If you're a citizen of a state other than ours, you can be forgiven for thinking that New York follows the accepted and established forms of governance to be found elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth.
New York is a machine state. The parties nominate candidates in closed-door meetings, who then run unopposed and proceed to vegetate for decades in elected office. I'll give you one example: my Assemblyman, Joseph Lentol, was first elected to his seat in 1972. Before him, his father represented the district; and before him, his grandfather did the same. One family has represented Williamsburg for almost one hundred years. In 2008, it was nothing short of a political earthquake when newcomer (and friend of mine) Daniel Squadron defeated a thirty-year Democratic incumbent, Senator Marty Connor.
The protagonists of the Senate coup are one Tom Golisano, a Rochester billionaire usually described as eccentric, Senator Eric Espada of the Bronx, and Hiram Monserrate, who represents a Hispanic part of Queens. Golisano runs an advocacy group, Responsible New York, that advocates for open government and lower deficits. Other than Golisano, their most prominent member was Lenora Fulani, at least until she got kicked out in 2005 for anti-Semitism.He ran for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002 on the Independence Party line. Check his bio here. There's much more, but suffice it to say that Golisano is as nutty as anything out of a Betty Crocker cookbook. Also involved, obviously, is republican leader Dean Skelos. But he's not driving this, in part because Dean ain't too bright.
Next up, Pedro Espada. If you've heard the horror stories about Bronx politics, rest assured: odds are, they are all true. The place is so stunningly corrupt and badly administered that the best thing that could happen to it is a Federal takeover. Espada won his seat, coincidentally, in 2008 by defeating an even more corrupt incumbent, Efrain Gonzalez, who was indicted by the Department of Justice for mail fraud. In the Bronx, it can always get worse. Gonzales has two Federal indictments to his credit, by the way, including allegations that he diverted $400, 000 in charity funds to a villa in the Caribbean and other fun things. Espada, meanwhile, is currently being investigated by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; he ran in two elections in 2008, and never filed for a committee, which is required under even our lax campaign finance laws. The NY Post calculates the amount he seems to have embezzled into his campaign on multiple occasions at up to a million dollars.
Rounding out the trio is one Hiram Monserrate, of Brooklyn. Hiram has the intellect and and personal appeal of a dead toad crushed on a highway. He is a loathsome human being who should never have been allowed to run for public office. His current indictment is this: four days before Christmas 2008, he smashed his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass. What's that worth? Six, count' em, one two three four five six counts in his felony indictment. Let me put it simply: the man is going to jail. The cherry on the icing is that his predecessor, Senator Jonathan Sabini, a strong Progressive, was pushed out by governor Paterson and Democrats to make way for him. What do his new friends actually think of him? Read this.
So, other than creating material for a really bad screenplay, what's the point of all this? What we're hearing from minority leader Skelos, Mr. Golisano and the Democratic quislings is this: they want reform, and they weren't getting it. Which is a steaming pile of self-serving poop. Or, as the Daily News said:
Meanwhile, Republican boss Dean Skelos is only too happy to welcome turncoat Democrats Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada into his camp, while preposterously proclaiming that, at long last, reform is coming to the Capitol.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
What's come to the Capitol is a restoration of GOP dominion over the Senate after who-knows-what promises Skelos made to buy the fleeting loyalties of Monserrate and Espada. With them, Skelos goes from 30 to 32 votes, the bare majority Malcolm Smith thought he had while haplessly leading the Dems.
The republicans ran the Senate for four decades, and nothing got done. Budgets weren't passed on time, pretty much ever. Progressive legislation never even made it to the floor (in New York, the respective leaders of the two chambers exercise iron control over what comes up for a vote). When we took control, we discovered some taxpayer-financed goodies that nobody even knew about: the republicans were maintaining a secret television studio to plug their people. No, really, it's true.
That has all changed under Democratic control. Our racist, draconian drug laws - the infamous Rockefeller Drug Laws - gone. The legislature and governor somehow managed to plug a hole in the budget worth $17 billion. They figured out a way to keep the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which serves eight million people a day, going without causing a traffic collapse in the City. Take a look at the new Senate web site: it's a model of transparent government.
The legislative calendar for the remaining session is full of good things: ethics reform with teeth. Campaign finance reform with even sharper teeth. There's also a Womens' Reproductive Rights bill on the calendar. None of that, none of it, is going to get passed. As I wrote here, the Democrats are not recognizing the coup as valid, the Senate chamber and assets are in lockdown, and no business will get done until the lawyers have their say. The shrieking irony of this "reform" coup is that there are reform bills ready to be voted on.
What next? Nobody knows. The quislings are pretty much done from where the New York Democrats stand; but hey, you never know what price loyalty over power. It's worth pointing out, though, that the districts represented by these sacks of dirt are some of the most Democratic seats in the country. If we lose our majority, fine: we will get it back. And we will make this bluest of blue states a showcase for Progressive governance. Count on it.
Update: It gets even better: The New York Times reports this:
ALBANY — State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. requested more than $2 million dollars in Senate earmarks earlier this year for two groups with links to the health care organization that he founded and which appeared to have been created in part to receive such grants, according to several Democratic officials and aides with knowledge of the requests.
But Senate Democrats rejected the grant requests in early April because they could not confirm that the groups were legitimate nonprofit organizations. Around the same time, Mr. Espada began discussions with Senate Republicans to leave the Democratic caucus, ending with the Republicans’ stunning surprise takeover of the Senate on Monday.
Scumbag, eh?