Politico New York Energy, August 2, 2018

CHARTER BECOMES ISSUE IN GOVERNOR’S RACE: Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said earlier this week that a labor dispute in New York City was “politicizing” the Public Service Commission’s enforcement actions against the company. Now, candidates in the state’s governor’s race are making it more clearly a political issue. Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro on Wednesday called for the state’s inspector general to conduct an investigation of whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was involved in the PSC’s decision to try to kick the company out of the state. (Cuomo effectively controls the statutorily independent body.) Cuomo’s Democratic challenger Cynthia Nixon touched on the issue after Cuomo accused NY1’s Zack Fink, whose station is owned by Charter, of “defrauding” the public. She said Cuomo should apologize to Fink. Molinaro also linked the “feud” with Fink to the enforcement action, although the PSC has been cracking down on Charter since well before Cuomo made comments to Fink about the issue. And today, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins will be in Syracuse to suggest a public takeover of Charter/Spectrum to create a public broadband company. — Marie J. French