Coup d’etat in New York State

As readers may know, after the New York State Senate had been under a Republican majority for, oh, I don’t know, since the beginning of time, the Democrats finally gained a majority this year, giving the Democrats control over the entire state government. The Senate’s Democratic majority put the body within striking distance of passing, among other things, homosexual “marriage,” which the Democratic State Assembly has already approved and which Democratic Gov. Paterson has said he will sign. But now, in a major surprise,

N.Y. Republicans Regain Control of Senate as Democrats Switch
By Michael Quint

June 8 (Bloomberg)—New York Senate Republicans regained majority control of Senate in a surprise maneuver with the help of two Democrats who switched sides.

Pedro Espada from the Bronx and Hiram Monseratte from Queens sided with 30 Republicans on key votes to change the Senate’s leadership. They resisted entreaties by Democratic Senators surprised by the coup.

Using the 32-vote majority provided by the two New York City Senators, the 30 Republican senators voted to name their leader Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre as the new majority leader, replacing Malcolm Smith, a Democrat from Queens.

After Democratic senators attempted to adjourn the meeting and left the Senate, the Republican majority appointed a new rules committee, which met on the floor of the Senate to adopt a new set of rules distributed at that time. They said that all committee assignments and leadership positions announced under Smith would be revoked, with new appointments to come Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Quint in Albany, New York, at mquint@bloomberg.net.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 08, 2009 05:45 PM | Send