Stachowski gets position yet to be defined in Senate
ALBANY — A veteran Buffalo area Democrat has lost his bid to become chairman of the State Senate’s budget-writing committee, getting instead a post with a somewhat lofty title but few clearly defined responsibilities or powers.
During a bitter re-election contest this fall, Democrats had led voters to believe that Sen. William T. Stachowski of Lake View would become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Instead, the party’s leader introduced him Monday as deputy majority leader.
With other posts being created, the position appears to put Stachowski at least three rungs down in the Democratic leadership. As for his desire to take over the important fiscal panel, the move leaves him out in the cold at a time when the state’s budget crisis is expected to make the committee more important.
“This is technically higher than Senate Finance, and I’m still on the committee,” Stachowski said Monday when asked if he was upset with the decision by Malcolm Smith, a
Queens Democrat and incoming Senate leader.
The deputy majority leader job will add a $34,000 stipend on top of his $79,500 base pay, but the post’s duties are far from certain. Stachowski said the one function he was aware of involved serving as nonvoting member on all Senate committees.
The confusion in the inner workings of the Democratic conference, which has raged since Election Day, continued Monday as Smith found himself bolting from one news conference he had called about the leadership and committee assignments — leaving Stachowski to fend for himself with reporters — and then refusing to answer most questions in a follow- up session his aides hastily arranged.
The muddled doings are more than just inside baseball: The inability of Smith and the Democrats to forge a united front indicates the tenuous hold the party will have next month when the seven decades of Republican dominance in the Senate will end.
Smith’s shaky hold on his members — who are privately grumbling about his leadership before he even takes over — could have considerable effects on negotiations between the governor and Legislature on a looming $15 billion budget deficit. It also points to something unusual: The Senate will be more of a coalition-type system on many key issues, akin to Israel’s Knesset.
In handing out assignments, things have not gone well for Smith, whose colleagues both publicly and privately threaten and rebuke him. Still, he sought to put a positive spin on the Stachowski situation.
“We think the role he’s going to now have will be tremendous for Buffalo in . . . the resources he will be able to bring to bear, especially in an area that is in so much need of job creation,” Smith said. With the state facing massive deficits, he did not say how that would work.
In the weeks leading up to Stachowski’s re-election, Democrats had rushed to suggest that the veteran lawmaker was important for the region because, as the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, he was in line to take over the powerful panel.
Instead, that job will go to Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, one of three dissident lawmakers who threatened to help Republicans retain power if their demands — such as the plum committee assignments — were not met.
For decades, depending on who held the position, chairmen of the Senate finance panel have been among the most influential lawmakers in Albany. They can drive money into regions, shape the budget policy debate, hold up gubernatorial appointments and raise lots of campaign cash.
“We do have a leadership spot for upstate, and I think we can get a lot done for upstate from this post,” Stachowski said. “I hope to make upstate and Western New York in particular well represented.
How much influence Stachowski, who has been in the Senate since 1981, will have with Smith remains to be seen. Leadership titles are many in the Legislature, and they sometimes are created merely to give members a pay stipend, or lu-lu as they are known. The 62- member Senate now has 31 “leadership” posts, from assistant majority leader of house operations to majority whip and liaison with the executive branch.
Smith repeatedly refused to say what jobs the three hold-out lawmakers — Kruger and Sen. Ruben Diaz and Sen.-elect Pedro Espada, both of the Bronx — will have, even though those lawmakers already have revealed their rewards for joining Smith’s ranks. Espada, for instance, will become majority leader, which means Stachowski apparently will serve under him. Smith will be president pro tempore.
“I can’t answer that yet,” Stachowski said when asked whose deputy he would be. Later, he said, “I answer to Sen. Smith.”
Smith did little to dispel the chaos that has racked his Democratic conference since Election Day. While he claims to have the backing of all 32 Democrats, he has yet to prove that in public.
Asked about criticism that the three lawmakers essentially held him hostage for their deals, Smith said, “Leadership is about making decisions for the greater good, and the greater good in this instances is that the Democrats rule the State Senate.”
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments