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Best Assembly Mouth That Roars

Richard Brodsky

If Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky could run for office in New York City, Mike Bloomberg's brazen bid for a third term might really be on the ropes. Back in January, Brodsky—a 27-year veteran Assemblyman—gave the Bloomberg administration its toughest case of conniptions yet when he released a series of startlingly embarrassing e-mails between top city aides and lawyers for the New York Yankees in their negotiations over the new gold-plated stadium. At the time, the city was getting ready to hand the Yankees another $370 million in tax-free bonds, in addition to the $1 billion it had already provided. But Brodsky, the ever-innovative chairman of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions, started digging, and came up with a treasure trove of e-mails back and forth between Bloomie's bureaucrats and Yankees lawyers. Turned out the big fight wasn't over how much to give the world's richest sports franchise, but whether or not the Spankees were going to give the city its own special luxury stadium box—plus food! Brodsky subpoenaed some very unhappy Yankees brass and city bigs to testify before him and Brooklyn Assemblyman James Brennan. The show was every bit as good as a Yankees–Red Sox face-off. Brodsky, who has been shining his legislative light into the dark corners of everything from the MTA to Indian Point for years, singlehandedly disproves the claim that no one in Albany knows how to legislate.

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