Smith Unfazed By Skelos, Espada Meeting
Democratic Senate Leader Malcolm Smith seemed unaffected today about Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ dinner tonight in Puerto Rico with Democratic holdout Pedro Espada Jr., one of The Gang of Four.
A Republican source confirmed that Skelos is headed to San Juan for the Somos El Futuro conference—which is also being attended by Governor Paterson—and meeting with Espada.
Espada, who was elected Tuesday and is a former senator who sat with Republicans, is being courted by Republicans to again join them.
“This was set up months ago,” a Republican official said. “Dean obvioulsy wanted to go down and meet with the Hispanic legislators and other groups.”
As for Espada, “He knows he’s always welcome. He shares a lot of the same concerns that we have about moving the state forward.”
Smith is heading to the Latino conference on Friday. He said Skelos can meet with whomever he wants.
“I’m not worried about it,” Smith said. “This is an historic time for Democrats in the state and everybody gets that. We have 32 Democrats and if Dean wants to meet with them, he has a right to do that.”
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