Elmira Star-Gazette
Albany, NY
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20090610/NEWS01/906100385
ALBANY – Business in the state Senate ground to a halt Tuesday after a leadership coup this week by Senate Republicans and dissident Democrats, putting political factions at a standoff and leaving uncertain who controls the chamber.
A day after Senate Republicans and two Democrats voted to dump the Democratic leadership, little was resolved as ousted Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, vowed that his conference is still in charge and threatened legal action.
But Senate Republicans and Sens. Pedro Espada, D-Bronx and Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, insisted that the coup was successful, saying they have the 32 votes necessary to rule in the 62-seat chamber.
They plan to hold session 3 p.m. today, pledging that they would even go to a park to do it if Smith shuts them out of the chamber. Smith has refused to turn over the keys to the Senate meeting room.
“We’re clearly in charge,” said Espada, who was elected as the Senate’s temporary president. “Thirty-two senators voted for a new leadership, a bipartisan coalition government.”
The Senate chamber was dark Tuesday and the doors were locked as Senate Democrats huddled to figure out a legal strategy to prevent Monday’s leadership vote from taking effect.
Smith met privately with members to keep his fragile conference from further splintering amid speculation that other Democratic senators may join the new faction. Espada is holding out coveted committee chairmanships to Democratic senators who join with him.
“The Senate majority, the real, the only Senate majority, is committed to getting back to governing,” said Smith spokesman Austin Shafran.
But Republicans planned to forge ahead with their new agenda.
“We’re going to be able to govern,” said Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, who helped lead the coup on the Senate floor Monday. “We’re going to be able to do more reform.”
Said Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, Putnam County: “This is genuine reform. The Senate will be administered in a non-partisan fashion.”
A majority of Senate Democrats still appeared to be supporting Smith as leader. They claim they ended the session before Monday’s vote was taken.
In January, Democrats took control for the first time since 1965 and elected Smith as leader. But with just a 32-30 seat majority, Democrats held a tenuous hold of the chamber.
On Monday night, Gov. David Paterson called the leadership change “despicable,” but said Tuesday that he would not interfere.
“That’s the legislative branch. This is the executive branch. That’s something that they have to work out,” the Democratic governor said.
The uncertainty over Senate leadership was so great, however, that Paterson indicated he will not leave the state to avoid questions about who would succeed him as governor. According to the state constitution, Espada as Senate president would assume the powers of governor in Paterson’s absence because the lieutenant governor’s post is vacant.
In his concluding remarks at an economic-development roundtable in Albany, Paterson said that it normally was the “point in the discussion where I say, ‘It’s the last two weeks of session. I have to go back to talk to the leaders.’ But today, I really don’t know who they are.”
Espada came under fire from Senate Democrats, who accused him of flipping sides after Smith questioned his applications for member-item money for his district.
Shafran contended Smith raised concerns that several of Espada’s applications for funding for health-care groups in his district had wrong addresses or addresses connected to people close to Espada.
Espada is under investigation by the state Attorney General’s office for use of member-item money, which are pots of state aid controlled by lawmakers. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office is also probing whether Espada lives outside his district and instead lives in Mamaroneck, Westchester County. He also owes fines to the state Board of Elections for not disclosing his campaign contributors.
In interviews, Espada has denied wrongdoing. He said Smith used the earmarks “as a sledgehammer over senators to assure compliance with votes.”
Rochester-area billionaire Tom Golisano helped orchestrate the leadership change. Golisano denied he has offered financial help to Espada and Monserrate, who is under indictment for allegedly slashing his girlfriend. Golisano said his Responsible New York political action committee will back candidates who support reform.
“I’ve been making it aware to everybody since Responsible New York was founded that we are going to support candidates financially and their election in races if they support the reform structure of Responsible New York,” he said.
Golisano initially backed Senate Democrats’ bid to win control of the Senate, but soured on them in recent months after they approved a state budget that increased spending and income taxes on the wealthy.
Golisano, who last month changed his residency to Florida to save about $5 million a year in state income taxes, said he was miffed when he met recently with Smith and Smith spent most of the time “playing with his Blackberry.”
But critics knocked Golisano, who ran unsuccessfully three times for governor, for using his money to influence the Senate switch. Golisano pumped more than $4 million into Senate races last year.
The group Citizen Action held a rally outside Espada’s office to protest the coup and led chants of “Golisano Pays and Espada Plays” while Golisano met with him.
Shafran said that Golisano “belongs in Florida. That’s the last place an election was stolen from the Democrats. I have two questions: when and how much?”
