Breaking: GOP back in control of State Senate
So Malcolm Smith is out. And if you read the tea leaves (WXXI or the D&C) it is about a Gay Marriage Bill? Please.
I wonder if the Democrats have to give back the Bruno Mobile.
The coup in the state senate had its first rumblings when Monserrate and Espada threatened to caucus with Republicans — citing their opposition to gay marriage — after Democrats took a one-seat majority in the senate.
Capitol Confidential says
The rules committee is now meeting and committee-head assignments are said to coming forthwith, which suggests that this has been in the works for a while.
The best is the New York Times who puts Florida Resident Tom Golisano behind the “coup”
Mr. Golisano played a role in negotiating original deal under which Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate — along with Mr. Díaz and Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn — gave their support to Mr. Smith.
[ FYI, that is the whole gang of three thing in December]
Steve Pigeon, his aide de camp, has been a frequent presence in Albany in recent weeks, and said Tuesday that Mr. Golisano felt betrayed by Mr. Smith because the Democratic leader had not delivered the overhaul of Senate rules he had promised upon taking power.
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If this is true then where does this put Patterson, I think politically speaking he is dead.
So what do you think? My first thought was simply that
If anything it shows how much work we still have to do to get a functional NYS government. I’d guess that that “the work” was masked by getting a narrow majority in November.
Wow– this is absolutely breathtaking…
Is there a silver lining here? When is redistricting? Do we still have another opportunity to slip the Senate back in 2010 before redistricting in 2011?
What are the chances of doing that? There are many of us who were disappointed that we didn’t grab more seats last year… especially in upstate.
Having said that, it’s hard to look back at the past five months and feel that flipping the Senate provided much. State government certainly didn’t seem any less dysfunctional than it did last year.
Let’s be fair here because statements like this
are based on two false assumptions here.
1. the Democrats are unified and aligned. We have witnessed that certainly isn’t the case and we saw that since the November election. Gang of 4, Gang of 3 etc.
2. 5 months is enough time to reverse embedded, ingrained and systemic dysfunction because somehow you are now “in charge”. The answer certainly is No.
In the end, those are excuses.
We were told flipping the Senate would provide the kind of Change that everyone in New York agrees we sorely need: better budgeting, streamlining of government, open and transparent government, progressive agenda implemented.
Where have those promises been delivered?
Again, it’s easy to hide behind the economic crisis for budgeting– but it sure seemed like three men in a room was alive and well. Property taxes up, not down.
No end in sight to pork based earmarks (”member items”).
Clean money, clean elections? Redistricting reform? Equal marital rights? Universal health coverage?
I’m sorry– but they’ve made it hard for me to care whether the Senate is run by D or R. “Meet the new boss… same as the old boss.”
If you’re right, and they can’t deliver because they don’t have a unified caucus, how is that any better than they didn’t deliver because they either never intended to or aren’t competent to get things done?
Five months is enough to at least begin reform and set a new tone. Looked like same-old, same-old to me.
Really? Excuses? No you are assuming that the State Senate is in line with some, well, all of the issues you highlight. CMCE? Please - Never on the table. You have seen that the votes for gay marriage were going to be very close. Health Care? Not on the table. Ending Pork spending? NEVERR on the table.
I stand by this assumption
No, 5 months is barely enough time to hire competent staff and spin them up.
Sadly changing NYS government is a long multi-cycle electoral process. Last November was the first step not the the last. Assuming that the November election was anything but - well, is naive.
Sadly, I think that things will have to get worse before they get better. For too many years we’ve had scummy do-nothing Democrats in the Assembly who were more than happy to hide behind the Republicans. Now that they don’t have the Republicans to provide cover for them, they’re showing their true colors. It will take at least one more election cycle to throw the bums out - our bums as well as the remaining Republican bums.
Mercifully, it appears that the two “Democrats” who voted for Skelos probably won’t be in power much longer - one’s up on assault charges for slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken bottle and the other one’s under investigation for financial improprieties. Charming people our legislators.
If this coup d’etat works, I think that the Democratic State Committee should drum Senators Monserrate and Espada out of the party on moral if not political grounds. Let them serve the rest of their terms as independents, then kick their sorry butts with honest, real Democratic candidates in the 2010 elections.
Wow. Totally stunned.!@#$%^&*(@#$%^&*()@#$%^&*(
I think this shows that Tom G. can’t be trusted either. He couldn’t wait to stick his nose in the mud after he said he was gone. In the end he is just another opportunist.
Perhaps time to really show him the door in NYS politics
Golisano’s primary concern has always been Golisano. He hasn’t even worked hard to hide that fact.
He was against property taxes because his were too high.
He is now against income taxes because he didn’t like having his raised.
He feel empowered to throw a snit fit, leave the state cursing everyone within auditory distance, and return to meddle.
Give the voters of this state credit for one thing: despite his having enough cash to buy any of the elections he ran in, they saw through him enough to not vote for him.
Maybe Robach will be officially implicated in the Robutrad scandal soon. That would be some great irony. Even if he doesn’t, this “deal” with the bipartisan prez and majority leader is pretty lame. The only thing its going to create is a bigger logjam. Theres no way Skelos is going to be able to transition–which took the dems several months–in the two weeks left before the State Lej session adjourns. This is a power grab–plain and simple. There’s no legitimate legislative or policy basis for these moves–the only basis is who gets to wield power.
i can’t wait to see if robach introduces his seccession plan now that he is back in the money or if he was all talk…
and stlo7 is right, many of those agenda items weren’t on the table and certainly one session isn’t enough to get all that going. if things went smoothly, it would have been a signal that the staffers/bureaucrats were running the show, which would mean no accountability to the people.