ALBANY—Republicans, too, are asking David Paterson to step into the fray.
There was supposed to be a public negotiating session at noon today between the two parties warring over the State Senate's leadership, but I was told by an aide that Democrats are not planning to show up. Senator Tom Libous, a Binghamton Republican, said he and other members of his conference are ready to negotiate but have been hampered by a "musical chairs" approach from the Democrats. There is a press conference ostensibly scheduled for 11:30 with unspecified "members of the majority conference."
"We are certainly hoping to have a meeting today. We had a public meeting yesterday that nobody showed up for," Libous said. "As I said earlier this morning, if they don't show up, I would hope and ask that the governor demand, and call the leaders downstairs to help get a resolution."
Republicans also put out an official statement last night asking for as much.
Senator Pedro Espada Jr., a Democrat who runs with the Republicans, said he thinks David Paterson hasn't done enough to get involved in solving the Senate stalemate.
"Clearly not," he said. "We are where we're at because I think he's exacerbated the tensions at an all-time high, and that never leads to a reasoned conclusion. I think people get dug in their heels, and we don't want that to happen. So we need to correct this environment that is obviously right now hostile, confrontational, and it's not truthful, because people are not talking. We need to correct that. His contributions thus far have been negative in my view."
UPDATE: Austin Shafran, a Democratic spokesman, said that no negotiation was scheduled because an agenda could not be agreed upon.
"We actually want to talk about substantive issues, we don't want to watch Pedro Espada on the big screen," he said. "No amount of popcorn in the world is going to make that good."
