What?
Welcome to New York.
IDC and Senate GOP Announce Coalition Government
There are now 63 State Senate Districts in New York. Officially 2 of those districts are still being counted. However it is clear that 1 will end up a Democratic victory. The other currently has the Republican ahead by 111 votes with about 800+ challenged votes that will go in front of a judge... primarily democratic voters from heavily democratic Ulster County. While that one is still in question it seems most likely that one will also go to the Democrat if all votes get counted.
So where does that leave us now? Republicans won 30 seats. Democrats won 31 seats. 2 seats are still being counted. 1 of those will certainly be declared a Democratic victory giving Democrats 32 seats in a 63 seat chamber and therefore a majority, right?
Oh you silly math freaks.
One "Democrat," newly elected Simcha Felder has already announced he'll caucus with the Republicans.
That makes Republicans 31, Democrats 30 (+1 for sure, +2 probably).
Aaah... but then there are the 4 IDC... oops, make that 5 IDC members.
IDC? What's that? Independent Democratic Conference. Or, Democrats who don't like the rest of the Democrats and decided to go play by themselves... or with the Republicans... whichever gave them more power.
So where does that leave us?
Republicans 31, Democrats 25 (+1 for sure, +2 probably), IDC 5.
And where does that leave us?
Senate Republicans and the five-member Independent Democratic Conference announced this afternoon a power-sharing agreement that will allow feature a rotating Senate presidency and equal control over committee assignments, the Senate’s active list, appointments and other key functions of the chamber.
Under the deal brokered, Sen. Dean Skelos would remain head of the Senate Republican conference, while Klein would continue to be in charge of the independent Democrats. The Senate presidency — a key constitutional post unlike the majority leader job — would rotate between Klein and Skelos every two weeks.
So when all the votes are counted and it is all said and done New York will have elected 33 Democrats to the State Senate and 30 Republicans and the Republicans will hold the majority.
Only in New York.
Only in New York.
UPDATE: Klein reportedly ran idea past Cuomo
But Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has distanced himself from Senate Democrats while stating publicly that he wishes to stay out of the chamber’s internal squabbles, could be convinced to support the new majority coalition, the consultant said.
“I think that as long as Skleinos (I think that’s what we’re calling it) can convince him that they can govern, he’ll be fine with it,” the source wrote in a chat session. Another source, a Democrat, claimed that Mr. Klein has been running ideas past Mr. Cuomo before moving forward.
And it must not be forgotten that Gov. Cuomo backed Republicans for the Senate and refused to back several Democratic candidates even though local leaders asked him. His position is quite clear... Gov. Cuomo prefers a Republican held State Senate.