| In comments
here, here, here, here, and here, we've seen a pretty frequent cycle of conversation, and not a particularly helpful one.
If you suggest that Sheldon Silver controls his conference or the Assembly, his defenders rise up and claim that no, he's not a dictator. He just does the will of his conference. Er, without consulting too many folks publically, because that would be, er, inconvenient. And all those strings he controls, like member items, capital spending, lulus, and so on... it's just part of the job. He'd never abuse them, right? Or use his power cynically to increase his personal power by, say, trading the Republicans the right to gerrymander their house so long as he gets to gerrymander his. It's just tradition, right? It couldn't be a betrayal of progressive politics because he's always fighting the Republicans.
Given the general dodging that comes from Assembly members when you push on these questions, it's hard to pin down just who's running the show. Silver himself is probably the least interested in clarifying who's in charge, a situation that serves him well since a failed long-ago coup.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this conversation, however, is that it offers an endless circle of claims and counter-claims without getting to the central point. Whether Silver himself is really the problem, or just the figurehead the rest of the Assembly hides behind, the results are still a mess. I wrote earlier:
When Silver's accused of being a dictator, his defenders claim he's only doing the will of the conference. At the same time he has no small amount of leverage over his conference.
My explanation is that it's a mutually-reinforcing disaster, where legislators fear and hide behind Silver as is convenient for them, and reap the benefits if they stay with the pack.
I know a lot of TAP folks are excited to see Paul Newell and Luke Henry challenging Speaker Silver. I'm certainly delighted myself, glad to see that someone is willing to take on so powerful a legislator by challenging the very way he works.
I worry, though, that we need to be looking well beyond the Speaker's chair. Even if a reformer were to knock Silver out in a primary, it's not likely a reformer would become Speaker. The rest of the Assembly is still there, with plenty of legislators who've spent a long time learning from Silver and their colleagues how to make this system work.
Reformers need to be very careful in how they approach Sheldon Silver - not because he's so wonderful personally, but because of the way he's carefully assembled a story and a supporting cast. Allowing Republicans the Senate has let him cast himself as a progressive, and his battles with the Governor's office have let him cast himself as the defender of legislative prerogatives, the leader of "the people's house".
Effectively challenging the support Silver gets demands more than just challenging Silver. It's not hard to tell true and dismal stories about the Speaker for contrast. Unfortunately, it keeps us attacking the biggest and most prominent head of a hydra. We need to be showing voters the hydra, how it reaches their districts directly, and how their own representatives are a part of it.
Silver is too important to ignore. At the same time, however, focusing our ire on Silver (and similarly on Bruno) is to target only one aspect of Albany's dysfunction. Silver's job titles certainly include that of lightning rod, taking heat himself, keeping it away from his conference. If we want to reform the New York State Legislature, we need to start looking at all of its members, not just the ones who happen to be on top of the heap.
We need to break a vicious cycle that's limited New York for decades. Challenging Sheldon Silver on his own turf is certainly part of that, but we also need to challenge everyone who keeps this cycle going. That's going to mean regular criticism of the Assembly, not just its Speaker.
As Democrats, we're pretty good at challenging Republican Senators across the board, not just Bruno. We need to accept that the same lesson applies on our own side of the aisle, in the Assembly. That won't come easily. |
