A jovial Dean Skelos stepped out from a closed GOP-members only conference this afternoon and joked to reporters: “It’s been a boring couple of weeks, and speculation about who will be, you know, the new majority leader, and I’d like to introduce Andy Lanza…”

The Long Island Republican then stopped kidding and informed the media that, as expected, he had been unanimously re-elected to head the conference – and possibly re-assume the title of majority leader, if all goes as the GOP hopes in the three yet-undecided races.

Skelos also said Sen. Tom Libous, of Binghamton, will remain in the No. 2 post. He joked that he would soon set a record for “being the majority leader three times in two years.” You can listen to the entire press conference here.

“Our conference is unified and we are ready to move forward,” Skelos said in a formal statement. “The election is over and the people want us to get to work and govern.”

“The last two years the taxpayers in this state have been abused – and that has to stop. Everyone has to understand that we must put the taxpayer first.”

“Every member of our conference, including the seven new members, campaigned on the issues of cutting spending, no new taxes and fees and creating jobs – those are going to be our priorities going forward.”

“We are looking forward to working with Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, Speaker Silver and all the members of the Legislature to achieve these goals.”

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