Senate Dems Seek LG Opinion From Ex-Senate Dem-Turned-AG (Updated)

The Senate Democrats have turned to their former colleague, Eric Schneiderman, for assistance in their rules fight, asking the ex-senator-turned-AG for an opinion on whether the Republicans’ effort to take away LG Bob Duffy’s tie-breaking leadership vote is legal.

At roughly the 10:14-minute mark, Sen. Mike Gianaris takes the podium and accuses the Republicans of “subverting the Constitution” (actually, that’s a matter open to interpretation, as the Rockfeller Institute’s Bob Ward and I discussed on CapTon last week).

The former Queens assemblyman then says the Democrats, at Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s request, have asked Schneiderman for an opinion as to their legal standing if, as is expected this afternoon, the Republicans pass the rules changes they were unable to take up last week due to the absence from the Rules Committee meeting of Sen. Ken LaValle.

The Democrats are still awaiting a reply from Schneiderman, Gianaris said. UPDATE: The letter the minority sent to their old colleague appears after the jump.

13111 Letter to AG Schneiderman Re GOP Rules Resolution

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This entry was posted by Liz Benjamin on January 31, 2011 at 4:47 pm, and is filed under Democrats, Eric Schneiderman, Republicans, State Senate, Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Advocate

Not sure, but I’m a Democrat and I can’t seem to get beyond the fact that this was such a staged press conference simply to put members on camera. Where are the advocates? Where are the good government groups? Why didn’t the Democrats install these changes when they were in power.

It’s a crying shame. If the Republicans change the rules and its so detrimental, we’ll figure that out in 2012, but don’t make yourself look ridiculous by crying foul when you didn’t play fairly and share equally in the sandbox yourself. Poor strategy, really dumb. Some of the points are fine, such as the powers of the Lt. Gov, but not a person in the world cares a rats rear on anything else. Now get to your committee meetings and go legislate, for crying out loud.
urban conservative

Both the the Democrats and Republicans in Albany don’t realize how they continue to embarrass themselves. They are an embarrassment to New York State and the United States of America. We should just ask 212 other people to just fill the legislature up and get things done.

Senate Dems Seek LG Opinion From Ex-Senate Dem-Turned-AG (Updated)

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