The bipartisan coalition governing the Senate has held together. This coalition faces a major test as we head toward the close of the Legislature’s session in June; therefore, now is a good time to assess how it has worked so far. Back in January, I wrote that a coalition government is easier to form than it is to maintain, and that the key to the success of this one would be legislative productivity. The gun control debate was divisive in… [More]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have the final say over whether hydraulic fracturing is allowed in New York—but some hydrofracking opponents are shifting their focus to lawmakers to pass a two-year moratorium on the controversial method of drilling for natural gas. Drilling foes see a potential for a breakthrough in the state Senate, which has traditionally been more supportive of hydrofracking but where state Sen. Jeff Klein and his breakaway Independent Democratic Conference could be in a position to play a… [More]

“Being powerful is like being a lady,” mused the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” In Albany, as in every political arena, bluster is often mistaken for true power. Of course, even the perception that one has influence can yield genuine authority, but more often that not, those with true power in government are not the grandstanders but those who work dutifully, quietly and shrewdly behind the scenes to achieve their… [More]

New Roosevelt, a good-government group led by progressive entrepreneur Bill Samuels, is launching another reform into the mix: a dedicated Legislature.… [More]

The drumbeat for public financing pounded loudly on Monday when good government groups and Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill visited the Capitol to make the case for campaign finance reform. Republican lawmakers have argued that public financing has not stopped elected officials from abusing the system, but good government leaders believe that it improves the legislative process by reducing the dependency on fund-raising. “There’s a little concern about the unknown, but I think our experience in Connecticut is so powerful in… [More]

State Sen. Malcolm Smith woke up to FBI agents pounding on his door in Queens on Tuesday morning—and his colleagues in the Independent Democratic Conference woke up to a pounding headache. Federal prosecutors charged Smith with bribing New York City political officials in a quixotic bid to run for mayor on the Republican ballot, the latest in a steady stream of corruption cases flowing out of Albany. The elaborate alleged conspiracy and extortion plot also ensnared Queens Councilman Dan Halloran, two… [More]

When I asked Malcolm Smith nine months ago whether, despite the years of accusations against him, he could say unequivocally that he had never done anything dishonest as an elected official, he replied without hesitation: “Absolutely. 100 percent. Never.” At the time I wrote in response, “So there you have it. Either Malcolm Smith is one of the most misunderstood and unfairly maligned politicians in New York State or he’s a bald-faced liar.” The sensational developments of late appear to… [More]

  The state budget did not go into overtime, but there were a number of buzzer beaters this week. Top-seeded Gov. Andrew Cuomo outpaced 16th-seeded David Paterson’s legacy in the first round, but trailed eighth-seeded gun rights advocates at halftime due to sloppy turnovers. The ninth-seeded minimum wage hike ran away from the eighth-seeded small business employers, who sought to limit its scoring to under $9 an hour, and barely slipped by top-seeded Senate Republicans, who forced the wage’s restaurant workers to foul out. But 420th-seed Assemblyman… [More]

This year’s budget could wind up the smoothest in 30 years, cruising to passage before the session breaks for Passover and Easter holidays at the end of the month.… [More]

  I had a friend was a big baseball player back in MLB, he could hit that speedball by you, saw him the other night in the State Capitol, I was walking in, he was walking out, all he kept talking about was … DMAA, will the Senate pass that ban, DMAA, in the blink of Jeff Klein’s tan, DMAA. Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight, to hear a press conference about restoring budget cuts, and I… [More]