I’ve found the overarching tradmed coverage of the New York State Senate debacle to be depressingly uninformative – no one really seems to know what’s going on. But there have been a few developments that bear noting. First off, a state judge refused to grant Dem Sen. Malcolm Smith’s request for an injunction to stop the GOP from conducting Senate business, saying he lacked the authority to do so. The GOP + Pedro Espada + Hiram Monserrate proceeded to conduct a brief, do-nothing session, which more or less came to an end when Monserrate walked out after giving a speech, denying the Skelos-Espada faction a quorum to do anything further.
Monserrate’s behavior has been unusual – under considerable pressure, he’s been playing footsie with his Democratic frenemies, making it seem like he’s not totally committed to the coup. He better decide soon, though, because of couple of folks are already starting to sound a bit like potential primary challengers: Assemblyman Jose Peralta and NYC Councilwoman Julissa Ferraras, his former CoS. Meanwhile, the chief advocate of gay marriage in the state, Thomas Duane, briefly considered switching sides as well – Espada said he’d like to see Duane’s marriage equality bill come to the floor. But later reports have said he’s staying put.
Undoubtedly there will be much more to come in the days ahead.