Dean Skelos

Here’s a clip from last night's Captiol Tonight, with Albany television reporter Josh Robin, who hosted the relatively new State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

It was Skelos first extended television interview since assuming the position of majority leader, and it didn’t start with a softball question.

Referring to an event that took place earlier in the week, Robins said to Skelos, “Probably the biggest announcement upstate since the end of the [legislative] session was that I.B.M. deal, $1.6 billion investment in upstate. You weren’t there. Tell me why. Where were you?”

“You know what? That was Joe Bruno’s day,” Skelos replies.

In 1979, when Joe Bruno was still new to the State Senate, his office was next door to that of State Senator Norman Levy, head of the Labor Committee. Levy’s intern at the time was a young Hofstra student named Randi Weingarten.

“I watched him, as a leader, mature,” Weingarten, now the president of the United Federation of Teachers, told me. Bruno, she said, “will be sorely missed.”

There’s been speculation about what Bruno’s retirement meant for the unions and business interests he had political ties to.

“I was able to work with George Pataki. I was able to work with Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

Since Dean Skelos, the new State Senate majority leader, has said he will make addressing property taxes a major priority, and it's likely that taxes will be an issue in the upcoming election, I recently asked both candidates in the 25th Senate District about their positions on the issue.

Incumbent Marty Connor favors raising taxes on the wealthy (a "relatively small" hike, he wrote), while his challenger, Dan Squadron, wants to look to the federal government to guarantee school funds in exchange for tax cuts for the middle class. Squadron, if he wins, would likely have access to Washington because of his former boss, Chuck Schumer.  read more »

Earlier today, Michael Bloomberg defended the pledge he reportedly made to help Dean Skelos keep the narrow majority Republicans hold in the State Senate.

“Because I have said repeatedly I will help those who help this city,” Bloomberg said when he was asked why he made the promise during a Q&A with reporters in Lower Manhattan after unveiling the Waterfalls. “The Republicans in the State Senate were willing to vote for congestion pricing, and the Democrats were not. And there’s been a whole bunch of things where they have been there to help us," he added. "If the Democrats help us, I’ll support them as well.  read more »

Here’s Dean Skelos--at his first press conference after being elected State Senate majority leader Tuesday night in Albany--saying property taxes are the first, second and third priority for the Republican conference.

This also means there are more elected officials using YouTube (the video is from the State Senate's recently launched account).

Last night, newly minted State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos explained to reporters that his priorities may shift now that he’s representing a statewide conference, and not just his Long Island district.

Speaking at a press conference, he said, “Of course I have a responsibility to my constituency--I’m elected to in the Ninth Senatorial District, but I think David Paterson has shown, as he moved from being the minority leader to lieutenant governor and now governor, that your responsibilities perhaps change a little bit, and you have to amend your ways a little bit.”

One of the accomplishments Skelos highlights in his biography is that he wrote the law ending what he called the "unfair and onerous" commuter tax, which cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue.  read more »

When Dean Skelos takes over for Joe Bruno, one of the forces he'll have to come to terms with is Michael Bloomberg, who relied on State Senate Republicans to help pass New York City-related legislation in Albany, and who, in turn, gave them lots of money to get members re-elected.

The Skelos-Bloomberg relationship, whatever else there is to it, may already be strained.

According to the biography on Skelos' legislative web site, "Senator Skelos also wrote the law eliminating the unfair New York City "Commuter Tax." That's money New York City lawmakers have been trying unsuccessfully to get back ever since.  read more »

From David Paterson's comments at a press conference in Albany right now, it seems like he will have a good relationship with Dean Skelos, who is replacing Joe Bruno as the State Senate majority leader.

Speaking to reporters in the back of the Assembly chambers, Paterson said of Skelos, “For eight years he was the deputy majority leader, and I was the deputy minority leader and we used to debate each other on the floor for all my time. He is, in a lot of ways, like Senator Bruno, but he has his own style.”

Paterson, who represented Harlem in the State Senate, added, “He and I grew up about ten minutes away from each other in Long Island.  read more »

Joe Bruno did not commit to staying in office for the remainder of his term when he addressed reporters in Albany just now, instead saying that he'll speak with his conference later today and plans to take things one day at a time.

Speaking in his third floor office in the capitol building, Bruno said he is"satisfied" with his tenure and aims to ensure a smooth and orderly transition.

I just ran into New York State Republican Party Chairman Joe Mondello at the Malden rest stop on the Thruway, just outside the Catskills. He, like me, was on his way to Albany. But unlike me, Mondello didn't seem like he had been surprised by the announcement that Bruno will not seek reelection.

“I’ve been a longtime friend of Joe Bruno, and I’ve been a political ally of Joe Bruno, for many, many, many, many years,” Mondello told me. “I’m going to miss him dearly.”

When I asked how Mondello heard the news, he said, “Well, it’s interesting that you ask that question. Joe Bruno and I have been longtime friends, as I pointed out to you, and we have been political allies and we have kept no secrets from each other throughout the years.  read more »

Advocates of legalizing medicinal marijuana in New York are now pinning their hopes on, of all people, conservatives.

Here's a pro-medicinal marijuana ad that appeared in a local Brooklyn paper this week, targeting Conservative-Republican state Senator Marty Golden, and featuring Joel Peacock, a member of the state’s Conservative Party.

The ad says that Peacock suffers from “chronic, severe pain“ from a 2001 car accident and that medicinal marijuana offers him effective and cheap relief.

The ad targeting Golden is one of eight ads aimed at Republican state Senators across New York, which also feature polling information that supporters say proves the bill is more popular among voters than lawmakers think.

The other state senators are Carl Marcellino Kemp Hannon, Dean Skelos, all from Long Island, Frank Padavan and Serph Maltese of Queens, Thomas Morahan of Rockland County and Dale Volker from upstate.

 

More on the campaign after the jump.  read more »