Dennis Rivera Praises His ‘Friend’ Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg’s re-election campaign got a big boost today in the form of glowing praise from Dennis Rivera, the chairman of SEIU Healthcare.

Rivera introduced Bloomberg at a speech about health care in Washington this morning saying, “I’ve been very inspired by his innovative work," and, “Mayor Bloomberg continues to be a man Read More

The Morning Read: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Mayor Bloomberg’s budget director said that the governor’s budget would create an $862 million shortfall for NYC.

Ken Raske and Dennis Rivera pen an op-ed letter today asking if Eliot Spitzer really has a plan to cover uninsured New Yorkers.

The letters exchanged by Spitzer and hospital lobbying groups are here.

Ryan Read More

Buildings, Not Health Care

More from Eliot Spitzer on Dennis Rivera and the 1199 ad campaign:

PRESSMAN: And when Rivera says that cuts are not reform, what do you say?

Gov. SPITZER: Well, you know, what we are doing is insuring 2.6 million New Yorkers, providing for better preventive care, insuring that we have primary care doctors. What he Read More

Wielding Hillary on Health Care

Remember Hillary Clinton’s tough talk yesterday about the impact New York hospitals would feel thanks to president Bush’s proposed budget?

Well, Dennis Rivera and Ken Raske, guys who represent health care workers and hospitals, respectively, are putting Hillary’s statements yesterday to work in their public campaign against Eliot Spitzer’s budget.

In a Read More

Rivera Goes National

Dennis Rivera is taking over a new super-union for national health care workers, leaving the New York-based 1199 SEIU. His replacement is George Gresham, currently the secretary-treasurer .

The major bump up for Rivera comes right when Eliot Spitzer is about to (what’s Hillary’s phrase for this kind of thing?) drop the hammer on Read More

1199 and O’Connell

1199 SEIU, the powerful health care workers union, has announced that they’re endorsing Republican state Senate candidate Maureen O’Connell in the special election in Nassau.

As Liz notes, the move is a sign of the tension that exists between union president Dennis Rivera and Governor Eliot Spitzer, who have very different views of Read More