Albany, NY – NY Governor Threatens To Tell Troopers To Round Up Senators

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    Senator Dean G. Skelos, a Republican, scolded Democratic senators during the session. Senator Malcolm A. Smith, a Democrat, is at bottom left.Albany, NY – Gov. David A. Paterson raised the possibility on Wednesday that the State Police could be summoned to compel state senators to return to work if necessary, after they defied him and refused to take any action during a special session he convened.

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    Senate Democrats, who in a rare rebuke of Mr. Paterson, their party leader, spent only five minutes in the Senate chamber on Wednesday afternoon and then announced that they would be going home.

    They later backed off their threat to leave and said they would return for another session that the governor has called for 3 p.m. Thursday. But the governor’s threat clearly left many of them embittered.

    In an angry, lectern-pounding appearance outside his office in the Capitol on Wednesday evening, Mr. Paterson also threatened to file a suit to force senators to come back to work, and said he would look into whether he could direct the state treasury to withhold their pay indefinitely.

    “You’re not going home,” he fumed. “You’re not getting paid. And you’re not going to disrespect the people of New York anymore.” Then he announced Thursday’s session.

    While the governor does not have the unilateral authority to order state troopers to round up truant senators and force them to come back to the Capitol, he can go to court and ask for an order compelling senators into session. If such an order is issued and they refuse, Mr. Paterson said, the State Police could be called in.

    The stalemate in Albany has not reached that point yet, but the situation on Wednesday continued as a back-and-forth of political shots.

    After Mr. Paterson issued his ultimatum, Senator Kevin S. Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, criticized the governor and complained that he had not done more to defend fellow Democrats in their leadership struggle with Senate Republicans.

    “He’s a coward,” Mr. Parker said. “His idle threats about holding our paychecks and those other things, which he certainly has no authority to do under either the Constitution or any other law, is mean-spirited and without basis.”

    Mr. Parker then took a shot at Mr. Paterson’s low job-approval ratings: “He will not be returning as governor, I’m fairly sure.”

    The coalition of 30 Republicans and one Democrat who have challenged the Democrats’ control of the Senate also took aim at the governor, who has called the last two days of Senate action a farce.

    Senator Pedro Espada Jr., the co-leader of the coalition, said the governor was only feeding the chaotic atmosphere in Albany by calling the Senate back into session.

    “Why do it? It’s good drama. It fills the tabloids with pictures of clowns and what have you. Certainly, from my perspective, I don’t want to participate in another day of that kind of embarrassment to the institution.”

    While Democrats held an abortive Senate session on Wednesday in which they skipped over key items on the governor’s agenda like same-sex marriage, the Republicans stayed out of the chamber altogether.

    But a Republican spokesman said on Wednesday that they would attend Thursday’s session.

    The Senate has been in legislative deadlock since June 8, when two dissident Democrats joined 30 Republicans to vote the Democrats out of power.

    One of the Democrats later reversed himself and rejoined the Democratic conference, leaving the Senate split 31 to 31. Despite two weeks of negotiations, the two parties have been unable to agree on how to govern the chamber.

    Wednesday was another day of drama in the Capitol. Democratic senators entered the chamber at dawn and guarded the rostrum in shifts to prevent any Republicans from coming in and seizing control of the gavel. They locked the doors, thereby preventing Republicans from taking procedural control.

    Senate Republicans, meanwhile, went to court on Wednesday morning to try to block Democrats from presiding over Senate business.

    But Justice Thomas J. McNamara of State Supreme Court in Albany, who has repeatedly refused to intervene in the leadership dispute, rejected the Republicans’ appeal for temporary relief; he said he would consider the merits of the case on Friday morning.

    The events in Justice McNamara’s courtroom were not the only legal issues on Wednesday.

    Senate Democrats questioned the constitutional validity of the sessions Mr. Paterson has called, arguing that the Constitution allows governors to convene a session of the Senate alone only when gubernatorial nominations — not legislation — are at issue.

    Citing an 1821 opinion from Martin Van Buren, the future president who served as a New York State Senator and the state attorney general, Democratic leaders Malcolm A. Smith and John L. Sampson wrote a letter to the governor that read in part, “We have been unable to find any legal precedent where only one house was called into extraordinary session and successfully passed legislation.”

    Mr. Paterson pointed to Article IV, Section 3 of the State Constitution, which states, “The governor shall have power to convene the Legislature, or the Senate only, on extraordinary occasions.”

    In his remarks on Wednesday evening, Mr. Paterson said, “Martin Van Buren is rolling over in his grave.”


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    5 Comments
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    Loshon Hora
    Loshon Hora
    14 years ago

    A circus?
    At least better than Iran, in the days of bad news better than expected.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    We should impeach ALL of them including the governor and hold a new election in the fall. This is the most disgraceful performance by an elected body in years. Just this morning there was another story about a NY Assemblyman pleading guilty to bribery.

    AuthenticSatmar
    AuthenticSatmar
    14 years ago

    It seems that it is the Democrats that are performing in this circus. There was a new Senate President elected with a majority vote. The Democrats refusal to accept that is just plain immature, illegal, and needs to be stopped. Any Democrat that refuses to accept it should be immediately impeached.