home
New York's New Governor: David Paterson | 23 comments (23 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

Patterson is far more liberal than Spitzer (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by fuzzyone on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 06:11:49 PM EST
so this could  be a good thing for New York.  Its also a great opportunity for Patterson.  I don't know his position on the Rockefeller laws (which are a disaster).  I do know that he is likely to have a much better relationship with the legislature than Spitzer.  

Also remember that Bruno may only be Majority leader till December.  The entire Senate is up for reelection in November and the dems only need to pick up one more seat to get the majority.

The need to pick up 2 seats. (none / 0) (#23)
by Iphie on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 07:04:41 PM EST
Now the Democrats need to pick up two seats, the current breakdown is 32 Republicans, 30 Democrats. The conventional wisdom was that the Dems only needed to win one seat to gain power. That power would have derived from the tie-breaking power of the Lieutenant Governor (also the President of the Senate). Because a new Lt. Governor will not be appointed after Paterson becomes Governor, Joe Bruno (the Republican Senate Majority Leader) will step in and be the de facto President of the Senate.

An interesting question though, is in the event that the Dems win only one seat and the senate is split right down the middle with 31 on each side, what happens if they become deadlocked? I would imagine that we would be faced with a potential situation where legislation could not get passed.

[ Parent ]

New York's New Governor: David Paterson | 23 comments (23 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

  • Premium Ads

  • Blog Ads

  • Contribute To TalkLeft

    donate to TalkLeft