‘Farcical’ Senate engages in split show
Paterson calls tumult a ‘dereliction of duty’
ALBANY—In a city accustomed to political theater, Tuesday’s Senate showdown — featuring shouting Republicans and Democrats in dueling sessions in the same chamber at the same time — set a new standard for legislative gridlock and turmoil at the Capitol.
When the drama ended, nearly 100 bills had been passed, though with a huge legal asterisk. Even Gov. David A. Paterson was unsure whether any of the votes, including by his fellow Democrats, were legal.
Calling the parliamentary maneuverings a “dereliction of duty” by both parties, Paterson said the Senate’s conduct, spread out over several tense hours, “was farcical” and that lawmakers needed to “be punished.”
After the wild session, both Democrats and Republicans insisted that their measures passed unanimously — even while they never voted for each other’s bills.
By nightfall, neither side could say with any clarity where this fight may be going, how long it could last and who or what could bring the factions together. All sides agreed, after a day of verbal insults and finger-pointing, that the courts may be a next stop.
“It is a pox on both their houses,” said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. “Neither party looked like statesmen. Neither party looks like they have control of their own faculties, let alone state government.”
The governor raised the stakes later in the day when he sent a new list of bills he wants the Senate to consider in a special session today, including a bill to legalize same-sex marriage— an issue that promises a whole new round of tumult among some conservative Democrats who adamantly oppose the measure.
On the Democratic side, senators passed 14 bills, including major ones such as extension of the state’s Power for Jobs economic-development program, and local ones such as extension of a hotel tax in Chautauqua County.
On the Republican side, 85 bills sailed through, including even some that the Democrats would later approve and that the governor had requested.
When asked whether all of the bills might have been illegally approved, Peter Kiernan, the governor’s counsel, said, “That certainly could be the case,” adding that the state could be open to litigation if the governor signs them.
After two weeks of boycotts by the Democrats and no end in sight to the turmoil that has blocked dozens of important matters, Paterson called an “extraordinary session” for Tuesday to take up about 90 bills that have passed the Assembly and are now languishing in the Senate.
Republicans insist that the June 8 coup in the Senate installed Sen. Pedro Espada, a breakaway Democrat, as president and Sen. Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, as majority leader. Democrats say that the coup was illegal and that Sen. Malcolm A. Smith is still the legal leader.
Republicans planned, as they have done for two weeks, to enter the chamber at 2 p. m. to hold a “regular” session where most of the bills Paterson wanted in the special session would be live for a vote. But Democrats were expected to boycott the GOP session, thereby denying a quorum for any voting to take place before the 3 p. m. special session.
Instead, while Republicans were munching on pizzas down the hall, Democrats — who still control the keys, lights and locks of the chamber — entered the darkened room shortly after 12:30 and bolted the doors. Inside, they installed one of their own at the podium to serve as presiding officer.
There they waited, milling about, until Republicans entered shortly before 2:25 p. m., and, as a hush came over the room, the lights suddenly turned on and every inch of space was taken up by awestruck lobbyists and staffers.
Sen. George Winner, an Elmira Republican, approached the podium. He was blocked by a sergeant-at-arms, as Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester Democrat, held onto the official gavel and kept her place at the podium. Rebuffed, Winner went in front of the podium and called the session to order with a bang of his less impressive gavel. They said the Pledge of Allegiance — Democrats remained seated—and bowed for a moment of silence.
Republicans then ran through 85 bills as Democrats watched silently. With a rule saying that anyone not affirmatively voting no gets counted as a yes vote, Winner declared every vote count unanimous — 62-0—in favor of the bills, even though the house is deadlocked between the parties at 31 votes apiece. It was a claim that Democrats would use an hour or so later with their bills.
As the 3 p. m. special session deadline approached, Skelos said the Senate would be adjourning for a couple of hours. Stewart-Cousins then began the special session, and the legislative fireworks ensued. “The Senate will come to order,” she barked. It was an edict both sides would ignore. As she called for a moment of silence, so, too, did Winner.
Democrats said Paterson had not sent bills to the floor — a claim Paterson denied, and so they recessed. But, before they could file out of the chamber, Republicans quickly did a quorum count and, for the first time since June 8, declared they now legally controlled the floor to begin passing bills. “We’re prepared to act,” Skelos said.
Smith, the Democratic leader, insisted that the house was at ease. Winner said no.
“The Senate stands at ease,” Stewart-Cousins charged as her gavel slammed down. “Sen. Smith is out of order,” Winner later yelled, as a Democratic senator, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, shouted at him, “You’re out of order. Don’t you dare tell me I’m out of order.” Democrats cut the microphones and Internet and in-house camera feed when the GOP session began.
When Republicans finished, Democrats later came into session and passed their own round of bills.
“We think what we did was legal. We think the theater they did was not,” said Sen. William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View. The governor, who has no legal authority to compel the Senate to act, made matters worse, Democrats said, when late in the day he submitted the next round of bills he wants considered at today’s special session.
But he also put on the agenda the gay marriage bill, along with a dramatic expansion of public health insurance and new farmworker protections, including mandatory overtime, that upstate farms say would hurt business.
The Assembly wrapped up its 2009 session early Tuesday morning after passing more than 1,300 bills in the last several weeks.
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