the albany project: Someone at Room 8 Gets It

From a great comment in a great thread over at Room 8.

The Republicans will control the New York state Senate for one reason only, and for the reason they have in the past, because New York Democratic politicians want them too. There was enough of a Democratic wave this year that the Dem- Senate leader elect had to all but announced this. This stuff is getting blatant enough that the usually incumbent friendly NY Times called on voters to vote for Republicans for the State Assembly and for Democrats for the State Senate.

A Republican state Senate gives the Democrats a good enough excuse to continue business as usual in New York. The problem is, this isn't 1913 (when the legislature impeached and removed a reform-minded governor) when this was one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world and could tolerate some graft. Modern day New York is a combination of a city no one can afford to live in and an upstate where no one can find jobs.

We are probably four years away from a collapse of the state tax base. Until then, we pretty much got the State Senate the Dem NY establishment wanted. Its a contrast from the federal House where enough progressive and populists got swept in to at least make things interesting for the next two years.

--all emphasis mine

It's a great thread. Go read it all if you can.

Hat tip to am

Posted by downtown on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 12:09 AM | Permalink

Lipris - congrats on your excellent new blog. I'm particularly excited as this is one of the primary projects I want to throw myself (and others I can persuade) into during the coming cycle. We did a lot of work this year trying to convince the state party that state Senate pickups should be a priority this year, and it was uphill all the way (for various reasons, some of which you've touched on here, but some you haven't).

Would you mind emailing me when you get a chance: diagonalproof@yaho.com.

-BrooklynRaider

Posted by Anonymous | 1:27 PM EST