Familiar faces: Toback and Weisenberg face off in primary

By Michael Orbach

"He's done a bad job," Toback said bluntly on Friday. "Our message is resonating and we're getting it out there. People are tired of business as usual and they're ready for change. They realize that my opponent has been there for 20 years, and Albany has become a national disgrace, and they're ready for something new."

Howard Kopel, a Republican, unseated Toback in 2009, denying him a sixth term in the Legislature. Weisenberg seems unfazed by the challenge and said the primary on September 14 would give him the "opportunity to inform people who will best serve them."

Weisenberg also pointed out that as a freshman assemblyman, Toback would not wield as much power as Weisenberg does in his role as assistant speaker.

"Anybody who attacks the institution that people dedicate their lives to [will] have no access to resources..." Weisenberg explained. "You have to have a voice heard. Albany is like a different planet.  My voice will be heard because my voice speaks the loudest."

Toback has learned from his Election Day defeat last year.

"Property tax is the main issue and nothing else is really close," Toback said.

Toback faults Weisenberg for not bringing enough federal aid to the local schools, which correspondingly drives up taxes. Schools around New York receive 38 percent of their funding from the state whereas local schools, according to Toback, receive just 16-percent of their funding from the state. If elected, increasing state aid to schools would be his first priority, Toback pledged.

"My first thing is I'm writing a letter to the Department of Education and hopefully bring with me the whole Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland County... and start a dialog on how to change this," Toback explained. "This should have been done 20 years ago."

However, even Toback admits to being unsure of how to change the status quo. "It seems to be a mystery," he said.

"Weisenberg has been a good advocate for the disabled and I can't take that away from him; I applaud him for his efforts but the job is more than that," Toback asserted. "In bringing back state aid [to Long Island] he's done a bad job. In government ethics, Andrew Cuomo says Albany is a national disgrace and I agree, and it's become a national disgrace while Harvey was in office."

Toback is also attempting to ride a wave of anger against what he calls Weisenberg's "double-dipping," where Weisenberg has begun receiving a retirement pension of $73,000 in addition to the $105,000 a year that he continues to earn as a sitting elected official.

"Harvey was the prime sponsor that made it illegal for someone to retire from the government job and collect their government pension but he left himself a loophole," Toback said. "Anytime it would be reprehensible, but in these economic times, to see an elected official write in to legislation a loophole, I don't even know what the word is... If he wants to collect retirement, let him retire."

Weisenberg said that at 76 he's been in the system for 58 years and could have retired 15 years ago. He only began collecting his pension last year when he received a call about it from the accounting department.

"What happens if I should suddenly drop dead and die? Will my wife get a pension?" Weisenberg asked a reporter. "You have to retire so your wife has a pension. I did what anybody would do to protect my family."

Toback has earned support from of one of New York's most popular Democrats, former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch.

"Ed Koch says [Weisenberg] is an enemy of reform," Toback maintained.

Koch is supporting Toback since he signed on to Koch's pledge to reform Albany. A spokesperson for New York Uprising, Koch's organization, said that Koch had not personally endorsed Toback.

"Jeff has signed the pledge and Assemblyman Weisenberg has not," the spokesperson explained. "Mayor Koch has pledged to denounce incumbents around the state who have not signed the pledged and he is doing just that."

Koch will speak out against Weisenberg in a series of automated telephone calls to registered voters.

"If I was smarter politically I would have taken the pledge," Weisenberg said, "[but] I pledged to uphold the constitution of the state of New York and do the best I can to the people that elected me. I don't pledge to anyone for a political organization what I'm going to do. That's unethical to me."

Weisenberg said he knew that he would be attacked for not signing the pledge. In his own defense, he pointed to a bevy of legislation he put through Albany with Republican and Democratic support including several bills against drunk driving and bills in support of mental health services. Weisenberg was a prime supporter of Leandre's Law, a bill that makes driving drunk with a child in the vehicle a felony punishable by up to four years in jail. Weisenberg also sponsored legislation that would require people convicted of DUI to outfit their vehicles with a Breathalyzer ignition lock. Another Weisenberg-sponsored bill placed defibrillators in schools. "50 people are alive today," Weisenberg said, as a result of that law.

Weisenberg's motivation for remaining in office is simple, he said.

"I want the job because of the satisfaction I get for the good things I do," he explained. "Other people take a job because they need a job. If you're doing it for power or money you don't belong there and that's the problem with government today."

The winner of the Weisenberg-Toback race will face the Republican candidate, tax attorney Josh Wanderer, in the general election.