State Senate’s new leader assures WNY he’s sensitive to upstate’s needs
The downstater responsible for maintaining Republican control of the State Senate assured Buffalo and Erie County on Wednesday that he has an ear to upstate and Western New York.
State Sen. Dean G. Skelos of Nassau County visited Buffalo in only his second week as the Senate majority leader — one of the “three men in a room” who shape state policy.
“My perspective now has to be statewide,” Skelos said during one of his stops.
Senate Republicans last week selected Skelos to succeed Sen. Joseph L. Bruno of Rensselaer County, who has opted not to seek re-election and loomed as a party liability because he has been under FBI investigation.
Skelos’ selection was remarkable in at least two ways:
• Every important state office is now occupied by a downstate resident. Not since 1965 could that be said about the Assembly and Senate leadership posts and the offices elected statewide.
• Skelos has taken charge as the Republicans enter a do-or-die election. The party has seen its decades-long control of the Senate slip to only a 32-30 majority. With two longtime incumbents — Bruno and Williamsville’s Mary Lou Rath — about to retire, Democrats have a fighting chance to tip the Senate’s balance of power.
If they succeed, Democrats would control the Assembly, the governor’s office and the Senate.
Game over?
“Once they lose it, Republicans aren’t getting it back barring a political earthquake,” said Kevin R. Hardwick, a Canisius College political science professor and political observer. “The only way that Republicans have been able to hang onto the Senate is their ability to gerrymander the districts.
“The point is, if the Democrats take over the Senate, they will gerrymander those districts so they look like Assembly districts.”
How confident is Skelos about maintaining GOP control, especially in a presidential election year when the Democratic nominee will probably win New York State?
“Obviously, I have to be confident, and I am very confident,” Skelos said during one of his stops Wednesday, to speak with the Editorial Board of The Buffalo News. “We have 30 incumbents that are running, and our polling indicates that they are doing exceptionally well.”
He predicted the party will retain the Rath and Bruno districts and perhaps take some from the Democrats.
“I think people realize now that if we would lose the Senate majority, it would be a loss of checks and balance,” Skelos said.
Skelos’ age is 60, compared with Bruno’s 79. Like Bruno, he speaks quietly, sports a full head of hair and a glowing tan, and he likes Gov. David A. Paterson far more than he liked the governor’s predecessor, Eliot L. Spitzer.
“A steamroller,” Skelos called him.
Skelos arrived in Buffalo heralding no new economic-development opportunities for Buffalo and Western New York, but vowed that job creation is important to him, that he wants to ratchet back property taxes here and everywhere, and that he serves this region, too. He promised to visit again soon.
When asked why residents here should believe that upstate will be a priority, he had the numbers ready to emphasize upstate’s importance to him and his 32-member Republican conference:
“There are 20 members from upstate New York,” he said.
“We work together as a unified body, understanding that each region of the state has their unique needs and that each region of the state has to be treated fairly. And I think that has been the success over the years of our conference.”
Skelos also met with business leaders; saw the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus; heard a primer on the University at Buffalo’s expansion plans; and appeared with the small army of dignitaries at the opening of Erie Canal Harbor.
With five Republican senators in tow, Skelos met with Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, a Democrat and a former state senator, and Republican County Executive Chris Collins.
“We have some important elections coming up,” Collins said in introducing Skelos at a news conference after their meeting. “We are all going to work very hard to make sure that Western New York is well represented in the Senate, and that our issues, which in many cases are different from other parts of the state, are heard and supported.”
Skelos served a term in the Assembly before being elected to the Senate in 1984, and in time he became a “trusted lieutenant” — as the Long Island newspaper Newsday called him — to then-Senate Majority Leader Ralph J. Marino, also a Long Islander.
Nonetheless, when Bruno challenged Marino soon after George E. Pataki was elected governor, Skelos was an early Bruno backer and became his deputy majority leader.
Skelos, according to his biography, wrote laws to eliminate the statute of limitations in cases of rape and violent sexual assault, to expand the state’s DNA Databank, to devote new muscle in fighting Medicaid fraud, and to create the state Sex Offender Registry, “Megan’s Law.”
At his appearances Wednesday, Skelos focused frequently on high property taxes — the issue uniting all New Yorkers.
“When you start in Buffalo and go to Montauk, the No. 1 issue in this state is property taxes,” he said.
He wants to work with Paterson on his plan to cap the growth of property taxes and welcomes a special session so lawmakers can act this summer.
“I can be tenacious,” Skelos said. “I can be focused. And I believe we just have to do something. [Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan] has said no. But I believe that no is not acceptable.”
At one point, Skelos was asked about his style and how it might compare with Bruno’s.
“I think that Joe was maybe a little bit more colorful than me, and I think that’s wonderful,” Skelos said. “I love him. I may be a little bit more reserved. But my style will develop, too.”
