Liz Krueger reflects

by: simonstl

Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 12:41:18 PM EDT

CapCon shares a letter State Senator Liz Krueger wrote constituents. I think it's pretty much pitch-perfect.

You should read the whole thing at CapCon, but here are some tasty bits. First, the part that I think everyone here will cheer:

I strongly believe that the attempted coup had nothing to do with reform and was simply a blatant power grab by the Republican party and a couple of disaffected Democrats. The Republicans' claim that the coup was done for the good of the people and in order to enact government reform is completely ridiculous.

Then the part that lingers on Democratic failures, particularly failures troubling to the hearts of many at TAP:

I think all of us in the Democratic conference have to look critically at what role we played in what went wrong. I believe that the biggest failure of my conference was that it was not aggressive enough in advancing a reform agenda....

While the Democratic leadership did introduce new rules that improved transparency, made it easier to move bills to the floor, and offered a broader proposal for significant reforms of the committee process, other issues such as equitable distribution of resources were not addressed. The common sense and "small d" democratic changes I have been fighting for were rejected. I believe that many of my colleagues adopted a "to the victor goes the spoils" model, and while I repeatedly argued against this, in the end, the conference was not willing to go as far down the reform road as they should have....

I am hopeful that one of the lessons learned from this whole process will be the need to develop fairer and more equitable rules. Every senator, regardless of party, represents the same number of constituents and should have adequate resources. I am an optimist and believe that if I persevere we will ultimately be able to make real progress.

It's hard for me to imagine my own Senator, Jim Seward, pausing for reflection like that, much less sending it to constituents, though I can dream of a "we over-reached" letter. She's right, though, I think on all counts.

That Republican Reform bill

by: simonstl

Tue Jun 09, 2009 at 17:29:29 PM EDT

If anyone's curious what was in the rules reform bill the Senate Republicans passed (assuming that was legal), the Brennan Center has a copy of the bill and an assessment.

Overall, it sounds like "basic steps, but New York has long lagged behind the rest of the country in this regard". There's even an opportunity to pass bills without consent of the leadership:

The rule creating a new "motion for consideration" which allows members to either move for a vote or petition for a bill to be placed on the active list is surprisingly rigorous. Motions or petitions receiving the support of a majority of members present and voting and a majority of the chamber, respectively, will move bills onto the active list even over the wishes of leadership. These bills will come before the chamber for a vote on the next session day, or, if the motion or petition is made within the last four days of a legislative session, the bill will receive an immediate floor vote.

While I doubt the Republicans will do much else good, I hope we don't even consider dialing back these "basic steps" when Democrats return to power.