Cuomo: Mainline Democrats “squandered the opportunity” [View all]

[brooklynite]

Albany Times-Union:

Elections often clarify political situations, but sometimes confuse
them. The New York State Senate leadership question is an example of
the latter. A “coalition governance” structure combining the
Independent Democratic Conference and the Republican Conference has been
announced.

The politics of this New York State Senate are especially complicated
and have been for years. There are geographical and ideological
factions and political philosophies ranging from the far left to the far
right and everything in between. Corruption is no stranger to the
Senate, as I well know from the cases I brought as Attorney General.
Neither the Republican nor Democratic conferences come to this juncture
with clean hands. From 1966 to 2009, the Republican Conference led for
42 years and blocked much progressive legislation, including last year’s
efforts to increase the minimum wage, enact campaign finance reform, and
end the controversial “stop and frisk” policy. The Democratic
Conference was in power for two years and squandered the opportunity,
failing to pass any meaningful reform legislation despite repeated
promises. The Democratic Conference dysfunction was legendary and the
current leadership has failed to come to a cooperative agreement with
Mr. Klein’s IDC (nb - Independent Democratic Conference) faction.

So rather than base my support on amorphous and often misleading
political labels, shifting coalitions, or internal organizing concepts,
I prefer to base my support – or lack thereof – on specific policy
positions. As Governor, I have specific programs and progressive
initiatives that I believe must be continued or enacted, and I will give
or withhold my support based on an individual legislator’s support of
those issues. In general, I believe the State needs to continue the
progress of the past two years to maintain the fiscal integrity we’ve
established and further the social progress we’ve achieved.

...snip...

I do not see my support for individual senators or my opinion of Senate
Leadership to be based on a point in time. With margins this close, I
expect the leadership situation to be fluid and subject to influence for
some time. I can offer the people of the state my opinion at any time
over the next two years, when practice has provided clarity. My opinion
will be based on how those senators function as a leadership group and
perform on the important issues for the people of the state.

The easy response would be "Democrats Good - Republicans Bad", but that wouldn't properly reflect the general mess in Albany. If IDC can use its clout to get votes on progressive policy issues, I'm willing to give them a try.