Verizon Lobbyist Runs For New York Attorney General As the State Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Repeal (arstechnica.com) 69
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A Verizon lobbyist is trying to become the attorney general of New York in the upcoming November election. Verizon executive Leecia Eve is one of four candidates in the Democratic primary for the seat vacated when Eric Schneiderman resigned after assault allegations from four women. If elected, Eve says she would recuse herself from Verizon matters and New York State's appeal of the federal net neutrality repeal. As a Verizon executive, Eve defended the company from the city's allegations. Still, Eve has argued that her Verizon experience will help her prosecute "bad corporate actors" -- but without being so harsh that businesses would stop coming to the state. "Her Verizon experience, Eve contends, is 'extremely helpful: I know how corporations work,' leaving her 'best prepared to go after bad corporate actors,' but 'not to radiate to business not to come to New York,'" news organization City Limits wrote Tuesday after interviewing Eve.
Eve would not be involved in investigating Verizon if she won the election. "Under ethics rules, Eve confirms, she'd recuse herself from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff," City Limits reported. Eve also confirmed that she would recuse herself from the New York attorney general office's ongoing lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. Along with more than 20 other states, New York has asked a federal court to reverse the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules, a repeal that was supported by Verizon. Here's an excerpt from Eve's bio on her campaign site: "As Vice President for Government Affairs for Verizon for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, Leecia oversees policy and ensures governmental compliance for a company that innovates and invests billions in New York State and puts nearly 20,000 New Yorkers to work every day. She also serves as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey."
According to Ars, recent polls show that Eve is in last place behind three other Democrats running for the office.
Eve would not be involved in investigating Verizon if she won the election. "Under ethics rules, Eve confirms, she'd recuse herself from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff," City Limits reported. Eve also confirmed that she would recuse herself from the New York attorney general office's ongoing lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. Along with more than 20 other states, New York has asked a federal court to reverse the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules, a repeal that was supported by Verizon. Here's an excerpt from Eve's bio on her campaign site: "As Vice President for Government Affairs for Verizon for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, Leecia oversees policy and ensures governmental compliance for a company that innovates and invests billions in New York State and puts nearly 20,000 New Yorkers to work every day. She also serves as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey."
According to Ars, recent polls show that Eve is in last place behind three other Democrats running for the office.
Power Abusers (Score:2)
Re:Power Abusers (Score:4, Funny)
you know nothing how the world works.
The content depth, thoughtfulness, and elegant presentation of your post, by contrast, shows that you are truly a supremely educated scholar and specialist in such complex issues as global economics and political science.
Re:Power Abusers (Score:5, Funny)
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You realize that Democrats do this exact same thing as well, right?
Re:Power Abusers (Score:4, Interesting)
They should never be allowed to gain enough power to start pushing their own political agendas
For a good laugh (or cry, if corruption makes you sad) read about American mohair subsidies [wikipedia.org].
This is proof that you don't have to be a Big Company to corrupt the political process. Mohair production is mostly on small independent farms. Their pointless and wasteful subsidies have persisted because they are so small, and barely noticeable in a trillion dollar spending bill.
I rent a spare bedroom on Airbnb. I joined a Facebook group for local people that do the same. We got organized when the county started considering new taxes and restrictions. We paid a part time lobbyist to get the proposed law watered down, and eventually it died without ever coming to a vote. People renting spare rooms are not big companies, but we were still successful at pushing our agenda.
Separation of business and state needed. (Score:5, Interesting)
We need more laws that will help keep businesses separated from government. A lobbyist shouldn't be allowed to run for office within 10 years of lobbying for a company and vice-versa. Seriously, there are many basic anti-corruption laws that can be passed to prevent corruption and the fact that it continues to not happen is distressing.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Obama hired plenty of Goldman Sachs employees and other Wall Street types, and nobody seemed to care then.
While not a Goldman Sachs or other Wall Street type, people here absolutely cared when Tom Wheeler was initially appointed. Yes they later warmed up to him, but not until his actions made him seem like not a bad person.
Maybe this person's actions will do the same should she get elected. But claiming that people only oppose her because R and would have no problem if she were D is a verifiable crock of shit.
Re:Separation of business and state needed. (Score:4, Informative)
There were two people from Goldman Sachs hired by the Obama Administration: Gary Gensler, who chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Phil Murphy, who was made U.S. ambassador to Germany, and in fact progressives did object to them, as well as the few others hired from other Wall Street firms.
But the "plenty of Goldman Sachs employees", if "plenty" is more than two is false.
The accusation of the Obama Administration being loaded with Wall Street types was a popular, and false, line of attack by right-wing propaganda groups [factcheck.org]! Talk about hypocrisy!
Re:Separation of business and state needed. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, those two, and also:
Thomas Donilon
William Dudley
Dianna Farrell
Robert Hormats
Neel Kashkari
Emil Michael
Eric Mindich
Mark Patterson
Mark Peterson
Gene Sperling
Adam Storch
Larry Summers
John Thain
Plus the members of a G-S owned and funded 'Think-Tank' that were hired:
Douglas Elmendorf
Jason Furman
Mark Gallogly
Michael Greenstone
Robert Reischauer
That's just Goldman-Sachs, too. To be fair, that's only about 50% more G-S employees than the W Bush Admin hired. But trying to pretend there were only two (especially with excuses like "He didn't work at the White House, he worked at the OEB") is just false.
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(I'd never vote for the guy if I lived in New York. With that said, however, in some cases those individuals are as qualified (or even moreso) than other candidates. I hate Ajit Pai (and his smug mug) as much as other Net Neutrality advocates do, but he is knowledgeable about the industry he's overseeing the regulation of.
And you can't hamstring a person's ability to serve in the public sector for a decade just in case they MIGHT be corrupt. That's no better than minimum sentencing laws that put some people
Re: Separation of business and state needed. (Score:3)
In the early days, in addition to the "Internet" you had a whole host of private networks. AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, among others including a whole host of BBSs. These were not part of the Internet. They eventually provided Internet gateways but doing that doesn't mean that they automatically gave up their autonomy and were now part of the Internet itself. So, I what's to stop Comcast, VeriZon, AT&T from simply saying that they are not providing an internet service but they
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Re: Separation of business and state needed. (Score:2)
Re:Separation of business and state needed. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Separation of business and state needed. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Desiring an expert on corporations to be attorney general is like wanting a mafia don to be attorney general since they'd know all about crime.
Not voting for her but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wouldn't vote for her, however, that is a common irony with lobbyists - people knowledgeable about an industry often got that experience by working the business side of it.
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I said that people with experience often got it as industry insiders, not necessarily.
Re:Not voting for her but... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, hire a former criminal to head up a crime task force, only how do you know they really are reformed or not? Being a lobbyist automatically makes me think the person is badly biased, and also wasn't very good at finding a real job.
"Eve confirms, she'd recuse herself... (Score:5, Insightful)
...from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff..."
And are the hiring/firing of these senior staff under her direct control?
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...from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff..."
And are the hiring/firing of these senior staff under her direct control?
And if she plans to recuse herself from anything related to her area of expertise, why does she list that experience as her primary qualification for the job?
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Why exactly kill her first? If you use enough blood, that will come as a side effect anyway.
Democrats candidate (Score:2)
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manu0601 harrumphed:
And the democrats are really ready to vote for a corporate lobbyist? This is more a problem than the candidature itself.
From TFS:
According to Ars, recent polls show that Eve is in last place behind three other Democrats running for the office.
So, apparently not ...
Speaking of New York (Score:2)
No later than this it should be obvious (Score:3)
Let's be honest here, if they have to be THAT blatant in their attempts to force this into law, it should be obvious to anyone that it's something that they'd expect to be worth a LOT of money.
Now the question to ask is where do you think that money is coming from and who gets to foot the bill. No later than now it should be blatantly obvious just who is going to get fucked by this.
Of course I'll recuse myself (Score:1)
Well (Score:2)