Bruno, Silver Buffeted Slightly
By Primaries in Bronx, Queens,
Failure to Override Pataki Veto

By Henry J. Stern
September 21, 2004

This has not been a good week for the leaders of the State Legislature. Yesterday Assembly Speaker Silver was unable to muster the 100 votes (two-thirds of the 150 members) he needed to override Governor Pataki's vetoes of 195 items in the state budget adopted by the Legislature. And in last Tuesday's primary, one of Silver's faithful, six-term Nassau Assemblyman David Sidikman, lost to a candidate sponsored by County Executive Tom Suozzi, who plans to campaign state-wide against the failings of Albany.
 
Senate Majority Leader Bruno had it no better. Democratic Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman, who was Bruno's candidate for the Senate seat vacated by the imprisoned Guy Velella, lost both the Democratic and Republican primaries. Assemblyman Jeff Klein won the Democratic nomination; retired police detective John Fleming won the Republican nomination. Kaufman did win the Conservative primary, defeating Fleming. Quite reasonably, Kaufman was a no-show in Albany yesterday, one of three absentees (out of 102) who denied the Democrats the veto-proof majority they have in theory.
 
The Times' Al Baker wrote the most comprehensive and informative account of yesterday's intrigue in "Silver's Call to Override Pataki On Budget Vetoes Collapses," on ppB1, B5. The absentees' motives were explored by William F. Hammond, Jr. in "Assembly Effort Hits Snag With Three Absences," in the Sun, p4.

The tabloids' accounts of the Albany action were briefer: "Silver fails to bust gov budget vetoes," by Kenneth Lovett in the Post, p2; and "Silver override push comes up 3 Dems short," by Joe Mahoney in the News, p26. Newsday ran an Associated Press story, "Silver rips Pataki over override no-shows," pA33.
 
Primaries mainly fascinate political junkies. We don't expect most of you to have the same level of interest that we do, but it is worthwhile to get a sense of what is happening around us. And the primaries do determine who will be each party's candidates in November.
 
On Staten Island, Assemblyman Robert Straniere was targeted for defeat by both wings of the Staten Island Republican Party (the Molinari and Fossella factions) who hate him as much as they dislike each other. Normally, divided opposition helps incumbents, but since Straniere only received 31.9% after 24 years in office, he would have lost even if his rivals split the vote equally. They claim that he is too liberal for Staten Island, too remote from his constituents, did not contribute enough money or show adequate respect to the party, has rented a pied-a-terre in (ugh) Manhattan, and showed insufficient gratitude when his brother was made a judge of the civil court.

Besides, they wanted his seat, and the winner, Vincent Ignizio, shows promise of being a first-rate public official. He won with 42% of the vote, and will be opposed by a Democrat in November. This primary had little to do with reform, except that Straniere's quarter-century in the Assembly was not considered much of a plus by the voters.
 
In Queens, first-term Democratic Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik had squeaked in by 126 votes in 2002 in a race against two Asians. This year there was only one, and Jimmy Meng won by 518 votes. Grodenchik ran as a reformer, and was endorsed by Newsday and Citizens Union, but they were not persuasive. The lodestar in this district was not ideological but ethnic. A basic rule of local politics is, "Vote your own."
 
In Newsday, veteran political reporter William Murphy took a minimalist view of the election results. He points out that the most widely criticized officeholders, Roger Green, Clarence Norman and Adam Clayton Powell IV were re-nominated. Green ran unopposed after his rival in Brooklyn was thrown off the ballot.
 
William F. Hammond, Jr. analyzes the election in a thoughtful article in the Sun. He notes the defeat of District Attorney Paul Clyne in Albany, a supporter of the Rockefeller drug laws, by a challenger calling for their repeal. Hammond's piece is most valuable. Read it if you have the time.
 
In the News, Richard Schwartz's column is headlined, "There's a ray of hope for reform in Albany". He deals primarily with John Fleming's victory over changeling Democrat Stephen Kaufman, Joe Bruno's Senate candidate. Will Fleming and Bruno make peace, with Fleming muting his reform stance, or will each man's pride, or deep convictions, prevent a rapprochement? Will Kaufman be offered a Republican judicial nomination, or some other treat, to get him off the Conservative line? This seat is still in play.
 
Speaker Silver's failure to override the governor's budget vetoes, and the defeat of Assemblyman Sidikman show cracks in the Albany power structure. Whether this develops into anything serious depend on other Democrats in the Assembly. Many of them tell us: "I'm against the system, but I can be more effective working from within to change it."

These closet reformers should take heart from recent events, but they remember the massacre of 2000 that resulted from an unsuccessful challenge to Silver by Assemblyman Michael Bragman, Democratic majority leader at the time. The members are also somewhat jealous of each other, having been together for so many years so far from home. They may prefer mild subjection under Silver to serving under an unknown quantity, or one they know too well.
 
Do you remember the couplet by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), one of England's greatest writers?
 
Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I gave to His Royal Highness (1738):

I am his Highness' dog at Kew,
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

How truthfully will the members of our State Legislature answer the dog's question?