Republicans may be losing their power in the state Senate, as the group of breakaway Democrats that forms a majority with Republicans is effectively ending the bipartisan coalition.
The Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, which is headed by Bronx Democrat Jeff Klein, has agreed to end their power-sharing arrangement with Republicans.
The state Senate is the one house of the state Capitol that Republicans have controlled for the better part of the last half century.
“We think that we can best achieve that agenda post-November by forming a coalition with the Democrats, the IDC is a separate conference with the Democratic conference, to really move forth with a progressive agenda,” Klein said.
By agreeing to rejoin the Democrats, the IDC will remain separate and independent as its own conference. It will be a new power-sharing arrangement, only this time, both factions will be Democrats.
The deal was brokered by union leaders, along with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who promised to campaign for a new Democratic majority when he received the Working Families Party endorsement last month.
In a statement, the governor said, “I applaud the IDC’s decision. There is no doubt that we have accomplished much for the state over the past four years. We have transformed the state government from dysfunctional to highly functional, a deficit to a surplus, and losing jobs to gaining jobs. There is also no doubt there are progressive goals that we have yet to achieve and that we must accomplish next January.”
The agenda includes some of the major progressive policy initiatives that Republicans either wouldn’t vote for or, in some cases, wouldn’t even allow a vote. Under the arrangement between Klein and Republican Conference Leader Dean Skelos as co-leaders, both of them could veto any piece of legislation from coming to the floor.
“I think post-session, we were disappointed,” Klein said. “There’s things that we wanted to get done, like the Dream Act, like full-fledged campaign finance reform, going a little further and making sure that minimum-wage workers get an increase they deserve, and unfortunately, those things couldn’t get done.”
It’s important to point out that a lot needs to happen for this to all work out. Republicans could potentially pick up seats this fall, in which case, Democrats would not have enough votes to form the majority. There is no question, though, that this new agreement represents a major shift in the balance of power in Albany.
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