Western New York Effed in the A
Bill Stachowski – longtime state senator who just won the race of his life against Dennis Delano back in November – will not be chairman of the Senate Finance Committee next year. It’s a plum position and was part of the cloutiness on which he ran. This is shockingly unexpected, and the circumstances surrounding it are equally infuriating.
Perhaps you recall the fact that three or four Democratic state senators were threatening to bolt and vote for Dean Skelos as majority leader, thus retaining republican control over the senate, despite the fact that they’d still have a slim minority. In exchange they’d get some choice positions. The Democrats had to play ball to retain these rogue, opportunistic senators, and had to also give out some choice positions.
Including Stachowski’s.
- The positions of Senate majority leader and president pro tempore, which were both held by former Majority Leader Joe Bruno, have now been bifurcated. Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. will be the majority leader while Smith is president pro tempore.
The majority leader post in other legislative bodies in New York, the City Council and the Assembly, for example, is not one with a lot of power. Espada told me he has been assured by Smith that his position will “have absolute substance,” and, as a result, “the Latino empowerment issue has been substantially enhanced.”
Espada said he will have a “meaningful role” (Nick Confessore reports it’s vice chairman) with the Senate Rules Committee, arguably one of the more powerful committees in the chamber and the last stop for all the bills before they go to the floor for a vote. He’ll also have a part to play in the next big fight coming down the pike: Redistricting.
- Sen. Carl Kruger will not get the Housing Committee, as some activists like ACORN’s Bertha Lewis, had feared, but he will chair a pumped-up Senate Finance Committee. Recall that this was something the Republicans proposed in an effort to woo the Gang of Three to their side. The committee will have an enhanced staff and a fair degree of independence.
- Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. will chair the Aging Committee.
Stachowski is currently the ranking minority member of the Finance Committee, and the chairmanship was supposed to, therefore, be his. Kruger had to jump over two additional, more senior members of the committee to land that chairmanship.
Good to see that a handful of opportunistic, power-hungry state senators were able to jump the queue and leave a senior western New York Senator in the dust and out of a position of power.
The people of the comically gerrymandered SD-27 must be very pleased.
Bend over, western New York. Albany’s coming.
Of course, one way to make this right would be to send Brian Higgins from the 27th Congressional District to the United States Senate.
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By the way, those great lovers of Western New York, Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon, helped broker this deal that screwed Stachowski of his chairmanship.
And getting the Repubs out and the Dems in was supposed to benefit WNY in exactly what fashion? Those of you who advocated it fervidly–perhaps you can enlighten me once again.
Looking back at all the goodness Stachowski’s cloutiness in Albany brought WNY, How will we notice the difference?
This is a great sign of the respect the State Democratic Party has for WNY. How you think they’d follow this up with appointing Higgins is counter-intuitive. It’s the Dems of this area that are the ones that really bend over and take it on behalf of all of us. At least the State Republicans occasionally gave WNY something (ie Vacco for AG and Davis on the State Committee), not the best positions, but something.
No, I’m pretty confident that Higgins’ and Brown’s names are being thrown around just to make us feel good but there’s probably no real substance to it. You WNY Dems will lose out on that one, too, but you’ll still blindly support your party and believe every promise they make you and our region. And everyone in WNY will have to keep taking it because you folks seem to enjoy it, or at least you continue to play along.
First I laughed, then I cried. Laughed because we were told Rip Van Winkle Stachowski is a hack but he would get the Finance Comm.
But the ultimate point here is that WNY is a colony of NYC. There’s nothing we can do about it right now, but that’s no reason not to acknowledge this fact: we are a colony of a large city that couldn’t care less about us.
Our local politicians play ball with their bosses in NYC for selfish personal reasons: power and pelf. If Stack had any gumption, he’d deadlock the Senate by organizing with the Republicans. That’s about as likely as Martians on Pluto.
The New York Senate is hopelessly corrupt, and a pointless institution. That’s a given. I’m not sure I see the Higgins connection, though. The people who denied Stachowski the chairmanship have nothing to do with deciding who will fill HRC’s US Senate seat.
Higgins is heading for the Ways and Means Committee, a place where he will be much more useful to WNY than he would be as a Senator. Byron Brown would be worse than useless as a Senator– he’d be an active embarrassment, who would fail to be re-elected.
So, Golisano’s goal of illegally spending his money to improplerly influence the outcome of campaigns was supposed to be to benefit Upstate by electing more Upstate Dems to the State Senate. He loses every race, buys himself a seat at the table and f*cks WNY to cut a deal that does absolutely nothing for the region.
For those keeping score at home, let’s watch certain not-for-profits in the NYC controlled by Espasda, Diaz and Krueger that suddenly get six figure contributions from a certain upstate businessman. I could be wrong, but I bet I’m right.
And Tom, while you were out f**king the region, perhaps you failed to notice your hockey team sucks.
I don’t understand. Why are committee chairmanships able to be passed around like birthday party invitations? And how can we be one of the cool kids that gets one?
seniority obviously plays no role and smith has offered no leadership skills. to hand the conference over to these guys is sad. there is now not a single woman, or upstater, in the leadership of the senate.
@Hops — “…how can we be one of the cool kids that gets one?”
Apparently, living anywhere north of the Tappan Zee Bridge automatically bars us from sitting at the cool kids table.
Does this fall in the “campaign promise broken” category, or perhaps a special “thinly veiled promise broken” category? Clearly, Stach supporters used his near-certain rise to the finance chairmanship as a tool to help him gain re-election. The Buff Snooze endorsed him, at least in part, on the promise of this plum job. I always believed the major party candidates in this race were a choice between Sen. Sleepy and Sen. Grumpy, but I suspect it’s a distinction without difference.
And Pink is correct, but I’ll aid that Mr. G needs to notice that his hockey team has committed a sin worse than suckage — they’ve become boring, as well.
Perhaps Tom should replace Reiger with Pigeon since Pigeon is obviously so adept at cutting deals. I bet Pigeon would give everything of value to the New York Rangers and get nothing in return for the Sabres…oh, wait, we did that with Chris Drury.
Hmm, I see a political/hockey pattern here.
Will upstate State Senators be allowed to enter the Senate Chamber or will they be forced to watch the proceedings on cable TV from their office in a nondescript office building in Utica?
I think all of NYS got effed in the A with this deal. The “Gang of Three” hijacked a historic victory for Dems in the state for their own political gain. I hope these so called leaders get gerrymandered out of office.
You know how you’re not supposed to negotiate with terrorists….what’s to stop Stack and another upstate senator or two from pulling the same crap the gang of three just did?
I can make a case they have an obligation to form a coalition with the GOP that puts Upstaters in all the key positions.
Malcom Smith is a fucking fraud, downstate Democrats have really got some major sticks up their asses when it comes to anything involving Western New York.
As much of a Democrat as I am….I’m beginning to think that we should break off into a new state.
Thompson and Stachowski would be perfectly justified to abandon the caucus.
Thompson and Stachowski do not have the balls Thompson would have to ask his eminence and grace, the lord high first deputy mayor for permission and Stachs would have to actually show up and work.
Be a Loyal Democrat–get boned in the ass by your own Party.
A thought on the mind of hundreds of thousands of WNY’ers.
Ah,you’re all used to it. You worship at Hillary’s feet, a carpetbagger who could have moved to Alden, but went to Massapequa instead.(for the geographically challenged, that’s NOT UPSTATE)
And you still worshipped her—Where’s all those jobs she promised- @ the STATE DEPARTMENT??? What a fucking joke. She boned you in the ass too. Walked right over your backs to be Secretary of State. those spike heels in the back hurt, don’t they? LOL.
WNY Democrats remain doggedly loyal to their party with a smile, even when boned in the ass. It takes a special kind of person to do that…misguided,misled,and horribly confused, but still special.
It’s like that T-shirt that says “Mommy says I ride the short bus because I’m Special”–And special you are. Except to your Party.
There’s a Case of Carolina Blonde Ale that says no upstater even gets CONSIDERED for the Carpetbagger’s seat in the Senate. Ah, another bone in the butt.
WNY Democrats should just have a big W tatooed on each butt cheek.
Then you can bend over and say WOW–eh?
Oh boo hoo *yawn* another wide right, please more postings bout stuff like dogs getting kicked down stairs for giving the stink eye to owners boyfriend.
Hank you sure love “bone in ass”, no wonder you and hudson are buddies.
sigh.
More evidence that Pigeon, Casey and Gollisano do not give a crap about WNY, policy, or improving government. All they care about are their own selfish political greed.
And to those who will say that all politicians are like pigeon, et al, I say you are wrong. The mafia-politics of these creepy folks are way beyond those of any other politician or group in WNY.
Here’s a question: Why the hell were Pigeon and Golisano even part of the negotiations?
The New York State Assembly and Senate aren’t political bodies – it’s a protection racket.
Nothing will change as long as voters are so apathetic (check my spelling on that) that they let incumbents run unopposed.
Upstate as 51st state, Wizard’s Mizard’s Gizard? I like it.
I think a 51st state naming contest is in order, BP.
I’ll start…South Canada.
Dandelion in an asphalt crack as state flower. Capital would be someplace remote (Potsdam? Wellsville?) to make the idea of a career as a state elected official seem as unattractive as possible.
Any and all major league sports teams looking for state support must first consider All-High Stadium and/or Riverside Rink as their home.
The possibilities are endless…
Guess who has to allow you a vote to secede….the New York State Legislature, the same fine folks screwing us right now. Maybe Golisano can negotiate that for us.
I went to Kruger’s website and here’s what it looks like in the “Your Opinion Counts” section: http://www.nyssenate27.com/27/YourOpinionCounts.aspx
How fitting!
What about Stachowski flipping to the Republicans with Aubertine in the 48th? Aubertine is on his 1st term and his seat was Republican for the 3 previous Senators.
He is in upstate, which pretty much is all Republican outside of the 58th and 60th.
These two flipping sides could move the power back to Upstate and send a big FUCK YOU to downstate Democrats.
@lefty, Stachowski doesn’t seem to have the grapes for that kind of move. He’ll take his shit sammich and accept a chairmanship on some bullshit subcommittee.
Where are the upstate senators going to be on this today at their meeting in NYC. By the way,NOTICE THAT THEY ARE MEETING NYC, NOT ALBANY. Kind of tells the story. putting aside the upstate/downstate thing for a moment; what about seniority and the fact that Stach has earned this position? We in Buffalo have no power or influence with the other non-NYC dems, but what about our own? Thompson will go along with Stach getting screwed as long as he is still able to play big shot: flying around the state and country on own dime. He’s a guy that sees himself as the Chuck Schumer of the NYS Seante. Time for him to do the right thing, not the Antoine thing, and stand up for stach and Buffalo. He should be a hold-hold out vote in order to force finance for Stach. If they sitck together they can make it happen.
In Western New York it is viewed
That the deal left them royally screwed.
Stachowski and comrades, it’s said,
Ought to jump into Skelos’s bed.
Such a classical Democrat feat:
From victory’s jaws snatch defeat.
Antoine did a lot of heavy lifting to see Stach get re-elected, and yes, it would be helpful were he to (at the very least) speak up on Bill’s (and uspate NY’s)behalf. If I recall, it was Antoine who called Stach “Mr. Chairman” on election night…..
BUT, Antoine is relatively new to the Albany scene. Both of them need to grow a set of nuts if they want to be relevant.
There ought be a bi-partisan Upstate caucus…
Antoine, heavy lifting? LOL Antoine has less pull than the guys that pick up the trash in Albany. He is a seat filler that takes his orders from His Lordship, The First Mayor Deluxe Steve Casey.