Silver screws Spitzer
Shelly Silver ignored the recommendations of Spitzer’s bipartisan panel and chose Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli as Comptroller:
The Democratic-led State Assembly dealt a setback today to Gov. Eliot Spitzer by agreeing to elect Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli as the next state comptroller, reneging on a deal it made with the governor to choose only from candidates deemed qualified by an outside screening panel.
The matter will be put to a vote of the entire Legislature later this afternoon, but with Assembly Democrats controlling the biggest voting bloc, Mr. DiNapoli’s election seemed assured. The Legislature is in the unusual position of choosing a comptroller for a nearly full four-year term because the popularly elected comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, resigned in disgrace after he pleaded guilty to a felony late last year.
Instead of a popular vote, or the open process that the Legislature agreed to conduct last month, Mr. DiNapoli was chosen in a closed-door meeting of Assembly Democrats this afternoon.
Classy, huh? It’s too bad that there’s no way to force Silver out as of now. One can only hope that once Bruno’s gone, Spitzer will have more leverge over Silver.
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Anybody willing to wager that Joe M. returns as MCDC Chair?
I sure hope so. Here’s why: I’m not from Monroe County. I’m from Livingston, and until Morelle became MCDC chair, we were completely and totally ignored by the rest of the Democratic party in NY. I think Joe was trying to make himself into a regional leader by bringing smaller county party committees into the loop. That was a very nice change for us, and I hope he picks up where he left off. It is very difficult to represent Democrats in the rural (i.e., Republican,) counties, and he was a big help to us.
From what I’ve heard, at the state level, the NY Democratic party has been kinda nonexistent. So large population centers (NYC, Rochester, and Buffalo), survived b/c they have a critical mass of Dems to make a machine out of.
Hopefully that will change, with the new upstate Dem co-chair Spitzer appointed. The dream would be to extend the 50 state strategy to the southern tier, so even the “low-information” voters there can be opened to the possibility of voting for high-quality Dem candidates.
I think high-quality Dems running at ALL in Livingston & points south does a good job “to represent Democrats”. But you’re right–more is needed to overcome the institutional disadvantages.