By Jeremy Walsh
As the state Senate shakily returned to business last week after a month of accusations and stalemates, the Queens senator who helped incite the chaos June 8 defended his actions.
In a conference call with reporters Monday, state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst) said voting with Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) and the Republicans to overthrow the Democratic majority leadership was the only way to reform Albany.
“I would ask that we be judged by what we do with this extraordinary opportunity,” Monserrate said, noting reforms in the legislative process would come as early as Wednesday. “The Senate as it existed on June the 7th is now history and gone forever. This was about putting good policy over party politics.”
The reforms include term limits for the positions of Senate president and committee chairmanships, equal distribution of Senate member items and allowing any senator to bring a bill to a floor vote.
Monserrate apologized for the deadlock that lasted for 31 days. But he was unapologetic about casting the initial vote that effectively ended Sen. Malcolm Smith’s (D-St. Albans) leadership of the Democratic conference.
Smith retained the president pro tem title while Espada ascended to majority leader. Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) will maintain the enigmatic position of “conference leader.” Sampson indicated Smith would continue to hold the president position indefinitely, contradicting earlier reports in the media.
But the Democrats put a sunny face on the reconciliation last Thursday. When asked point-blank by a reporter what conditions were met and what promises were made to entice Espada back across the aisle after a month of harsh language and allegations of illegal conduct, Smith and Espada made a show of merely shaking hands.
“We have a unique collaboration here and we didn’t need any contracts or binding agreements,” Espada said. “We came to an understanding of the minds.”
Other Senate Democrats also praised the new partnership.
“Even if they were (reluctant), it was time to put personal feelings aside,” Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) said about his colleagues.
Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) called the leadership agreement a mixed bag.
“Hopefully, the results of all this will produce some significant reform in how the Senate operates,” he said, noting Espada’s and Monserrate’s defection and return have led to some skepticism about how solid the reforms will be. “We hope these promises are kept. For me to say to you that I’m 100 percent sure they will be, I can’t. We’ll just do our best to ensure that they are.”
Smith appeared to believe the Democrats had seen an end to the infighting that has kept the Senate from getting any work done for more than a month.
“Has the road been a little bumpy with some twists and turnsi No question about it,” he said last Thursday. “But what you see before you today is that once again Democrats have come together.”
Monserrate said the odds of anyone else following his and Espada’s precedent and upsetting the Democrats’ narrow 32-30 majority were slim.
“I don’t think any senator would want to endure what we just endured ever again,” he said. “We must make it work and we must make it better.”
Gov. David Paterson said last Thursday he was happy the situation was resolved, although he criticized the Senate for taking a month to do it.
“Perhaps out of the dark cloud that has obfuscated work for the past month there will be a silver lining of reform and accountability,” the governor said, noting he would call the state Assembly and Senate back into session to revise the state budget in about a week when the next economic forecast report comes in. That report is expected to show up to an additional $800 million gap due to declining revenues.
Howard Koplowitz contributed to this article.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
