Senate leadership still up in the air
-
- January
- 5
  There are just two days to go until the start of a new legislative term, and three Democratic senators from New York City have not publicly said who they will support to lead the upper chamber. Democrats won a majority of Senate seats for the first time since 1965. But members of the so-called ”Gang of Three” (originally a “Gang of Four”) have considered backing Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, so the GOP leader would continue as head of the Senate. They forged a deal with Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, to get some prestigious leadership posts in the Senate, but that quickly fell apart. The trio’s votes are so important because the margin between Democrats and Republicans is so close (32-30).
  Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, who is one of the three, said today that he didn’t know who he was going to support as leader. “By Wednesday, maybe I’ll know what I’m going to do,” he said.
  Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, and Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, could not immediately be reached for comment today.
  Smith met with Diaz, Kruger and Espada on Sunday. Democrats and Republicans are scheduled to hold conference meetings tomorrow night. The session begins Wednesday in Albany.
This entry was posted
on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 1:05 pm by Cara Matthews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
Actually it is 32-29 right now. Senator Padavan’s race is in court I believe.