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Almost a month ago today, I questioned the motives of Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., Sen. Hiram Monserrate, Senate Republicans, Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon in the aftermath of the coup that made a dysfunctional legislature even more dysfunctional.
With the news today that Sen. Espada will rejoin the Senate Democratic caucus and as a result, will serve as Senate Majority Leader, it is hard to argue that what the Republicans (along with Espada) did on June 8 and what the Democrats have done (again, with Espada) on July 9 are any different. What the Republicans did was an obvious power grab. What the Democrats have done, along with the Republicans, is hold the state senate hostage until one of them got the result they wanted.
The losers today are the people of New York, who have been put on the back burner in favor of posturing and a disgusting lust for power that has distracted the legislature away from the people's business for a long time. The people of New York have lost out over the last month with key legislation not being addressed and a group of state senators putting their interests first and the interests of the state last. We deserve better. In fact, we deserve 62 better senators.
But the winners are clear. The winners don't include either the Senate Republicans or the Senate Democrats. Both are guilty of having a lust for power, but their lust isn't as great as Pedro Espada's. Espada might be with the Democrats, but he will receive special perks. He will get to name one of the two co-secretaries of the Senate, with the Senate Democrats picking the other. Espada ally and coup coordinator Steve Pigeon is also getting a job, according to the Times-Union. And if Pigeon is getting a job, that means inside access to the New York State Senate for Florida billionaire Tom Golisano.
So how does this help things? At least now, the Senate will be able to get to work and address key issues. But at what price? The Senate Democrats (the leadership anyway, maybe not each individual senator in the conference) have sold their souls to Espada. In doing so, they should face the same scrutiny that Espada shall face going forward. And that also means that in 2010, we should look at serious primary challenges to those individuals who think that the people's business is something that can be toyed with.
Many of us, including myself, worked very hard in our efforts to elect a Senate Democratic majority in 2008. I did not work hard to elect a Pedro Espada majority. Pedro Espada represents everything that is wrong with our legislative process and everything that is wrong with politics and governance in New York. Why the same Democratic leadership that I assisted in getting elected the majority is siding with this walking disaster is troubling and makes me feel as if all that hard work in pushing out Republicans who did nothing for 40-plus years (even though they tried to take the high road a month ago) was for nothing.
I advocated for a Democratic majority, not Pedro Espada. The Senate Democrats need to ask themselves who they work for. Because right now, it seems like Pedro Espada has them in the palm of his hand. And that is a bad thing for New York and bad for the Democratic Party.
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