Yesterday, former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno was convicted of two felony charges of mail fraud under the federal honest services law. He is all but certain to appeal. If he wins on appeal, it will not be because Bruno did not accept millions of dollars in consulting fees [...]
Today, in an incredibly rare move, the Senate voted down a bill – this one to legalize same-sex marriage.
Disappointing though the result might be, the bill’s failure symbolized a departure from business as usual in the Senate, and gave advocates for marriage equality a critical tool in [...]
As we've written before, the Senate has one major hurdle to clear before it largely fulfills its promise of making the chamber more deliberative, open, and accountable. Below is a letter that the Brennan Center sent the Temporary Committee on Rules and Administration Reform and other Senate leaders yesterday' [...]
Liz Benjamin is reporting that the Assembly’s ethics committee held a closed-door session this morning, the subject of which committee members have kept tightly under wraps. While it’s good news that the committee – which, as we noted in our 2008 report, sometimes goes years without meeting – [...]
On Tuesday, October 27, the Brennan Center will join the New York Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society in hosting a panel discussion entitled Reforming Albany: What Is Wrong with the State Legislature and How to Fix It.
The event features Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries, AD 57; State Senator [...]
As most of our readers now know, Hiram Monserrate, the Senate coup instigator accused of slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass last December, was charged yesterday with a misdemeanor – not for the slashing itself, but for Monserrate’s rough treatment of his girlfriend caught on [...]
Yesterday, an appellate panel ruled that Governor Paterson’s appointment of Richard Ravitch to the office of lieutenant governor violated state law. At the conclusion of the decision, the panel stated that “this matter is one of great public import and ought to be resolved finally and expeditiously by the [...]
In response to a Qunnipiac poll showing that nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers think that the state government is broken, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver expressed sympathy for voters’ sentiments toward the Senate and dodged any blame for his own chamber.
It would be an audacious move for [...]
This Thursday, The Senate will reconvene to vote on its version of the New York City school governance (‘mayoral control’) bill. By all accounts, the Senate bill, which was the subject of intensive negotiations within the Democratic conference and between the Senate and Mayor Bloomberg, looks significantly different from [...]
In light of last week's corruption sweep in New Jersey, it’s worth taking a look at the state of ethics in New York. While it’s tough to top the allegations of kidney trafficking and cash-stuffed cereal boxes involved in the New Jersey case, we certainly have our share of' [...]
The end of the Senate Coup two weeks ago doesn’t mean that New Yorkers have to go without their daily dose of interesting legal wrangling. Last night, a state Supreme Court Justice granted a preliminary injunction preventing Ravich from acting as Lieutenant Governor.
But that’s not the interesting part. [...]
Early this morning, the Senate passed a resolution to substantially alter the operating rules of the chamber. The Senate has gone a long way – certainly farther than the Assembly – to reform their leadership-controlled legislative process.
The new rules uphold most of the good changes made by [...]
This week, the Senate is likely to vote on a new rules resolution that will determine how the post-coup chamber will run. While Republicans have already accused Democrats of reneging on reform, it seems likely that the key changes enacted by the June 8th rules resolution – [...]
In a press conference this morning, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris outlined the legal argument, originally proposed by our former colleague Jeremy Creelan, in support of Governor Paterson’s power to appoint a lieutenant governor to preside over the Senate.
It’s an interesting proposal. Because the senate rules state that [...]
Today Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) outlined the legal argument supporting Governor Paterson's power to appoint a Lieutenant Governor to preside over the Senate chamber.
Such an appointment would provide the Senate with the leadership necessary to pass critical legislation during extraordinary session without intervening in the ongoing fight for' [...]
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story about the impact of the state’s shifting demographics on gridlock in Albany, predicting that population increases in urban areas will lead to a larger Democratic majority after the 2010 Census.
The article mentions Republicans’ efforts to combat this trend in 2000 [...]
Salaries:
The governor is without power to halt payment of legislative salaries. The state constitution grants him little authority over the legislative branch, and none in this area. (And rightly so - if a governor who disagreed with the legislature's political positions or leadership had the power to cut legislators' [...]
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a useful guide to deadlocked state legislative chambers since 1966, and what the chambers did to resolve the issue and keep legislative business moving.
In most deadlocked legislatures, the parties have negotiated a co-leadership agreement similar to that proposed by Senate [...]
In an earlier post, I noted the wisdom of the Democrats' decision not to appeal Judge McNamara's opinion in Smith v. Espada. Turns out I jumped the gun. After negotiations between the two caucuses broke down again on Thursday, the Democrats changed their mind and will appear [...]
This afternoon, New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas McNamara dismissed the Democrats’ lawsuit against Senator Pedro Espada, declining to intervene in a legislative matter and sending the question of legislative leadership back to the political branch where it belongs:
[…T]he question calls for a solution by the members of [...]Last night, Senate republicans walked away from the negotiating table, punting the question of who rightfully holds the title of Majority Leader back to the court. Not only is it inadvisable to draw the court into a legislative matter, but this also means that whoever comes out on [...]
Why have the Senate Democrats asked the state courts to intervene in what is evidently a political matter? Inviting the court into the legislative process, no matter the short term value, only further weakens a legislature that is already judged dysfunctional. Fortunately, the court has seen the constitutional dangers of [...]
One thing the Republican Conference seems to have overlooked in turning over the post of President Pro Tempore to Senator Espada is the possibility that he will be entitled to two votes in certain circumstances.
Under the New York State Constitution (Art. IV, § 6) the President Pro Tempore [...]
In today’s Syracuse Post-Standard, I was quoted as saying that people like Golisano shouldn’t be able to use money to shape legislative events. Unfortunately, the reporter truncated the most important part of my statement and the result is a little misleading.
While it’s true that legislative votes shouldn’t [...]
In addition to other changes, and as announced in their press conference, the Senate's new rules provide for power sharing between the Temporary President (Senator Pedro Espada) and the Majority Leader (Dean Skelos). But sharing doesn't mean EQUAL sharing. Espada does not have many of the powers Temporary [...]
We just finished reviewing a copy of the rules resolution passed by the Senate yesterday to see if the new majority really followed through on the promises made by Senator Skelos.
For the most part, the rules do what Skelos said they will, with the major caveat [...]
Yesterday, members of the New York State Senate held a vote to install Republican Dean Skelos and Democrat Pedro Espada as Majority Leader and President of the Senate, respectively, and passed a resolution to enact several rules changes.
According to leaders of the coup and financier Tom Golisano who [...]
According to a statement from Dean Skelos’ office, the newly formed “bipartisan majority” voted to adopt some rules reforms when they seized control this afternoon – something that the Democrats had yet to do, which, according to the Times, contributed to Tom Golisano’s ire.
Golisano, by the [...]
Once again, it’s difficult to know exactly what’s happening in the maelstrom surrounding the Senate’s potential power shift, but according to a statement from Dean Skelos’ office, the newly formed “bipartisan majority” actually voted to adopt some rules reforms when they seized control this afternoon.
Here’s a very [...]
Various news sources are reporting that Senators Espada and Monserrate have defected from the Democratic Majority in the Senate, restoring Republican control of the chamber.
While it’s unclear what exactly is going on at this point, the Republicans have been quite clear that they view the coup [...]
Yesterday, over claims from sponsor Tom Duane that the bill now has sufficient Republican support, representatives of Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith reiterated that he wouldn’t let the state’s much-discussed same-sex marriage bill come to the Senate floor until he was certain it had the number of votes necessary [...]
Governor David Patterson’s proposal to dismantle the Commission on Public Integrity and replace it with a smaller panel structured in a way to minimize political influence, with jurisdiction over legislators and expanded powers, would fill some of the voids in ethics oversight in New York State government, but more [...]
The video of last week's Cities Committee markup session is now online on the committee website.' [...] Yesterday, three Republican members of the Senate’s Temporary Committee on Rules and Administration Reform released a minority report detailing areas where they felt that the committee fell short.
Unsurprisingly, the emphasis of the report is on equal allocation of resources, a familiar refrain for Republican Senators once they became [...]
This morning, the Cities Committee used a markup process based on Brennan Center recommendations to consider, debate, and revise a Tenant’s Rights bill sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger.
The meeting, which was broadcast live online, featured amendments (and amendments to amendments) to the bill, debate about specific language [...]
Tomorrow at 9:30, the Cities Committee, chaired by Sen. Squadron (who also sits on the Temporary Committee for Rules and Administration Reform) will experiment with a bill markup and amendment process based on rules suggested by the Brennan Center. The meeting should be broadcast online – we’ll be watching, and [...]
Last week, the Senate unveiled a new website that Majority Leader Malcolm Smith promises will help “put the Senate into the hands of the people.”
The site includes lots of new features like links to members’ Twitter feeds and an “Open Data” page that includes budget [...]
One of New York’s legislative shortcomings of particular concern to the Brennan Center is the lack of committee hearings where experts and the public can provide input on legislation under committee consideration and issues of public concern. While some states require such hearings on every bill, our 2004 report found [...]
Yesterday, my colleague Larry Norden blogged about the Temporary Committee on Rules and Administration Reform’s draft report -- the good, the bad, and the missing.
We thought we would follow Larry’s statement related to committee amendments and mark-ups (echoed here in a Daily News story) with [...]
Yesterday, the day 3000 pages of budget bills hit state legislators’ desks in advance of a vote scheduled for only 48 hours later, the Times ran a story on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's unprecedented power in Albany. The story details Silver’s stranglehold on the legislative process in general,' [...]
The temporary Senate committee charged with reviewing the chamber’s rules has been traveling the state this month to hear testimony from New Yorkers about their perspective on the legislative process.
Two hearings – one in Syracuse and one in Albany – have already taken place. In Syracuse, advocates called [...]
In response to yesterday’s release of the Brennan Center’s report Still Broken: New York State Legislative Reform 2008 Update, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver issued a statement suggesting that our report misrepresents the legislative process in the Assembly. We thought we’d set the record straight. Our responses to excerpts from [...]
Still Broken: New York State Legislative Reform 2008 Update will now be released in Albany on Monday, January 5. [...] The New York City Council Committee on Governmental Operations held a hearing this morning about three [...]
More than 3,000 absentee ballots were mailed to voters that listed Assemblywoman RoAnn DeStito as a candidate for the Conservative Party instead of the Working Families Party according to a story in Utica's Observer Dispatch.' [...] 
Remember the news that Upstate New York's Rensselaer County mailed a few hundred absentee ballots with the name "Osama" instead of "Obama?"
The Albany Times Union reported this weekend that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name was spelled "Osama" on 300 absentee ballots mailed in Rensselaer County last week.
The state Coalition for Voter Involvement and Fair Elections is on the case of possible voter purges that may have removed people from the rolls in error.
Micah Kellner, Assemblyman of the 65th district of Manhattan's Upper East Side, released his ethics disclosure form for us to post and for all to see. It's available as a PDF file download here. For the unfamiliar it's worth reading for the range of questions.
Our own Larry Norden has a terrific 
On Sunday, our colleague Eric Lane was on WABC's "Up Close" to discuss dysfunction in Albany. The video of Eric's appearance is 
The U.S. is suing New York State over voting again, this 
Tonight, our colleagues Larry Norden and Eric Lane will testify before the Senate Temporary Committee on Rules Reform here in New York City.
Governor Paterson confirms 
