 During Pehme's tenure, City & State won a number of New York State Press Association awards , including Best Coverage of Elections/Politics, 2013, for which he was personally recognized, along with Nick Powell, Jon Lentz and Aaron Short.On December 23, 2014, Politico reported that Morgan Pehme had departed "City & State".On January 29, 2015, Politico wrote that Morgan Pehme had been hired as executive director of "EffectiveNY", a nonpartisan government watchdog group and public policy think tank founded by businessman Bill Samuels.