Veteran Albany reporter Jacob Gershman of The Wall Street Journal is preparing to leave the Capitol beat and report on legal matters for the paper, reports Azi Paybarah of Capital New York.
Paybarah writes, “Gershman, an enterprising reporter who has spent years covering state government, will be hard to replace.
“He began reporting on Albany in the mid-2000s for the New York Sun (where I also used to work). When that paper folded in 2008, Gershman went out with a bang, with a report about how the powerful New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, commuted to Albany — at taxpayer expense — by flying from Queens to Washington and then to Albany.
“He landed at the Journal afterward, and kept up his old habits, getting ahead of the curve on policy debates. (Remember that bagel tax?)
“One former aide to Eliot Spitzer told me Gershman’s reporting, particularly on their budget negotiations with the legislature, was ‘like he was in the room’ with them. The aide, who wasn’t happy about it at the time, meant it as a compliment.”
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