The Legislative Correspondents Association, an organization of reporters covering Albany and the statehouse for more than one hundred years, just elected a woman as president for the first time in its history.
The new president is Melissa Mansfield of Newsday, whose been covering Albany 2002. When she's not running the organization or punching out stories about legislators, she's playing her accordion. (Really.)
The former LCA president was Michael Cooper of the New York Times, which recently decided to no longer participate in the kind of reporter-legislator roasts that are among the LCA's main activities.
Besides the Times' withdrawal from such activities, the LCA's annual show had trouble selling tickets this year because of stricter bans on gift to legislators.
In previous years, it was easier to sell tickets to such shows because lobbyists would buy a bunch of whole tables and give those seats to legislators. That's no longer allowed, so the LCA has its work cut out for it.
And yes, behind Mansfield is the photo of another woman who also wants to be president of something.
UPDATE: So, a few people who are actually members of the organization say they've had a woman as president before, including Liz Benjamin. So much for LCA sources.
