Republicans in the state Senate rejected Governor Cuomo’s laudable proposal to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. They will now go back to their suburban and rural districts and brag about how tough they are. Their toughness will now consign hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people to the not-very-tender mercies of the criminal justice system. Nice work, senators. Read More
Senate Republicans are now available for “face-to-face, from anywhere in the state, or indeed, the world” because, their press office says they are now using Skype.
I just tested it, and it seems to work. So, who should I Skype with and what should I ask?
Brooklyn State Senator Kevin Parker is slated to be sentenced at the Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday.
Parker was found guilty of two misdemeanors in December for assaulting a photographer from the New York Post.
He faces up to a year in jail, but if he is sentenced to prison time he is Read More
Brooklyn State Senator Carl Kruger surrendered to authorities only this morning, but already the talk in political circles is over who will replace him.
In several conversations with Brooklyn pols and political insiders the names that emerge most frequently are City Council member Lew Fidler and Igor Oberman, an administrative law judge who works part Read More
As Governor Andrew Cuomo is about to find out, it takes guts to break the mold in Albany. That’s why a recent move by four Democratic state senators deserves admiration and congratulations.
Last week state senators Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, Diane Savino of Staten Island, David Carlucci of Rockland County and David Valesky Read More
Gustavo Rivera, the former Gillibrand aide who is trying to take out coup-instigating state Senator Pedro Espada up in the Bronx has sent a letter to the Civil Rights division at the Department of Justice calling on them to send federal election observers to the Bronx on Primary Day next week.
Writes Rivera: Read More
Anna Lewis, an attorney with the Health Department who is battling for the state Senate seat that attorney general candidate Eric Schneiderman is vacating, is making a major push to make the race about gay marriage.
Her campaign is just out with a release on the matter, and her latest mailer (designed by Michael Oliva) Read More
Igor Oberman, who failed to submit signatures in his race against powerful state Senator Carl Kruger, said today that the political world has not heard the last of him.
Oberman said that he thought that the decennial reapportionment could mean new opportunities for Russian-American pols.
“There is redistricting coming up, hopefully in a couple of Read More
For many years in Albany, a town with many an uncertainty, there was one constant: Joe Bruno was the majority leader in the Senate, and the New York City real estate world was a loyal benefactor. The industry was a steadfast supporter of that Republican majority, and poured campaign contributions into Republican coffers (and not, Read More
ALBANY—Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos said that he expects any vote in the chamber regarding Hiram Monserrate, the Queens Democrat who was convicted last year of recklessly injuring his girlfriend, to be for expulsion.
“I think if it came to the floor for a vote, the vote will be expulsion,” Skelos told Fred Read More
