The millennium arrived sometime during the day of December 4, when New York State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein led his spanking new Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) over to the Republican side of the aisle.
Talk about the rapidly approaching Mayan apocalypse! Mr. Klein, a Bronx Democrat, assures us that he and four fellow Democrats will Read More
Republicans will meet later today to decide whether the State Senate will have a vote on same-sex marriage, which currently is one vote shy of the 32 votes needed to pass.
“We’re going to conference the language of the amendments,” said Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos after meeting privately with Governor Cuomo.
Asked if he was obligated to present the vote during business hours, instead of late at night when, presumably, less public attention would be paid to the issue, Skelos demurred.
“I’m not going to work under time constraints,” he said, predicting the 32-member GOP conference would be “lengthy.”
For weeks, Cuomo has met privately with a handful of Republican Senators who wanted to see greater protections for religiously affiliated organizations who do not want to recognize or do business with gay couples. Cuomo has said he has faced “no obstacles” with Republicans.
Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver held a celebratory news conference last week during which they announced an agreement on implementing a 2 percent cap on property tax increases. Welcome though that announcement was, it’s clear that the work of achieving real property tax reform is far from over. Read More
Same-sex marriage advocates, who have been coordinating their efforts with Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced they’re bringing their Republican counterparts into the fold.
“We are thrilled to have Log Cabin Republicans join the coalition” said Brian Ellner of the Human Rights Campaign.
What impact they will have on Republicans–many of whom voted against Read More
2012: Obama’s re-elect kicks off with testimonials from the grassroots. [BarackObama.com]
FOIL: Wikiaccountability.org collects FOIL requests scrutinizing Obama. [Noam Cohen]
Federal Budget: Schumer doubts there’ll be a shutdown. [Thomas DeFrank]
Redistricting: Tie-breaking professor endorses “Democratic-drawn map.” Christie a loser. [Lisa Fleisher]
Redistricting: Christie got very involved. [Richard Perez-Pena]
Dean Skelos is out with his own celebratory budget video, in which the Republican Senate majority leader assigns credit to his own party, despite the fact they control just one house of state government.
“For the past two years, when state government was controlled by the Democrats, New Yorkers were hit with late budgets that Read More
State Budget: Skelos and Silver offer some details. [Jimmy Vielkind]
Libya: “[T]he Democratic president echoed the language of his Republican predecessor.” [Michael Shear]
Libya: A Kos blogger ties Obama’s argument for action in Libya to the health care debate. [nyceve]
Obama in NYC: “Brilliant sun shone down on the baseball Read More
With the governor taking a hard line on budget negotiations, no one would accuse Andrew Cuomo of being a wimp these days, least of all the real estate industry:
“If any of you know the history of the Cuomo family, it’s either my way or I’m going to screw you,” said Joseph Strasburg, head of Read More
Libya: Allies deny report civilians were killed. [NYT]
Libya: Not helping Obama with his domestic agenda. [Jeff Zeleny]
Libya: Why not remove Khadafy? [Mike Lupica]
Libya: “Obama administration has delivered a clinic in the liberal way of war.” [Ross Douthat]
NJ: Christie does things that may be unpopular locally, but Read More
Some daylight is emerging between Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Post State Editor Fred Dicker – undoubtedly one of the most important voices in Albany.
The critique arose in response to how Cuomo reacted to news that two Democratic lawmakers were swept up in a corruption and bribery probe from the US Read More
Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof
