Politics on the Hudson

  How is the state Senate going to respond to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s nomination of an assemblyman, of all people, to be the state’s next Environmental Conservation commissioner?

   “Minimally, the nomination of a member of the Assembly is controversial,’’ Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said in an interview on WROW-AM radio in Albany today. “There will be a lot of public discussion about it.’’

   Spitzer – yes, the same governor who said a lawmaker shouldn’t be the state comptroller – has nominated 32-year Assembly veteran Pete Grannis of Manhattan to head up Encon, which has about 1,000 more employees (more than 3,000) than the comptroller’s office.

   Spitzer angered lawmakers by his opposition to their eventual choice to be comptroller, former Nassau County Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli, saying lawmakers should have opted for one of three people with a greater financial background who were picked by a screening panel. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Greenburgh was among those comptroller hopefuls snubbed by the governor.

    Bruno didn’t talk about when the GOP-controlled Senate, which has to confirm Grannis before he can take up the reins at EnCon, will consider his nomination.

     Grannis and Angela Sparks-Beddoe, a utility executive whom Spitzer tapped to run the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, are expected to be the two nominees most likely to run into trouble in the confirmation process.