New York State Senate Shocker – Democrats Help Republican’s Re-Gain Majority

The New York State Senate experienced a bit of upheaval on the 8th of June – two New York State Senate Democrats, Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens, voted with the 30 Republican Senators to give control of the body back to the Senate Republicans. The Govenor, embattled Democrat David Patterson is fighting mad, with good reason , Espada, who has become “pro tempore” of the Senate, would replace Patterson, should something happen to the Governor.

The drama: The entire “coup” was done in the dark – Democrats turned off the lights and ran from the house – trying to stop the vote that would take their power – to no avail. The Democrats are calling the move “illegal”; however, the move had been planned for days, with meetings taking place between those Democrats who joined with Republicans in an attempt to form a bi-partisan force. There are several pending issues of concern including: returning power over municipal schools to the individual cities, a new pension level for New York’s largest employee unions and the former Senate Majority Leader, Malcolm Smiths, support of Gay Marriage – which has the Governor citing political motivation for the coup. The Media has dubbed the two Democrats who switched parties as “Renegades”, and the character assassination was priority number 1 over at CBS - outing ordinary mishaps involving the two Democrats in question (and by ordinary, nothing more or less than U.S. Senate or Congressional Democrats have done).

One of the most interesting aspect of this event is the parallel to the U.S. House Republican Revolt over the energy bill last summer, when House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, cut the lights, and left the building in the dark, while Congressional members continued to debate off-shore oil drilling, , a move that eventually led to falling oil prices (speculators fears that off-shore drilling would become a reality moving pricing downward). It appears that when faced with any type of insurrections, Democrats shut out the lights and run – in a very “Keystone Cops” manner, leaving the Republican’s to go on about the business of the people.

The other angle here, is the power play against New York’s Governor Patterson, who in a video here on CBS, is obviously peeved - should the New York Senate remain in the hands of the Republican’s, the Governor would have little political clout in the Capital – given that he is not the most popular Governor in New York History, (given the make-up of the Up-State of New York as conservative), he now faces a Senate with members of his own party, giving the nod to the opposition.

Lastly, one has to wonder what prompted the “revolt” in the first place, was it purely political posturing, as suggested by the Governor, or was it the “writing on the wall” of embittered constitutes who are not as enamored by the current administration(s) – in other words, a career move prompted by a desire to maintain ones position. Most probably, given the non-lavish salary associated with the State Senate, it could very well be that those who took part in this “power grab”, did so in the interest of the People of New York.

CBC Video