New York State: Officially FUBAR

The New York State Senate is now deadlocked 31-31, with no tiebreaker. Nothing is being voted on, leaving important legislation, like legalizing gay marriage, in limbo. While chronic partisan warfare is par for the course in state capitals across the country, the almost-routine turnarounds and switcheroos in NY have stopped any work from getting done for the final two weeks of the regular legislative session - during the most severe recession since World War II. The main culprits, democratic senators Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, defected to the Republicans in early June. This gave Republicans a 32-30 majority, and returned the Democrats to minority status after being in charge for only a few months. Monserrate then switched back to the Democrats after voting for Espada as the President of the Senate and ensuring that his rival, Democratic Senate Leader Malcolm Smith, was ousted as the Dem's caucus leader. With Monserrate's second defection, the chamber is now stuck at 31-31. Under normal circumstances, the Lieutenant Governor would break a tie vote. But wait! There is no Lieutenant Governor anymore, since the previous one, David Paterson, was promoted when America found out then-governor Eliot Spitzer liked hookers. No one replaced him because the drafters of the New York Constitution, in their infinite wisdom, never actually described how one could seat a lieutenant governor outside of an election. Because, really, New York would never be in this sort of situation, right?

Hiram Monserrate

 

So, Espada picked up his toys and went to play with the Republicans, who gave him a grand welcome. When the Republicans staged their coup, Espada was named Senate President Pro Tempore, and has since been referring to himself as the acting lieutenant governor. Much to his consternation, not everyone is a fan of the new President Pro Tem, and Espada has complained that he's the victim of a political jihad. If you think that's a little presumptuous, at least Mr. Espada doesn't compare himself to a biblical figure. That's Monserrate's shtick. At a recent event, Senator Hiram Monserrate compared himself to Jesus Christ when justifying his double-defection. You can see a video of his statement here. But quite unlike Jesus Christ, Monserrate was indicted by a grand jury andstands accused of giving his girlfriend 20 stitches in the face with a piece of glass during a domestic dispute. He could face up to seven years in jail if proven guilty. And like Espada, Senator Monserrate is linked to his own nonprofit mess; Libre, an organization created to deliver social services to immigrant families in Queens, was under investigation to see whether its staff worked on Monserrate's campaign and counted it as hours worked at the nonprofit. It's unclear whether this was the case, because Libre is now closed, and no record exists of how the $250,000 granted to it as a member item by Monserrate was spent.