Politics on the Hudson

Here, in all its, um, glory, is Monday afternoon’s Senate seating showdown.

The action starts about 38 minutes in after the confirmation of Dr. Nirav Shah to lead the Department of Health.

To recap, the four-member independent Democratic conference led by Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, was given preferential seating by the Republican conference. This upset Democratic senators, particularly Eric Adams, who claimed some lawmakers in his conference were given the short end of the stick when it came to staff allocations and seating. Namely, Adams charged the Republicans were being discriminatory against female and black lawmakers. This prompted an angry rebuke from Deputy Majority Leader Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, at about one hour in, who said Adams was “way out of line.”