NY Senate Coup

Dear Jack,

Today is the first day after the GOP coup in Albany with the Senate. There is so much going on with this that I don't even know where to begin.

So I gather, the minority party of Republicans made a motion to change leadership of the Senate, claiming a new majority caucus which included two democrats, Espada and Monserratte. In the middle of the coup, members of the Democratic majority called for the session to close, and it was hammered out. Most democratic senators left the chamber, after turning the lights out on the remaining senators. The republicans remained, claiming that one could not use the gavel to end the session in the middle of a vote. As a result, the republicans have claimed a coalition majority with Espada (D) as the President of the Senate and Skelos (R) as the Majority Leader. Gov. Patterson has said that he will recognize Smith as the Leader until the Senate can resolve the issue and confirm who the new Majority Leader is.

As a result, it looks like dealing with this power change will dominate the remaining part of the session. Now Espada has said that he will push to have the so-called "Gay Marriage" bill brought to a vote under this new coalition. It is unclear at this time of Skelos will do this or not. If Smith retains leadership, obviously there will need to be some time spent addressing this situation. Regardless, the sufferers are not the Senators, but the constitutnets and those who would be effected by the important bills still left to be resolved including DASA and GENDA, as well as Education and Landlord/Tenant rights.

It would also be unclear that if Smith retains power if he would bring the Gay Marriage bill to a vote. Many claim that Smith made a deal with Espada, Diaz, and Kruger to not bring it to a vote when they agreed to his leadership back in January. It is also unclear if Diaz, Kruger or other democrats will join the Republican-led coalition caucus. The NY Times reports that many have already been contacted about retaining their positions on committees and the stipends associated with them if they were to accept the new leadership.

There are several things that disgust me here:

• Billionaire Tom Golisano, formerly of Rocherster, now a Florida resident, claims to be a financial backer of this coup, and on NY1 said he would allocate as much of his personal funds as he deemned necessary to ensure the new coalition government takes charge. This type of wholesale purchase of a state government should be ILLEGAL. It is lobbying at its worst. It makes Golisano the leader of NY and the only constituent of the senators who are bought by him. Any senator who took funds from Mr. Golisano should be removed.
• It is very telling that the only two democrats who signed on with the Republicans were two facing criminal investigations. Espada already has been fined thousands of dollars for tax fraud related to his campaign financing, and for not disclosing his contributions. Additionally, he is under investigation for possible funds being funneled through a non-profit to his campaign. This is not to mention that he is being investigated for not living in his district! Monserratte of Jackson Heights is currently under investigation for a domestic violence case almost a year old. His girlfriend had charged him with slashing her in the face with glass. A few weeks later she recanted and said it was all an accident, and that she had fallen on the broken glass in his hand.
• It is not surprising that Espada and Monserratte would be shady enough to change their voting affiliation like this for political favors. It is more embarassing that the Republicans would utilize them to do so! What is worse, is that if this government is approved, Espada would act as govenor whenever Gov. Patterson left the state, or if he become incapacitated. If we wanted a criminal for a governor we could have just kept Spitzer and his prostitute.
  
• I also think of the many interns and office aids that may face unemployment as their jobs are changed because of this.

One wonders who exactly the Senators and Golisano were trying to help. Right now it feels like "themselves" is the answer. They should all be ashamed of themselves at least, voted out of office at best, and in a just world, charged legally for wasting the citizens of NY's tax dollars in this escapade.