Photograph of Governor Paterson, Richard Ravitch, and Mayor BloombergUPDATE 7-9-09
In what can be described only as a “unique” press conference, Senate Democrats welcomed back dissident Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada with open arms, man-hugs, and handshakes.
In the hour plus-long press conference that featured numerous speakers, long-winded answers to questions (which revealed very little concrete news), numerous platitudes about “lessons learned,” and more than one medieval metaphors of swords and iron being forged.
What it did not include was more than half of the Democratic conference. Only one upstate senator, Neil Breslin was in attendence.
In attendance: Sens. Malcolm Smith, Pedro Espada, Jeffrey Klein, John Sampson, amigos Carl Kruger, Hiram Monserrate, Ruben Diaz Sr., Conference Chair Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Velmanette Montgomery, Martin Malave Dilan, Bill Perkins, Shirley Huntley, Neil Breslin.
I’ll have to go back to the tape to get quotes and we’ll have video up this evening, but here is what we know:
- As reported earlier, here’s the line up of the new Democratic “leadership team”: President Pro Tempore Malcolm Smith, Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Deputy Senate Majority Leader Jeffrey Klein, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson.
- The conference is committed to “reform” and equalization of resources in the chamber. They are so committed, they spoke with Republican Tom Libous before they held their press conference and promised to meet to talk about reform. Espada said that reforms would be implemented “soon,” Sampson said they were committed to implementing something in “30 to 60 days.”
- There were a lot of “lessons learned.”
- The conference is stronger than ever.
There really wasn’t that much of substance otherwise.
The money quotes:
“A good sword is made by pounding and tempering, and I think we’ve done that,” said Hassell-Thompson.
“Some of the strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire,” said Kruger.
“It was never about power, it was about empowerment,” said Espada.
UPDATE: Thursday, June 9, 2009
Senate GOP Wins Restraining Order
A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was signed late last night by Judge Ute Wolf Lally in Nassau County that prevents Richard Ravitch from assuming any of the duties of the office of Lt Governor. The order also restrains the Governor, the Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez and Ravitch from filing an oath of office.
The case, Skelos and Espada v. Paterson, Ravitch and Cortes-Vasquez, will be heard on tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. at the Nassau County Supreme Court in Minneola.
Parties are ordered to submit paperwork by 1 p.m. today.
Paterson appoints Richard Ravitch Lieutenant Governor
Gov. David Paterson announced this evening that Richard Ravitch, former head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will serve as lieutenant governor. Paterson said he made the move to break the gridlock that has gripped the Senate for a month.
The Paterson campaign seems to have already begun robocalling voters to tell them about the governor’s actions. The message features Paterson who mentions that he hopes Senators will get back to work to address “important legislation.” The message was paid for by “Paterson 2010.” But exactly what the move will do to end the Senate standoff is unclear. As lieutenant governor Ravitch will be allowed to act as a tie breaker on certain votes but he can’t provide a quorum.
Liz Benjamin reports that negotiations between Republicans and Democrats have broken down in reaction to Paterson’s appointment.
Republicans are expected to challenge the legality of the move in court. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called the move “not constitutional” earlier this week.
Before Paterson even made his announcement members of the “reform coalition” were ratcheting up their opposition to the appointment. On his way into the Senate Chamber for the 17th extraordinary session, Republican Leader Sen. Dean Skelos told reporters he expected a legal challenge to Paterson’s appointment if he made one and pointed to Cuomo’s previous comments.
Skelos used the time he had for a televised rebuttal to to bash Democrats for raising taxes and he, too, invoked Cuomo’s opposition. Cuomo has yet to weigh in on today’s developments. But until he does Republicans will use him as a shield.
Sen. Pedro Espada was more definitive than Skelos. Edspada told reporters that Bronx businessmen who are friends of his told him they were on the way to the capitol for Paterson to announce a new lieutenant governor. Espada acted hurt, saying that Paterson had not mentioned his decision to him at a meeting on Tuesday evening. He said Paterson’s actions could derail negotiations, which Espada claimed are going well. (Espada has claimed many things over the last month that didn’t turn out to be true.) He indicated he felt the governor might be intentionally obstructing the negotiating process.
Dick Dadey, executive director of the Citizens Union, which supported and championed Paterson’s actions (and is also the sister organization of the Citizens Union Foundation which publishes the Gotham Gazette), took umbrage at Espada’s remarks. “I don’t know what the governor could possibly do to create a mess that is equal to what Sen. Espada has already created.”
Democrats have been far more supportive of Paterson’s actions. Espada’s amigos Sens. Hiram Monserrate, Ruben Diaz and Carl Kruger told reporters after session that they thought Paterson’s move was a good one, but they expected a legal challenge.
Monserrate said he would await a ruling on the constitutionality of Ravitch’s appointment before passing final judgment. At a press conference following Paterson’s, Sens. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson praised Paterson and said they “hoped to be back to work tomorrow.” But Sampson could not fully explain how Ravitch’s presence would facilitate any legislative action.
Sampson said he expected all the senators to show up in the chamber for a session tomorrow, over which Ravitch will preside. “At that point we will have our quorum,” said Sampson, “and we can begin passing legislation.” But Republicans are unlikely to participate in any session whether Ravitch is there or not. Democrats may try to argue Republicans’ presence gives them a quorum, but Ravitch can not provide them one.
Sampson complained that Republicans continue to be unwilling to pass non-controversial legislation while power-sharing negotiations continue.
Today it became more obvious how divided the Democratic conference is about a potential operating agreement with the Republicans. Sen. Jeffrey Klein has a proposal that would rotate the senate presidency, and a number of senators back that plan. Sens. Eric Schneiderman and Daniel Squadron have a different option, which would vacate the positions of senate president and have a floor leader from both parties. Schneiderman’s resolution would have a bi-partisan group set the legislative agenda and would make it easier for rank and file members to get legislation to the floor.
And then there are the amigos, who have been breakfasting together for the past week. The amigos have continually threatened to take some sort of drastic action by tomorrow if no deal is reached. Reporters dogged Diaz throughout the day trying to find out what exactly he and his colleagues might do. “Maybe resignation!” he joked as he fled down the hall, away from the lights of television cameras.”
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5 comments:
seems to be that Richard Ravitch has gone from the griddle [MTA mess] to the frying pan [NY Senate]. He said in an exit interview he needed time away. I don't think it was even 45 days rest.
The MTA mess will seem like a walk in the park compared to the Albany mess, even if the Senate starts back to work.
I checked the New York State Consitution and I could not find where the Governor has the power to appoint a Lt. Governor when there is a vacancy. Obviously Paterson and his administration must be aware of this or else he would have appointed a new Lt. Governor long ago. I am not sure what he is hoping to achieve with this other then adding a new ring to the circus that Albany has become. This will all be played out in court, of course.
We do need to look at amending the state Constitution so that in case of a vacancy the Governor can appoint a Lt. Governor, with advice and consent of the state Senate. But until that change is made, Paterson needs to be limited to the powers granted him in the State Constitution.
Paterson says, the court injunction came from Nassau County, not from Albany, therefore he can ignore such an injunction. What a MORON! I guess since the State Police made their no plea bargaining rule in Albany, any troopers outside Albany can ignore the mandate? I hope he is forced to do the frog walk, in handcuffs.
It have been reported that Senator Pedro Espada is returning back to the Democratic conference giving the senate democrats a 32-30 majority again. The deal?? He's going to be the Majority leader of the state senate.
The Democrats are such hypocrits. When Espada and Monserrate went to the Republican side, the outcry about their legal troubles was enormous. Now that they are back with the Dems, all is forgiven. They are both angels. They even gave Espada a leadership role.
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