ALBANY - Voters in some of New York's most sparsely populated counties in one day did what the state's most powerful political operatives have failed to do for a year: They put the Senate's Republican majority on the ropes and took Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer off them.
The win by Darrel Aubertine in the district along Lake Ontario gave Democrats control of an area represented by Republicans since there were Republicans. It is the latest weird travail of what was supposed to be the new Albany.
Flash back to 2006: Candidate Spitzer promised to be above Albany's unseemly and cutthroat politics, to reach out to legislators regardless of party to break the notorious gridlock that has kept Albany thinking small and spending large.
He won by a historic landslide. Governing would be his main task, Spitzer said then, not politics.
He counted Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno among his friends and partners, and Bruno beamed that the governor-elect promised not to target his narrow, and steadily shrinking, GOP majority.
But in December 2006, even before his administration took office, Spitzer chose as his homeland security director a Republican senator from a Long Island district that was turning Democratic. A special election went to a Democrat, cutting the GOP margin to 33-29, thanks to Spitzer's influence with voters and campaign donors.
Bruno cried foul.
“This is not part of any other ulterior scheme,” Spitzer assured reporters at his news conference after that February 2007 special election.
In January's State of the State address, Spitzer's olive branch speech to the Legislature, he said: “We can work together for the common good, despite any political or personal differences, and we must ... We have work to do, a lot of work, for the people who sent us here.”
But in last week's special election, Spitzer raised critical cash behind the scenes in the effort run by his former campaign manager. The governor also rallied his loyalists and the Working Families Party, which knocked on 30,000 doors, made tens of thousands of phone calls and put out a $10,000 mailing in the rural 48th district.
“There's one down, one to go,” bellowed the victory statement from the Working Families Party.
That win Tuesday has left Republicans with a cushion of one vote, in the chamber where ties could be broken by the Democratic lieutenant governor, Spitzer's running mate.
When Spitzer was asked Wednesday about whether he would now try to get a Republican or two to cross over, he said: “I'm not doing anything other than trying to govern the state.”
Maybe not now.
But on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Joseph Robach of Rochester said he, too, was offered a Spitzer administration job a year ago at twice his legislator's salary. And a week ago, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Spitzer has been talking to some of his members - like he did Aubertine - about Senate opportunities.
Even though as a candidate, Spitzer repeatedly said he would work with both parties to fix Albany, he was still running for a political job. And he also leads the state's Democratic party, which has been itching to use the powers of the governor's office to fuel the party's rising enrollment of the already solidly blue state. So should anyone really have expected him to be stop being a Democrat?
But why be so Mr. Hyde about it?
“He's being very partisan and very active,” said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “He's hoping that if he can get a Senate that's friendly, that may assist the governing side.”
“I think this is so close, Spitzer clearly can see a goal that is achievable and then he can start with a new slate ... and say, `Now I am going to get things done because I have a new team to work with,”' Miringoff said.
And about that gridlock the new Albany was supposed to break through to combat a likely recession and ease some of the highest taxes in the nation that has long driven employers and graduates out of state: New Yorkers haven't seen anything yet.
Republicans senators are vowing nothing less than “war” to keep their majority this election year in a campaign based on the need to provide a check on an otherwise all Democratic- and New York City-controlled state government. They have little to lose in November if they are forced to repeatedly play that card.
But New Yorkers do.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-02-29-08 1206EST
Flash back to 2006: Candidate Spitzer promised to be above Albany's unseemly and cutthroat politics, to reach out to legislators regardless of party to break the notorious gridlock that has kept Albany thinking small and spending large.
He won by a historic landslide. Governing would be his main task, Spitzer said then, not politics.
He counted Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno among his friends and partners, and Bruno beamed that the governor-elect promised not to target his narrow, and steadily shrinking, GOP majority.
But in December 2006, even before his administration took office, Spitzer chose as his homeland security director a Republican senator from a Long Island district that was turning Democratic. A special election went to a Democrat, cutting the GOP margin to 33-29, thanks to Spitzer's influence with voters and campaign donors.
Bruno cried foul.
“This is not part of any other ulterior scheme,” Spitzer assured reporters at his news conference after that February 2007 special election.
In January's State of the State address, Spitzer's olive branch speech to the Legislature, he said: “We can work together for the common good, despite any political or personal differences, and we must ... We have work to do, a lot of work, for the people who sent us here.”
But in last week's special election, Spitzer raised critical cash behind the scenes in the effort run by his former campaign manager. The governor also rallied his loyalists and the Working Families Party, which knocked on 30,000 doors, made tens of thousands of phone calls and put out a $10,000 mailing in the rural 48th district.
“There's one down, one to go,” bellowed the victory statement from the Working Families Party.
That win Tuesday has left Republicans with a cushion of one vote, in the chamber where ties could be broken by the Democratic lieutenant governor, Spitzer's running mate.
When Spitzer was asked Wednesday about whether he would now try to get a Republican or two to cross over, he said: “I'm not doing anything other than trying to govern the state.”
Maybe not now.
But on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Joseph Robach of Rochester said he, too, was offered a Spitzer administration job a year ago at twice his legislator's salary. And a week ago, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Spitzer has been talking to some of his members - like he did Aubertine - about Senate opportunities.
Even though as a candidate, Spitzer repeatedly said he would work with both parties to fix Albany, he was still running for a political job. And he also leads the state's Democratic party, which has been itching to use the powers of the governor's office to fuel the party's rising enrollment of the already solidly blue state. So should anyone really have expected him to be stop being a Democrat?
But why be so Mr. Hyde about it?
“He's being very partisan and very active,” said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “He's hoping that if he can get a Senate that's friendly, that may assist the governing side.”
“I think this is so close, Spitzer clearly can see a goal that is achievable and then he can start with a new slate ... and say, `Now I am going to get things done because I have a new team to work with,”' Miringoff said.
And about that gridlock the new Albany was supposed to break through to combat a likely recession and ease some of the highest taxes in the nation that has long driven employers and graduates out of state: New Yorkers haven't seen anything yet.
Republicans senators are vowing nothing less than “war” to keep their majority this election year in a campaign based on the need to provide a check on an otherwise all Democratic- and New York City-controlled state government. They have little to lose in November if they are forced to repeatedly play that card.
But New Yorkers do.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-02-29-08 1206EST
