Skelos: "blurring of party lines might not be over"
Story Created:
Jun 9, 2009 at 4:36 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Jun 9, 2009 at 5:52 PM EDT
(WKTV) - Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who appears to have regained that title after Monday's democratic coup in the State Senate, says the blurring of party lines might not be over.
"Right now we have 32 senators and I believe the coalition will grow.....oh, I believe there'll be other democrats joining us."
Downstate Democrat Senators Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate on Monday announced that, while they will remain democrats, they will caucus and vote with senate republicans. Reporters today chased the two around the state capitol, asking, 'why'?
"There was a clear consensus that we needed to go back to the promises that were made and really transform Albany from the disaster it has been the last six months," said Espada.
Monserrate, who is in the process of answering assault charges, told reporters to keep their eye on the ball. He told his colleagues to prepare for a long, working summer.
"The reality is this is not about my personal life; this is not about Pedro Espada's personal life; this is about the lack of leadership that got us to this point, that we understood we had to reform the senate, we had to move forward and I'm calling on all the senators to be here longer than we expected, because we should not be looking at the 22nd for the end of session; we should be looking at dealing with the issues."
Democrat Senator David Valesky blasted Espada and Monserrate for aligning with senate republicans.
"The events that occurred in the senate chamber...represent nothing but an empty and illegal grab for power," said Valesky.
The democratic conference of the senate has vowed to fight the move in court.
The senate is back in session 3 p.m. Wednesday.
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