2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumCuomo: Mainline Democrats “squandered the opportunity”
Albany Times-Union: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 years
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. Kleins 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 legislators 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 weve
established and further the social progress weve 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.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)and votes for myself.
Screw off, Andy. You are not going to be President, ever.
Andy is cutting social programs all over the place, including one for infants and babies that HIS FATHER instituted. And which save the taxpayer boatloads of money in the long term.
Cha
(297,101 posts)but, what happened to Andrew Cuomo?! Does he have any redeeming qualities?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Other than that, I got nuttin.
I can't even give him credit for gay marriage as the previous 2 governors would have signed the bill too if the Democrats could have gotten it through the legislature. Andy Cuomo has never contributed anything of value to the political discourse.
He's a clinger and the beneficiary of nepotism.
Cha
(297,101 posts)about him a while back. That's too bad. So, I wonder what happens in 2015? Too soon to tell beyond pure speculation?
dsc
(52,155 posts)He went out on a limb to get it and worked his ass off. Yes the previous governors would have signed it, and Patterson worked his ass off too, but Cuomo got it done.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)I mean I hated Patterson too...but Andy Cuomo makes me nostalgic.
Cha
(297,101 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)I was in HS in CT, later DC for college when Pataki was governor. Not a fan of his either.
I voted for Spitzer. I'd vote again for Spitzer.
One of the 99
(2,280 posts)He needs to be primaried in 2014.