10:43 am Nov. 15, 20121
Here's another example of where Andrew Cuomo and his fellow Democrats in the New York State Senate don't agree.
When Cuomo was asked who he thought should lead the New York State Senate, he said it wasn't his place to say. (He also said he wasn't even paying much attention to the whole thing, which reporters laughed off.)
He reminded everyone that "Democrats lost power because of dysfunction," and used the phrase "coalition" to describe what would be needed govern the closely divided 63-seat chamber.
That's not exactly how the Senate Democrats see it.
"There is a mandate," Senate Democratic leader John Sampson said in an interview on Inside City Hall last night.
"On November 6, people in the state of New York elected Democrats to run the New York State Senate," he said. "If you look at the raw numbers, 58 percent of the vote went for Democrats. Forty-two percent went to Republicans."
Sampson said Republicans "don't' understand it. They won't accept it."
Sampson said he had spoken twice with Simcha Felder, the newly elected Democratic state senator who has said he'll conference with Republicans.
Sampson sidestepped the question of whether he would step down as leader to facilitate a deal with Felder, or with the four members of the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference.
“Cuomo’s In a Political Minefield”
The Governor’s internal Political angst is now caused by a harsh reality of his own making, “If he doesn’t pull away from the ‘Coalition' concept he suffers all the big political career hits. They include an ongoing ‘Civil War’ in the NYS Senate where his own party will work against his proposed legislation – pronouncing it as unworthy of a ‘Progressive’ Governor. The Republicans he sought to curry favor with are an uncertain ally, who might pull away from his legislative program at anytime in the future, when it serves Dean Skelos’s and the Republican Party’s political purposes. The Governor is standing in a political minefield and needs to get out quick, because no one standing in a minefield has much of a future.
The ‘Coalition’ approach to Governing NY as opposed to establishing a Democratic Majority is proving a political disaster for him. The ‘Coalition’ deal is now such a bad trade off for Cuomo. I fully expect him to say, “The ‘Coalition’ concept is flawed and I will use all of my resources as Governor to create the Democratic Majority, that Democratic voters deserve and desire in the Senate.” If Gov. Cuomo fails to do so he will face a steady erosion of his favorability ratings, which once in play he has no easy way to remedy with future political maneuvering. The Governor’s legislative program will be under constant assault by his base. One might say, “Oh what a web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”
Andrew Cuomo is hanging out on a limb and the spotlight on him hanging from that tree, will grow brighter each and every day along with the pressure to state, “New York State Democrats expect a Majority in the Senate and I now intend to see they get that Majority.” Short of this he no longer can lay claim to a realistic chance to run for President in 2016. Hillary Clinton is now looking like a runaway favorite, both in the State of New York and Nationally for the Democratic nomination. The Governor will have to either scale down his Presidential ambitions for 2016, or go back to the drawing board and run at a later date. He must now clearly take a very pro-active role, in getting the Democratic Majority in place in the State Senate, that we all had a right to expect in the first place. Only then politically speaking, will he be back on safe political ground able to depend on his base for support.
Mike Flynn ‘Middle Class Mike’