More shenanigans in Albany!

[rusty charly]

"More shenanigans in Albany! At this hour, the New York state Republicans are announcing that "Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. - are poised to announce that they have decided to cross the aisle and caucus with the Republicans out of anger at Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith." Dean Skelos, a Republican, has replaced Smith as Senate Majority Leader. This from the NYT, NYDN, GOP, AP, and WNBC, as further reports indicate the floor fighting has broken out over two key issues: the removal of Sen. Neil Breslin (D-Albany) as Senate president. He was replaced, 32-30, by Sen. George Winner, (R-Utica), which shows that 2 Dems (Moserrate and Espada) are voting with the GOP.

http://tinyurl.com/n9pcj4

The second issue is, of course, gay marriage, which was to die in committee if not voted on before the end of the session on June 22. Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-South Bronx), the most vociferous opponent of the gay-marriage bill, was said to be considering changing parties if Sen. Smith (D-St. Albans) brought the bill to a vote. With the bill beginning to gain undecided votes, Diaz was pulling out all the stops to prevent its passage, along with Sen. George Onorato (R-Astoria).

I still strongly suspect, as do some media pundits around NYC, that there was a back-room deal between Smith and Diaz NOT to put the gay-marriage bill up for a vote. But if Smith saw a clear mandate from the Senate to bring a vote (and made a motion on the floor), Diaz would declare Jihad on the remaining Senate Democrats.

This after a HUGE turnout of registered voters in support of gay marriage at Pride events in Staten Island, Queens, Hudson Valley, and Utica (!) over the weekend. I personally marched with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea) in Queens Pride to show my support for this issue.

Sure enough, Monday morning came, and fireworks went off in Albany. Did gay marriage fracture the Senate Dems?

As I see it, gay marrige is a dead issue in New York for the time being, with these developments.

[rusty charly]

1. More:

"At 3:37 p.m. Monday afternoon, State Senator Jeff Klein, a Democrat, offered a motion to adjourn the State Senate. It was an act of desperation: there was a motion on the floor that would elect the Republican leader in the chamber--Dean Skelos--majority leader, and install a turncoat Democrat, State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., as the president pro tempore. The last word was barely out of Klein's mouth before his fellow Democrat State Senator Neil Breslin slammed the gavel. Without speaking, 30 Democratic members slipped out the door. At 3:38 p.m., the chamber's lights went out. But the Republicans remained: they had more work to do."

http://www.observer.com/2009/politics/anatomy-coup

[Cha]

2. This sucks right now in the New York

state senate..hopefully the Dems will get it back soon!

[clear eye]

3. In the past, NYS R-party had promised not to run serious NYS Assembly candidates in swing districts

if Democrats would do likewise in NYS Senate races in swing districts, so there would always be a Democratic-majority Assembly and a Repubilican-majority Senate. The Dem takeover of the Senate in '08, broke the deal, though you could say the R's breached first by heavily funding R candidates for the Assembly in some swing districts. I have to wonder if nervous Dem borough leaders in Queens and the Bronx, worrying about heavily-financed Republican challengers for some Assembly seats, didn't do a backroom deal involving the two flipping (in more than one way) Senators. If this was really a case of two Dem Senators afraid their district would hold a pro-gay marriage vote against them, why didn't they simply vote against it. Did they really go renegade just because the Dem leadership was about to put them in a difficult position on this one vote? Another possibility is that those two were flat-out bought with promises of unbeatable campaign funding and/or threatened with unbeatable smears and strong opponents. Not knowing these guys myself, I can't say how hard that would be, but I do know that the R's have been desperate to retake the Senate.