More On Deal With "Gang Of Three"

by: robert.harding

Thu Dec 04, 2008 at 17:13:49 PM EST

- The positions of Senate majority leader and president pro tempore, which were both held by former Majority Leader Joe Bruno, have now been bifurcated. Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. will be the majority leader while Smith is president pro tempore.

The majority leader post in other legislative bodies in New York, the City Council and the Assembly, for example, is not one with a lot of power. Espada told me he has been assured by Smith that his position will "have absolute substance," and, as a result, "the Latino empowerment issue has been substantially enhanced."

Espada said he will have a "meaningful role" (Nick Confessore reports it's vice chairman) with the Senate Rules Committee, arguably one of the more powerful committees in the chamber and the last stop for all the bills before they go to the floor for a vote. He'll also have a part to play in the next big fight coming down the pike: Redistricting.

- Sen. Carl Kruger will not get the Housing Committee, as some activists like ACORN's Bertha Lewis, had feared, but he will chair a pumped-up Senate Finance Committee. Recall that this was something the Republicans proposed in an effort to woo the Gang of Three to their side. The committee will have an enhanced staff and a fair degree of independence.

- Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. will chair the Aging Committee.

A few things here: Espada got a nice deal. It must be nice to walk into a legislative body and be anointed someone who will wield a certain amount of power. How much exactly remains to be seen. But Espada got a nice deal here.

Naming Kruger to the Senate Finance Committee is interesting, especially considering here in Western New York we were pushing during the campaign that Sen. Bill Stachowski would become the Chairman of the Finance Committee. In fact, Stachowski was the ranking minority member of the committee. Kruger jumped Stachowski, plus two other members of the soon-to-be majority to get the chair. I don't like this deal, considering Stachowski's service in the Senate, and I hope that Stachowski receives some sort of post in return.

Giving Diaz the Aging Committee isn't a huge deal. Diaz was in line to chair that committee anyway considering his ranking minority member status.

There is one other notable part of this deal. According to Liz's report, senators will be seated in alphabetical order instead of by party. Espada argues that this could mean the end to party-line voting, although I'm not sure how much a New York State Senate game of musical chairs matters to how senators vote.

I'm sure there is more to this that we haven't been told yet. But we will see what details come out over the next day or two.  

"Gang of Four's" Latest B.S. About Latino Representation

by: Roatti

Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 13:55:04 PM EST

Three of the four holdouts are Latino legislators who feel Latinos have been underrepresented in leadership roles in city and state government and want to press the issue in the Senate.

Mr. Díaz said the four men, who have formed an independent political caucus, may put off making a decision on whom to back for leader until the new legislative session begins in January.

"There's a concern that we have a black president, a black governor and we have a concern that we have to be sharing power," said Mr. Díaz.

Funny how Mr. Diaz didn't have any problems two years ago when we had a white Governor and a white President.  

Additionally, how exactly will a Skelos-led Senate give latinos any power?  I don't believe there is a single latino Republican Senator.  As far as I can tell, every Latino Senator is a Democrat, so if you side with Skelos, you will be keeping the most powerful state latino officials in a powerless minority.  So I suppose this little tantrum isn't really about latino power- it's about your power.  

What's your next excuse?

I'm Going to be Blunt

by: Roatti

Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 18:38:20 PM EST

To these four Senators, Ruben Diaz Sr., Pedro Espada Jr., Carl Kruger, Hiram Monserrate, I have message to you from the Netroots community:

If you do not vote for Malcolm Smith for Senate Majoirty Leader, we will expel you from political office in the 2010 Democratic primaries.    

Look at your colleague Marty Connor as he packs up his office to leave public life.  That will be you in 2 years if dare to stifle the will of the people who elected you.  

Remember Nancy Lorraine Hoffman?  Remember Olga Mendez? 26 years in the Senate for Olga; she switched to being a Republican and she was voted out by an 81-18% margin.  That will be YOU if you make such a foolhardy move.  

And Senator Espada- you yourself already lost an election because you supported the GOP. Are you really that much of an idiot to make the same mistake twice?  

So go ahead, "gang of four"- vote for Skelos.  We dare you.  

Primary Wrap up

by: Roatti

Wed Sep 10, 2008 at 00:41:21 AM EDT

As I have been covering the AD-64 race with the most interest, here are a few observations.  First off, Shelly does have a Republican opponent, and let me say that I wholehartedly endorse him against his Republican opponent.  While we Democrats have the privilege of being picky in our primaries, even the worst Democrats are better than even the best Republicans any day.  Vote Sheldon Silver in November.  

Secondly, I am hoping Shelly can learn from this primary fight.  Shelly had a roughly 30-1 cash advantage against his opponents, and more importantly, he had the backing of the WFP and every union that decided to endorse in that race. He also had almost every member of the Assembly and their staffs pounding the payment, taxpayer-funded constituent mailers, and $7 million worth of pork to slather his district with.  Newell had 40 volunteers, zero endorsements by any elected officials,  and an office rented in a dance studio.  Shelly also had the downtown Democratic clubs and there were people handing out pro-Shelly literature on virtually every corner of that district today.  And still 1/3 of the Democrats in his district cast votes against him.  Shelly did about 10 points better than Martin Connor did in 2006 (who was facing a much better financed opponent), and we know what happened to Connor tonight.  

To his credit, after Shelly's leadership was challenged from within his caucus in 2002, he got the message and changed his behavior afterwards.  Let's hope he draws the same lessons from today.  If he actually starts passing rules reform in his house and works with out soon-to-be Democratic Senate to pass campaign finance reform and redistricting reform, it will be because of this courageous primary challenge by Paul Newell.  And let me say also, that if Shelly does these things, I will stop railing against him on a daily basis on this blog. But he has to do those things first.

On another note, the real winner tonight was the WFP.  I don't think they lost a single race where they endorsed.  Very impressive.  

And finally, I am looking forward to having a real reformer going to Albany in January by the name of Dan Squadron.  For a challenger to beat the former minority leader by almost 10 points is almost hard to describe in its impressiveness.  With a victory like this, Albany will have to take notice of Squadron's 11-point plan for reform, which includes Clean Money Clean Elections, redistricting reform, and rules reform. I'm looking forward to Squadron taking this plan forward with the same force as did in his enormously successful campaign.  

So celebrate tonight everyone, because we live in a democracy where we can have these discussions in public without fear of government retribiution.  Even if your candidate lost, you can't argue with the voters having their say.