ALBANY retreats from reform talk -- ZEPHYR TEACHOUT gets an insurgent -- MORNING JOE panelists rip ‘completely racist’ Trump Presented by Ørsted

By Azi Paybarah in Manhattan, Jimmy Vielkind in Albany, and Mike Allen in D.C., with Daniel Lippman

CUOMO, LAWMAKERS LIMP AWAY FROM REFORM — POLITICO New York’s Jimmy Vielkind: Men who two years ago were huddling with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to set state policy have been sentenced to federal prison. State agencies are grappling with search warrants and federal subpoenas. More than 90 percent of New Yorkers think corruption in government is a big issue, and polls show voters believe reform issues take priority over education. Yet lawmakers are on course to leave town this year without doing anything about the underlying problems that have fueled a “show me the money” culture here that, time and again, has gotten Democrats and Republicans both cunning and clueless into trouble.

There are few heroes here, and plenty of villains. But the retreat from bold promises to lip service is getting plenty of cover from Cuomo, a Democrat who decided to use his bully pulpit to lower expectations on, rather than draw attention to, reform issues. “This is really going to have an impact on his legacy — that he was governor during one of the most corrupt times in Albany,” Citizens Union executive director Dick Dadey said. “Even though he hasn’t been accused of anything, this is happening on his watch.” http://politi.co/1TVKvI2

GOV AIMS AT BDS, SANDERS — POLITICO New York’s Azi Paybarah: Cuomo signed an executive order Sunday banning the state from doing business with any group that formally cuts ties to the state of Israel as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. “We are against the BDS movement. ... If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,” Cuomo said at an event in Midtown this morning where he signed the executive order. Cuomo cast the move — announced hours before the annual Salute to Israel parade in Manhattan— as part of a broader effort to firm up the Democratic Party’s alliance with Israel. The governor — a longtime supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — took a swipe at her opponent in the primary, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who has questioned Israel’s response to terrorist attacks. Cuomo said Sunday, “I’m sad as a Democrat. As a Democrat. I always took for granted that there was a natural relationship with Israel that was unquestioned and was that way for many, many years.” http://politi.co/1U3adaw

-- “It’s frightening to think there could be New York state employees scouring the internet for pro-BDS Facebook posts, tweets and news articles, and blacklisting individuals based on their political viewpoints,” Rahul Saksena, a staff attorney at non-profit advocacy organization Palestine Legal, told Salon in January. “It’s 21st century McCarthyism,” he added, noting government policies that punish citizens who endorse boycotts “are disturbing attempts to punish and chill constitutionally protected speech.” http://bit.ly/1TVzWF3

TABS -- Daily News: “Everyday Catholics defy their church, demand action on kid sex law reform: ‘Not how our religion should be’” -- Post: “Secret Service Officer’s New Book Bombshell: JEK-HILL AND HYDE: Dual personality terrified WH staff” -- SEE THEM: https://goo.gl/I8lvPj

-- amNY: “ALI’S NYC” -- Metro: “EMERALD CITY: New York’s green spaces — forests, wetlands and grasslands — are as diverse as its people” -- SEE THEM: https://goo.gl/J9phY6

-- Newsday: “GOP REBUKE” -- Hamodia: “Agudath Israel Hosts 94th Annual Dinner” and “Cuomo Signs Executive Order Against BDS” -- El Diario [translated]: Democratic race reaches the final straight

FRONT PAGES -- NYT, 1-col., above the fold: “Trump Stance Makes G.O.P. Fear Backlash; Muslim Judge Couldn’t Be Neutral, He Says” -- WSJNY, 2-col., above the fold: “Builder Riles Up Labor Amid Push Into NY Market” -- SEE THEM: https://goo.gl/WHNwTZ

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Call the mayor and shut down the block about four streets and put screens up so they could have a party outside, I heard it was sold out already” -- Kanye West, via Daily News: http://goo.gl/TuDuI1



A message from Ørsted: A Greener Path Towards Recovery. Across the state, we have felt the impact of COVID-19 on our economy and our communities. But now, we have the opportunity to rebuild, and to do so greener. At Ørsted, we believe that the time to transition to renewable energy is now. And as the nation’s leading offshore wind developer, we’re here to help.

MORNING JOE ON ‘RACIST’ TRUMP: The feud between Donald Trump and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" kicked up several notches Monday morning, days after the presumptive Republican nominee remarked that Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage presents a conflict of interest in his ability to preside over lawsuits related to his Trump University business because he is "building a wall." … Trump then told CBS' "Face the Nation" in another interview aired Sunday that the same principle might apply to a Muslim judge due to his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. "I'm talking about common sense, OK? He's somebody, he's proud of his heritage, and I think that's great that he's proud of his heritage."

"He's not treating me fairly," Trump told CBS' John Dickerson. … "Can I just do a poll? Is that racism?" co-host Mika Brzezinski asked panelist Nicolle Wallace, who replied, "Yes."

"Joe ... " Brzezinski began. Before she could finish asking him if the statement was racist, Scarborough remarked, "It's completely racist." http://politi.co/1WBMx0x

-- HILLARY’S CABLE CALLS: Hillary Clinton has been calling into some cable news shows recently, but don’t expect these phone-ins to become a frequent occurrence. “We have a variety of different methods and vehicles for communicating our [Trump] pushback,” Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon said on Sunday’s edition of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” with Brian Stelter, who asked whether Clinton’s cable news calls would “continue for the next four to five months.” Fallon replied, “I think that the bottom line is that she's not going to let any of these comments go unchallenged.”

Fallon also said the campaign plans to focus on interviews with local television and radio outlets in battleground states. “We can tell that story about what a Hillary Clinton presidency would mean, how she would go about trying to make a difference for people in their everyday lives, and then also, in the national cable environment, communicate why we think Donald Trump is so unacceptable and call him out and challenge him on a day-to-day basis.” (You can watch the full interview here: http://cnn.it/1U87ZrP )

-- ‘ TRUMP PRODUCTIONS’: “Mr. Trump is not running a campaign in the modern sense,” writes Jim Rutenberg in his latest New York Times column. “Rather, he oversees a prolific content production studio that has accomplished what every major media conglomerate is trying to pull off with mixed success. It has managed to produce a huge amount of inexpensive programming that has consistently dominated the ratings and the conversation across the entire new-media landscape — cable news, broadcast news, radio, Twitter, Facebook and who knows what else. With Mr. Trump as its star, show runner and chief content officer, the operation has taken over the vast media space with multiple running plotlines ( War With Megyn Kelly; Peace With Megyn Kelly!), shocking comments ( A federal judge can’t be fair to me because he’s of Mexican heritage!) and personal insults ( Hillary belongs in jail; that reporter is a sleaze!) that keep Americans glued to their screens.” http://nyti.ms/1UCmL8J

You can read the full Morning Media column and sign up to receive it in your inbox by clicking the following link: http://politi.co/1PdFrwQ

BROADWAY BUZZ -- “ Songs, Toasts and Tales of the Past at a Broadway Bartender’s Very Last Call,” by Times’ Colin Moynihan: “In the years after World War II, Sardi’s, on West 44th Street in Manhattan, was practically synonymous with Broadway. People like the playwright Tennessee Williams and the actors John Barrymore and Helen Hayes frequented the restaurant, and opening-night theater reviews in The New York Times and The New York Herald Tribune were distributed to diners when the ink was barely dry. Some of the restaurant’s glory may have faded since that heyday, but it remains a staple of the neighborhood, cherished especially by those who see tradition in its red walls, lined with drawings of famous patrons.” http://nyti.ms/1t0XXya

--“ Broadway’s ‘The King and I’ to Close,” by Times’ Michael Paulson: The sumptuous production, which opened in April of 2015, won the Tony Award for best musical revival last year, and had performed strongly at the box office for months. But its weekly grosses dropped after the departure of its Tony-winning star, Kelli O’Hara, in April. Lincoln Center … said it would end the production on June 26, at which point it will have played 538 performances. A national tour is scheduled to begin in November.” http://nyti.ms/1UCAmgv

ABOUT LAST NIGHT -- “‘Secret’ Kanye West Show Causes Chaos As Thousands Block The Streets In New York City,” by BuzzFeed’s Alicia Melville-Smith: “West was supposed to headline the Governors Ball on Sunday but the event was cancelled due to bad weather. West apparently hinted at the secret show while playing at the Summer Jam in New Jersey Sunday night ... Within minutes, hundreds of diehard fans flocked to Webster Hall in the East Village hoping to get tickets to the surprise gig. ... But Webster Hall’s management announced the show would not take place due to the increasingly large crowd gathered outside. The hall can only hold 1,500.” http://bzfd.it/212GQXV

DE BLASIO’S ROADMAP TO FUNNELING MONEY TO LOCAL CANDIDATES -- Memo from attorney defines ‘earmarking’ vs ‘giving advice’ -- POLITICO New York’s Laura Nahmias: A lawyer advising Mayor Bill de Blasio's effort to help elect Democrats to the State Senate in 2014 laid out in previously unrevealed detail how a Blasio aide and a high-ranking union official could steer donations to candidates through county committees without violating campaign finance laws, in a memo obtained by POLITICO New York. The memo, written on Oct. 8, 2014 by attorney Laurence Laufer, was sent to de Blasio’s director of Intergovernmental Affairs Emma Wolfe and former Hotel Trades Council Political Director Josh Gold. In it, Laufer outlines how he believes the group could legally funnel such donations without "earmarking" them, which is prohibited by campaign finance laws. …

Laufer advised that as long as a donor didn’t give the fundraisers specific instructions about how they believed their money should be spent, he believed it would be legal for Wolfe and Gold to advise county committee leaders where donations should be transferred and spent. http://goo.gl/PiAGd3 … READ THE MEMO: http://goo.gl/pJOaMY

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT, ESTABLISHMENT DARLING — WSJ’s Mike Vilensky: “In her losing 2014 primary against Gov. Cuomo, Zephyr Teachout, then a little-known law professor, ran as a populist Democrat to the left of Mr. Cuomo. Two years later, Ms. Teachout, 44 years old, is the front-runner in the Democratic primary for the state’s 19th Congressional District. But now she is the one facing an insurgent rival: Will Yandik, a fourth-generation farmer who hails from the region. ‘Zephyr is a star, she’s a big hero,’ said Melinda Hardin, a political activist in the district, which includes the Catskills and Hudson Valley, who voted for Ms. Teachout in 2014. However Ms. Hardin said she is now backing Mr. Yandik. ‘He’s more grass-roots than she is, really.’ ” http://on.wsj.com/1U3c6nC

KANYE’S TRAFFIC JAM -- Wanted de Blasio to shut down East Village street -- Daily Mail’s Ollie Gillman: “Chaos erupted outside Kanye West's secret concert in New York City tonight after hundreds of desperate fans descended on the venue. Kanye was heard asking for the city's mayor Bill de Blasio to shut down the block in a Snapchat video taken by Kim Kardashian early on Monday morning after a stampede outside the gig. The street in Manhattan's East Village was filled with people charging to get to the front of the swarm around the Webster Hall venue. People climbed on top of cars and hung out of windows to get a better view as rumors swirled that the rapper was set to perform his latest album, The Life of Pablo, outside.” http://goo.gl/htvUz6

Times editorial on Albany and the NYC plastic bag fee: “The state legislation, sponsored in the Senate by Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat, and in the Assembly by Michael Cusick, a Staten Island Democrat, would forbid any city to impose fees or taxes to discourage the use of plastic bags. The measure would, in a stroke, force the city to accept the perpetuation of the plastic-trash free-for-all, with tons of discarded bags clogging the sewers, festooning tree branches and littering sidewalks. Why would Albany do this? Because Albany can. … Getting a handle on disposable bags was a simple, smart decision that the City Council should have been able to make for itself. If the Legislature persists in passing this meddling bill, then Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have to be the grown-up who sets this particular wrong right.” http://goo.gl/UFipOI

REAL ESTATE —“Negotiations underway for rezoning Staten Island’s Bay Street corridor,” by POLITICO New York’s Sally Goldenberg: “With the planned redevelopment of East New York, Brooklyn underway and an unpopular rezoning proposal for Flushing, Queens recently halted, the de Blasio administration is turning its attention to the North Shore of Staten Island. Rezoning the Bay Street Corridor — an economically and ethnically diverse waterfront neighborhood in a predominantly suburban borough — is likely the next project the administration will undertake as it seeks to alter 15 neighborhoods throughout the city to encourage more residential development.” http://politi.co/1TVNxw1

—“Gary Barnett-owned Manhattan site may be home to the Northeast's inaugural Hard Rock Hotel,” by Crain’s Daniel Geiger: “Could a site owned by Gary Barnett's Extell Development Co. be the home of New York's first Hard Rock Hotel? Barnett has assembled several parcels on the west side of Eighth Avenue between West 45th and West 46th streets, including a garage he purchased last summer for nearly $46 million, to create a development site that can accommodate a soaring tower. Hard Rock plans to announce Monday the location of what the firm says will be its first hotel in the Northeast U.S., in a partnership with Barnett.” http://bit.ly/1O9lQO6

—“Fire, floods, theft: Plagues of 740 Park, the world’s richest building,” by Post's Michael Gross: “Venerable 740 Park Ave. has long been known for its embarrassment of riches. Currently, three of its fabled duplexes are on the market for sums ranging from $22.5 million to $32.5 million, and the record-setting 2014 sale of another duplex — for $71.3 million — still represents the second-highest price ever paid for a New York co-op. But, lately, the building has been a public embarrassment.” http://nyp.st/1O9lEya

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Lobbyist Amy Hines Kramer ... Senate aide Dan MacEntee … Jon Reznick, partner at Competitive Advantage Research, LLC, a photographer and Democratic operative … Sara Vilkomerson, a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly, formerly of the Observer … Chuck Lesnick, who served as Yonkers City Council president from 2006 through 2013 … Cassandra Garrison Markwick, the social media and live news editor at Reuters … The late Sukarno, who in 1945 became the first president of the Republican of Indonesia, which he held for 21 years … Grammy award winning guitarist Steve Vai, of Carle Place, Nassau County … actor Paul Giamatti, who who plays a U.S. Attorney in southern district of New York in the show Billions” …and Spanish Golden Age painter Diego Velazquez.

THE HOME TEAMS -- POLITICO New York’s Howard Megdal: Liberty 86, Storm 78: Not only did four Liberty players score in double figures to beat Breanna Stewart on the road, but Kiah Stokes did this. http://on.nba.com/1TW1DO6

-- Marlins 1, Mets 0: Matt Harvey was good, but Jose Fernandez was better.

-- Orioles 3, Yankees 1: A rain delay and rare poor outing from Aroldis Chapman combined to sink the Yankees.

-- The day ahead: the Mets are in Pittsburgh. The Yankees host the Angels.

#UpstateAmerica: The children of Buffalo had a blast during a “Touch a Truck” event. http://bit.ly/1U37Btc

FOR MORE political and policy news from New York, check out Politico New York’s home page: http://politi.co/1MkLGXV

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook: http://politi.co/1phAeAC … New York Playbook: http://politi.co/1ON8bqW ... Florida Playbook: http://politi.co/1JDm23W ... New Jersey Playbook: http://politi.co/1HLKltF ... Massachusetts Playbook: http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v ... Illinois Playbook: http://politi.co/1N7u5sb ... California Playbook: http://politi.co/1N8zdJU and our friends at POLITICO Brussels Playbook: http://politi.co/1FZeLcw ... All our policy and political tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

Follow us on Twitter Erin Durkin @erinmdurkin



Anna Gronewold @annagronewold

Follow Us