Wagner College Professor SEYMOUR LACHMAN is one of the foremost sources on the gridlock and institutional dysfunction that has crippled the New York State Legislature.
Journalists have repeatedly turned to Professor Lachman for insight during the recent crisis in the New York State Senate:
NEW YORK 1, New York City's local news channel, aired an interview with Lachman on the July 10 edition of its "Road to City Hall" program.
WNED-AM, Buffalo’s NPR affiliate, ran an interview with Lachman by Mark Leitner on July 7, headlined “Former Senator Calls for a Change in Albany Culture”
LOS ANGELES TIMES reporters cited Lachman in a July 6 story, “New York Takes Legislative Gridlock To Next Level”
NEWSDAY ran an op-ed on June 25 by one of Lachman’s protégés, Joshua Spivak, titled “For Real Reform, New York Should Change How It Elects Representatives.”
WASHINGTON POST reporter Keith Richburg cited Lachman in his June 16 story, “With Senate in Dispute, N.Y. Politics a ‘Circus’ ”
Lachman has consistently been a reliable source for intelligent, informed comment on New York state government:
TOM WROBLESKI, political reporter for the Staten Island Advance, wrote about Lachman’s seemingly prescient assessment of the Senate earlier this spring in his April 26 blog.
IN FEBRUARY, Lachman was interviewed about Albany gridlock by reporter Scott Brown of the Buffalo NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV.
LAST YEAR, Tom Wrobleski posted an Advance video interview with Lachman about David Paterson’s transition into the governor’s mansion.
A former state senator (D-Brooklyn/Staten Island, 1996-2005), Seymour Lachman came to Wagner College in 2006 at the invitation of President Richard Guarasci to found the Hugh L. CAREY CENTER for Government Reform. That fall, Lachman’s critique of the Legislature hit the bookstands: “THREE MEN IN A ROOM: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse.”
Lachman is also the author of “ONE NATION UNDER GOD: Religion in Contemporary American Society” (Harmony, Nov. 1993).
Lachman is currently working on his next publication, a book about Governor Carey and the New York City bailout, "Hugh Carey and the New York Fiscal Crisis: How America’s Empire State Avoided Bankruptcy." The book will be published in 2010 by the State University of New York Press.
