.
T or F: John Faso is way too smart to endanger himself as referenced in the last question.
T or F: In ten years there will be no more printed editions of almost all newspapers.
T or F: Todd Howe, a former Cuomo associate, was once a lobbyist in New York and Washington.
T or F: Like theHudson River, the city of Albany is an estuary with the legislature moving in and out with the tide.
T or F: President Donald Trump is hated by most New Yorkers.
T or F: Republican Party Chair Ed Cox is Richard Nixon’s son-in-law.
OK, class. I’ll get your papers back to you in timely fashion. Don’t hold your collective breath.
Alan Chartock is professor emeritus at the State University of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and president and CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network. Readers can email him at alan@wamc.org.
Tor F: If the Supreme Court forbids gerrymandering, the State Senate will surely turn Democratic.