In the “Pay to Play” world of backroom Albany politics, State Senator Marty Golden’s hits are more and more getting near the top of the charts

If Marty Golden were notorious as a gangland figure, his nickname might be “The Baker”

Timesman Michael Powell tells tale of Albany as a “legislative bakery” serving up all kinds of baked goodies for “favored clients”

According to Michael Powell writing in the New Times, the handiwork of the Albany baker-legislators too often goes under-appreciated. So Powell decided to shine a light on two very skilled dough-turners, who do their baking in the New York State Senate. State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, is leader of the breakaway faction of Democrats that has aligned with the Republicans, and Senator Martin Golden's a Brooklyn Republican, who seems to have emerged as a GOP Albany insider (See “In Pay-to-Play Albany, Contributors Win Favors” by Michael Powell, 10/28/13, NY Times/ City Metro [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/nyregion/in-pay-to-play-albany-contributors-win-favors.html?ref=nyregion&_r=1&]).

The way it was told in the NY Times, Senators Golden and Klein took their baking to the level of "pastry chef" when they “crafted a lovely little strudel of a bill last summer.”

As he often does, State Senator Golden used a law and order pitch to cover his goody-producing sleight-of-the-hand. Ostensibly to discourage cigarette bootlegging and to raise $6 million for the enforcement effort, Golden, “a blue-eyed breeze of a pol,” made his pitch in the chamber during a night session last June. The way Michael Powell described Golden’s remarks, “He spoke darkly of a recently discovered ‘Palestinian cell’ of cigarette bootleggers, and the need for tougher enforcement....” [[[ >>> “By the way, he noted, the bill might put extra cash in the pockets of the wholesalers who stamp the packs....” ( Can you guess to whom this wonderfully delicious piece of legislative pastry was being served all along?  Guess what !  It wasn’t to any “Palestinian Cell” or those enforcing the laws against cigarette bootlegging at all  —  that leaves the “extra cash” for the wholesalers.) <<< ]]]

The way it appeared in the Times, “That last bit of information piqued the interest of State Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who has a bloodhound’s nose for the evasions so typical of her chamber. She raised her hand. So the stamping agents get two cents per pack now, she said, ‘but with this law they net five cents per pack; am I correct?’ ***  Senator Golden allowed that she was. ***  Ms. Krueger nodded, although not out of sympathy. ‘Aren’t we handing these stamping agents an awful lot of money without proper debate,’ she asked? ***  Mr. Golden began to mutter of higher costs for wholesalers: Con Ed, health benefits, gasoline, rent, trucks, whatever. ‘That’s all increased much more than the dollars that we are asking for here,’ he said, a touch plaintively.” Of course little of what Golden had to say was true; the Golden and Klein cigarette stamping bill would have been a windfall for the cigarette wholesalers, with a pass-along of that cost to the public.

So why did Marty push the bill ?

Michael Powell says that “A gentleman named Leonard Schwartz is chairman of Global Wholesale Tobacco, which stood to profit handsomely from the legislation. And he wrote many checks to further his cause. He has contributed $29,500 to the coffers of Senator Golden since 2002 and $43,000 to Mr. Klein since 1999....”

As it all turned out, Klein’s and Mr. Golden’s bill died; State Senator Krueger asked enough questions that June night to block the bill’s passage. Such victories are always temporary; or as Mike Powell tells it, “In Albany’s pay-to-play world, legislators simply turn back to donors, toss up their arms and suggest a few more checks might do the trick.”

Senator Krueger puts it a little simpler, “Don’t look for a rationale.... Just follow the money.”

This tune was picked up by a local nightingale, who then made his own sweet tune of it (See “Michael Powell Lights up Marty Golden” by Kip, 10/29/13, Bay Ridge Journal/ The View from My Block [http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2013/10/michael-powell-lights-up-marty-golden_29.html]

As for me, just call me “Johnny One Note”  —   Keep electing Marty Golden and these kinds of hits will just keep on coming.