Smith elected on a voice vote
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- January
- 7
  Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, was elected majority leader on a voice vote by the Senate this afternoon. The Democrats won a majority of seats in the November election – 32 of 62 – but three Democrats had considered supporting outgoing Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, to continue in that position. In the end, the trio known as the “Gang of Three” supported Malcolm, and the GOP settled into the minority position for the first time since 1965. Democrats control the Assembly and Gov. David Paterson is a Democrat.
  After an uncontentious vote, Smith spoke about the historic nature of his election and pledged to work with the GOP in a bipartisan manner for “one New York.” Smith, first elected in 2000, is the first African American to serve as majority leader of the Senate. Paterson, who is also black, was minority leader of the Senate before being elected lieutenant governor and then taking over for now-former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last year.
  “This is your day,” he said to the chamber. “It’s not about Malcolm and it’s not about the 62 or the 32 (members). It’s about the 19.5 million people in the State of New York…” he said.
  “All of us are proud,” Skelos said. “This has been a year of incredible change, and whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, we should be proud that any form of racial barrier has come down…” he said, referring also to the election of America’s first black president, Barack Obama.
  UPDATE: One thing of note is that Smith was elected before Paterson’s speech at 1 p.m. (thereabouts), but as of 2:15 p.m., Dean Skelos is still on the Senate welcome page as majority leader.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 1:48 pm by Cara Matthews.
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