I’ve written several times (most recently here) on the soap opera in the New York State Senate. The quick-and-dirty is this: while Democrats finally won numerical superiority in the Senate on election day, three dissidents refuse to back the Democratic leader and are instead flirting with Republicans. With the Senate set to meet and organize on Wednesday (January 7), it’s still unclear what these dissidents will do.
With that as background, the New York Daily News reports today on the efforts of Senate Republicans to win the support they need to maintain their control over the body:
Meanwhile, Republican leader Dean Skelos, who is desperately trying to finagle a way to hold on to the majority leader’s post, is getting help.
The Senate GOP’s deep-pocketed allies in organized labor have taken up Skelos’ cause.
He has asked leaders of the health care powerhouse 1199 SEIU and the AFL-CIO to meet today with the Gang of Three in hopes the union bigs will persuade the Democratic lawmakers to cast their lot with the Republicans.
The SEIU? The one headed by Andy Stern? The same one that’s mentioned in the same breath with Rahm Emanuel, Rod Blagojevich, ACORN, and other liberal lions? If New York Republicans were wondering why they’re continuing their slide toward irrelevancy, they need look no further than moves like this. Let’s assume for a minute that Skelos and the Senate Republicans get the return they’re hoping for — and secure control of the Senate despite holding a minority of the seats. What sort of return do you suppose the SEIU and AFL-CIO will expect for their intercession? Here’s one guarantee: it will be a return that conflicts with the core Republican message of smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulation.
New York Republicans point to their relatively friendly relationship with unions as one reason that they are occasionally competitive with Democrats in the state. However, it’s also the reason that New York Republicans generally offer voters an echo rather than an alternative. And as has been said, if you offer people a choice between a Democrat and a Democrat, they’ll pick the Democrat every time.
Maybe if Republicans lose control of the Senate — their last lever of power in New York — they’ll recognize that allying themselves with the SEIU and other unions isn’t the path pack to power.
Moe Lane
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Daniel Horowitz
Jake Walker
Unbelievable
Warner Todd Huston (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 10:35AM EST (link)It’s unbelievable that ANY Republican would turn to the anti-American SEIU for ANYTHING!!
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Just more of the culture of corruption that has sent the GOP into the electoral wilderness
civil truth (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 11:31AM EST (link)If one-party government become our lot as a nation, it is Republican leadership such as this that will find itself consumed by the flames of judgment, either by history or our Lord at His coming. With friends like this…
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Desperate times and all that....
MelZ (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 11:34AM EST (link)From a marketing stand point, GOP’s all over the country (and the GOP in general) are making a horrible marketing mistake. Instead of identifying their market and trying to develop their own “brand” that shows how cool they are….they keep selling their souls to the competition. And, they never listen to their constituency. I think the GOP heads need to have a seminar with the marketing departments of MAC, Nike and a few others to learn some lessons in branding.
I stand with you on the Dems being victorious, but I am beginning to think it won’t matter. I am not sure sure that the message will ever sink in.
MelZ
Careful what you wish for
Sean (SIConservative) (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 11:35AM EST (link)The state Senate is the only potential way for the GOP to have any leverage in redistricting. It’s bad enough to have a state the size of MA never elect any Republicans to Congress. If the Democrats run the state Senate for redistricting, you could be looking at a decades-long whitewash of Republicans in the Empire State.
Yes, but...
Brian Faughnan (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 12:01PM EST (link)Senate terms in NY are only 2 years long. Do you think that maintaining Senate control until 2010 (despite holding a minority of the seats) is a better way to ensure GOPers keep control through redistricting (in 2011), or do you think being in opposition is a better way?
I don’t like minority status — ever — but if Dean Skelos leads the Senate with a rump minority, making deals with Paterson and the Democrats and helped by the SEIU, well… I think the GOP will lose more seats in 2010. If on the other hand, Paterson and the Democrats are forced to take all responsibility for this mess for the next 2 years, I think the GOP has a better chance of gaining seats in 2010 — as well as winning the Governor’s seat.
And I do not make that prediction lightly.
It's worse than it looks
Sean (SIConservative) (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 12:41PM EST (link)I completely agree that reform is needed within the Party, on both the state and national level in my case. At the national level, it started, albeit not as clearly as I would have liked, up in Alaska when voters threw their indicted Senator out. The country is much more closely divided than NYS, giving greater opportunity for reform and the recapturing of power, though you know how long it was in coming during the last century.
The NYS Party is in an abysmal state. I’ll offer my own CD, the 13th, as an example. Rep. Fossella was very popular within the district and was expected to win even in a difficult year. When his scandal erupted, though, nobody on a very strong bench wanted to step up even though most would have entered the race favorites even in a Democrat year. Some or all expected that the Democrats would control the redistricting process and split Staten Island, thus making it impossible for a Republican to win in either of the two districts and cutting a Congressional career off at the four year mark.
Reform is needed, demonstrated no better than by the fact that we lost the house of the legislature that many thought we could never lose. I just don’t think that that reform can happen within two years. Many expected, myself included, that the Democrats who won in ’06 would blow it by overreaching or falling victim to their own scandals, thus giving us a chance to take back one or both chambers in ’08. Suffice it to say we were wrong. I’m not saying we’d definitely hold it in ’10 to have a say in redistricting, but I am saying that that’s probably our best shot. If you get your wish, though, and you’re wrong, there may not be another Republican elected to Congress from the state of New York in our lifetimes, and I haven’t yet hit the big 3-0.
You Could be Right
Brian Faughnan (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 12:51PM EST (link)But I think that given the way the budget looks, the better shot for the GOP in 2010 is simply to be able to say ‘we had nothing to do with this mess.’ Of course, if they manage to make Dean Skelos Senate President, and then refuse to sign onto any new tax increases, that might at least offer the sort of contrast that voters might favor in 2010.
I agree.
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 11:36AM EST (link)We need to teach all the ranks of Rs and Cs that intermarrying with the Democrats and Libs will lead to nowhere but failure.
Never Never Negotiate with a Liberal
bobojake (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 11:49AM EST (link)They are like the callers in front of the carnival. The stink bugs starve to death on their wind.
We don't need fifth columns
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Monday, January 5th at 12:02PM EST (link)Following the 1994 majority victories in both houses of congress, politics were played from the right (the stake in the ground established by Republicans) to the center (Clinton’s “triangulation).
Now, you’re not going to win them all in that condition, Conservatism did win on free trade and welfare.
Contrast that with the Bush years. Bush was all too happy to put his stake in the center, which resulted in politics being played from the center to the left.
While you’re not going to lose them all in that condition, Big Government sure won on spending.