I plead guilty. As much as I tell myself not to, every time there's a post about Carolyn Maloney and Kirsten Gillibrand, I go to the diary like bear goes to honey.
I know I'm wasting my time (with laundry/housework/studying...[fill in the blanks]...) posting every time a Gillibrand and Maloney diary appears.
Let's face it, the Junior Senator from NY is going to be a liberal Democrat because the Republicans don't have a chance of winning, Pataki or not.
The REAL damage done to this state is done by the State Legislature.
More after the fold.
As people active in politics know, the New York Senate is deadlocked with 31 members of each party in the chamber. Because of the way NY state politics go, this is deadly.
Unlike other states, like Texas where the governor has little power, NY state gives its governor sweeping powers. And, by an evolution that happened long before I moved to New York, the Senate and Assembly leaders have the power to totally control their chambers.
What is brought to the floor, what gets out of committe, etc. is totally controlled by the legislative leaders.
The New York budget is basically decided by 3 men in a room - the Governor, the Assembly majority leader and the Senate majority leader.
No one can say this has worked well, but it has worked because NY voters keep voting the same legislators into office election after election. This gives the legislators little incentive to do any thing new.
Each legislator gets money doled out to them (called Members items) which they use to buy constituents loyalty by using the money to improve something in his/her district.
Apparently, most constituents remember the members items - a park referbished, a hiking trail improved, new sewage system, etc. - and dutifully vote the incumbent back into office.
Like the famous quote I'm borrowing - "Every NY voter complains about the NY legislature, but no one does anything about it."
Right now, with a special session being called from day to day, just so the state can function, 2 important bills are sitting on the back burner:
Equal rights for Gays wanting to marry.
The second is raising the amount of employment benefits from $405 a week to something close to what Connecticut ($584 a week) and New Jersey ($576 a week.
NY's unemployment rate is the highest it's been in 30 years. Many of the unemployed are skilled worker, who often take longer to find a job. (Even in a good economy, the rule of thumb used to be 1 month for every 10 thousand made. Thus someone making $80K a year would need 8 months to find a job.
The NY Times article is here.
I know the diary police get annoyed if one's diary is too short, or quotes too much of the source of the diary, or rambles on too long (my bad habit).
But please read this article! As said above, let's not focus on the 2010 senate race, let's do our own "Contract with New York" and vote the incumbents out. It will be harder to do, but if we can replace 10-25% of the incumbents, we could create real change.