Tag: NY-St. Sen

Whoa whoa whoa:

The Senate deadlock may be over.

Rogue Democrat Pedro Espada Jr., who collaborated with Republicans in a June 8 coup that toppled Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, is returning to the fold, sources said.

That will give Democrats a 32-30 majority and, ostensibly, allow the Senate to convene and vote on crucial legislation, like mayoral control of city schools and a city sales tax hike.

Under the deal, Malcolm Smith will be the Senate president, several senators said.

Espada (D-Bronx) and Democratic conference leader John Sampson will serve as co-majority leaders, they said.

Jesus wow.

UPDATE: Espada is scum, the Senate leaders suck, this has been a huge mess & massive waste of money… but the one silver lining here is that Tom Golisano can seriously, seriously suck it.

David Paterson is going to attempt to do something many folks thought was unpossible:

Gov. David A. Paterson will name a lieutenant governor in a televised speech he has scheduled for late Wednesday afternoon, according to a person close to the governor.

It remains unclear, however, whom he will pick. …

Speculation in the capital ran rampant on Wednesday about a possible pick for the post, including the former Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi. Ms. Kaye did not return a call for comment. Mr. Suozzi indicated at an appearance on Wednesday that he would not be appointed, nor had sought the job.

Swing State Project sources also indicate that SSP Publisher DavidNYC is in the hunt. Apparently, Paterson, who represented the West Side for many years in the state Senate, wants to balance his ticket with someone from the East Side. Anyhow, how might Paterson accomplish this trick, given that the state constitution doesn’t specify anything about any line of succession for the Lt. Gov. spot?

But whether Mr. Paterson can legally appoint a lieutenant governor has been a matter of some debate. One school of thought, which has been advanced in recent days by Democrats and government watchdog groups, is that a provision of state law allows the governor to fill elected offices for which there is no provision explicitly spelling out how the vacancy should be handled.

But Republicans are sure to sue to block any such move, and even AG Andy Cuomo claimed that this would be an unconstitutional “political ploy.” Still, with such an embarrassing circus in Albany, anything that might put pressure on the Senate to bust its insane logjam could be helpful at this point – it’s pretty hard to see things getting worse. Stay tuned this afternoon.

(Hat-tip: Taegan Goddard)

UPDATE: I’m watching New York 1, and they just announced that Paterson will (attempt to) tap former MTA head Richard Ravitch. The Daily News confirms.

The story just keeps getting crazier and crazier:

Sen. Hiram Monserrate has switched sides – again.

“I’m coming home,” the Queens Democrat told the Daily News in an exclusive interview on Sunday. …

His decision creates an astonishing 31-31 deadlock in the Senate and further muddles the question of which party controls that body.

“I said I wouldn’t return to the caucus without a leadership change among the Democrats, and that has happened,” Monserrate told The News.

On Friday, Senate Democrats settled on Brooklyn’s John Sampson to replace Malcolm Smith as leader of their conference, but to keep Smith as the majority leader.

It’s very hard to say what might happen next, though Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News tries to game things out. Needless to say, if traitor ringleader Pedro Espada doesn’t crack, he will almost assuredly get his ass primaried if there’s any sense left in this universe. Monserrate’s twice-in-a-week side-switching probably isn’t healthful to his future, either. And if this whole coup falls apart, it’ll also be nice to see Tom Golisano get humiliated.

For some related and entertaining history, check out this post at The Thicket which chronicles Willie Brown’s attempts to block the GOP from controlling the California state Assembly in 1995 by seducing a series of dissident Republicans. Two of them were quickly recalled by voters – an option not available to Dems in New York – and the GOP eventually seized power. But a year later, Dems gained an outright majority in the chamber.

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.