New York State Senate

With Democrats closer than ever to the possibility of taking over the State Senate—and having total control of state government—there are signs that a fault line is emerging between two groups that have, so far, been working well together: the Democratic Party establishment and progressive activists.  read more »

The Assembly and state Senate are heading back to Albany on Thursday, according to a knowledgeable source. And Liz too! (added)

Since there is an agreement (sort of) on congestion pricing, and on campaign finance reform, expect some of that legislation to sail through both houses.

And maybe some gloating around the hallways about Eliot Spitzer's latest headache, courtesy of the Cuomo report.

That’s the answer to the question (question to the answer?) of “voted to take away $2.7M away from the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center.”

It’s part of a new web site launched by the Republicans in the state Senate as part of a renewed offensive against Eliot Spitzer and the Democrats, who are two seats away from taking control of that chamber.

More about the effort here.

A bill authorizing congestion pricing passed the state Senate rules committee just now, with 13 votes in favor, 9 against and 6 abstentions.

Reporters are waiting outside Joe Bruno's office right now to get reaction from him and the mayor.

The Queens Chronicle has a front-page story this week reporting that of all the state lawmakers representing that borough, only two support the mayor's plan to introduce congestion pricing.

"Of the borough’s six state senators contacted, only two — George
Onorato (D-Astoria) and Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) —
approved of the mayor’s plan. Not one of Queens’ 17 Assembly members
contacted favored the proposal..."

None of that comes as a particular surprise in light of the cool reception the mayor's plans have already gotten from the all-powerful Assembly SpeakerSheldon Silver. But it's nice to know where people stand.

City Comptroller Bill Thompson is co-chairing a fund-raiser for state Senate Democrats tomorrow night with Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, which is one of the more vocal unions in the city and an organization whose help will be sought after by just about everyone in 2009.

(Thompson, as most of you probably know, is interested in running for mayor.)

The theme of the event: “Democrats in the State Senate are on the verge of winning a majority for the time in decades…”

Democratic Councilman Joe Addabbo is having a fund-raiser on May 24th for his not-yet-announced race for state Senate against Republican Serph Maltese.

Maltese is best known outside his Queens district for having one of the closest re-election campaigns last year. Democrats narrowly lost that race with candidate Albert Baldeo, who is vowing to run again.

Helping out Addabbo, according to this fund-raising email a reader forwarded, is Stuart Appelbaum of RWDSU, and other labor leaders. Addabbo, coincidentally, chairs the labor committee in the Council.

"I gave him a pass in 2006," Addabbo just told me just now, referring to his decision not to run against Maltese earlier.

Addabbo said he'll make his formal announcement about the 2008 cycle at an appropriate time. That appropriate time, he said, won't be May 24th.

And from the department of weird coincidences...Addabbo was talked about as a potential state Senate candidate last year by unnamed people in Bloomberg's administration. Today, Addabbo appeared alongside Bloomberg in the Rockaways, where Bloomberg was denying a story, from unnamed sources, about running for governor.

The fund-raising email is after the jump.  read more »

Two cities. Two Democratic conference fund-raisers. One night.

Last night, the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee had a fund-raiser in Saratoga while the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee had a fund-raiser -- with Eliot Spitzer -- in Manhattan.

It just goes to show that being in the same party doesn’t necessarily mean working together on policy or politics. Assembly Democrats have bucked the governor on a variety of issues -- picking a comptroller, agreeing to a budget, awarding pay raises for legislators -- while Senate Democrats have largely been more accommodating.

I'm guessing that the governor's choice about where to go last night wasn't a hard one.

This is odd.

All Democratic Senate staffers are being called to Albany for a meeting on May 1st about some kind of “staff development,“ according to two knowledgeable staffers.

As one source, who learned about the all-hands meeting in an email, told me, “I don’t think district people usually go up there. Very bizarre.”

One Senate staffer who confirmed the meeting told me “it is unprecedented.”

A call to Senate Minority leader Malcolm Smith’s office was not immediately returned.

Anybody know more?

[UPDATE] Someone just passed on the memo from Smith. It's after the jump.  read more »

Here's what state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's spokesperson Lisa Black just told me about Eliot Spitzer’s promise to barnstorm the state -- in every Senate district -- advocating campaign finance reform:

“He took his tour on the road during for the budget and look how well that worked for him. He needs to learn the art of compromise.”

A reader passed on a notably early campaign announcement for 2008 state Senate candidate Tony Herbert, whose candidacy officially gets underway with a glitzy fund-raiser next month at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club.

Herbert's candidacy marks not just one of the first local 2008 campaign kick-offs I know of, but -- after his recent, unsuccessful run against City Council member Tish James as a Republican -- it represents a return to his roots as a Democrat. Sort of.

From an email to potential supporters:

"For decades, our community has blindly voted for any candidate based on party affiliation. This has led to our community being ignored by the same elected officials we voted into office. As long as we don't make our elected officials EARN our vote, we can't expect them to respect our needs in return! "

We hear that before convention season starts at the end of May, the New York Times, which already has a blog following the Newark mayoral race, is expected to launch a political blog covering the races for New York Senate, Governor and Attorney General. The entire New York political staff will be contributing. A presidential blog can't be far behind.

The Daily News significantly bulked up its blog coverage this month (including bringing on former Politicker Ben Smith) and the New York Post is expected to soon follow suit in its political departments.