Speaker of NY State Assembly Facing Federal Corruption Charges; will be replaced

[jimmy olsen]

New York politicians are corrupt? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/nyregion/sheldon-silver-to-be-replaced-as-speaker-of-new-york-state-assembly.html?_r=0

Sheldon Silver to Be Replaced as Speaker of New York State Assembly

By JESSE McKINLEY, THOMAS KAPLAN and SUSANNE CRAIGJAN. 27, 2015

ALBANY — Sheldon Silver, who faces federal corruption charges, is being replaced as speaker of the New York State Assembly next week, Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday, paving the way for them to choose a new leader in an election to be held Feb. 10.

A Rochester-area assemblyman, Joseph D. Morelle, who is the majority leader and a top contender to succeed Mr. Silver, will become interim speaker on Monday, officials said.

Mr. Silver's swift downfall ends an era in the capital, overturning its hierarchy just as a new legislative session gets underway and setting off what is likely to be a scramble to select his successor. It came after he mounted a last-ditch effort to keep the leadership position he had held since 1994, a tenure spanning five governors.

Mr. Silver, 70, who was first elected to represent Manhattan's Lower East Side in the Assembly in 1976, is not resigning from his legislative seat.

Democrats spent a marathon session behind closed doors Tuesday discussing their future leadership, culminating in an evening announcement by Mr. Morelle in an impromptu news conference, in which he abruptly stopped taking questions after less than three minutes.

"We're confident that we can go forward, get back to work in terms of the budget, and continue to lead the people in this state and do the jobs we were elected to do," Mr. Morelle said.

He said he met earlier in the day with Mr. Silver, who "asked me to say that he will not impede the transition."

Mr. Morelle appeared to choose his words carefully, and he would not address whether Mr. Silver had agreed to step down as speaker, or if members would oust him.

"Because I only heard what you heard, I can't interpret what that means, other than we anticipate a vacancy on Monday," Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Queens Democrat, told reporters afterward.

Mr. Silver, amid a crush of reporters as he slowly left the Capitol later Tuesday evening, said he would not resign his Assembly seat because he had been duly elected by his constituents.

But he added, "I will not hinder a succession process."

Asked if he was acting for the good of the Assembly by allowing a new speaker to be named, Mr. Silver said: "I believe very deeply in the institution. I hope that they can have somebody here who can carry on the good work that has taken place."

The developments appeared to give Mr. Morelle a running start in a contest that also features several downstate aspirants, and that could hold immense consequences for New York City.

An affable floor leader with an M.C.'s demeanor and a wrestler's build, Mr. Morelle, 57, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1990, was for nearly a decade the party chairman in Monroe County, a Democratic enclave in a largely conservative part of upstate New York.

Mr. Morelle led a group of lawmakers who spoke up on Thursday in defense of Mr. Silver after his arrest on accusations that he exploited his office to obtain millions of dollars in payoffs.

Among the Assembly members from the New York City area who may also join the race, Carl E. Heastie, 47, of the Bronx, is the most-talked-about candidate. If successful, he would become the first African-American to hold the position.

Mr. Heastie, a onetime budget analyst in the city comptroller's office who was first elected to the Assembly in 2000, has what could prove valuable experience in the trench warfare of New York politics: He was involved in a raucous takeover of the Bronx Democratic Party in 2008, leading an insurgent faction that overthrew the borough leader, Assemblyman José Rivera.

Among the other contenders were Joseph R. Lentol, a longtime assemblyman from Brooklyn; Catherine Nolan of Queens, who leads the Education Committee; and Keith L. T. Wright, a longtime African-American lawmaker from Harlem who is the Manhattan Democratic leader and a former state Democratic co-chairman.

Amid the behind-the-scenes wrangling on Tuesday, there were intimations of maneuvering by officials including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, though both said they were not getting involved.

The next speaker will lead the Assembly's negotiations over the state budget with the governor and the Republican-controlled State Senate. The deadline for the budget is April 1.

And for Mr. de Blasio, much of whose liberal agenda requires the cooperation of Albany lawmakers, the sudden possibility that Mr. Silver could be replaced by someone less sympathetic to the city's needs, and to Mr. de Blasio's political philosophy, was an unwelcome bolt from the blue.

"It's been tough enough to get our fair share even with a speaker from New York City," the mayor told reporters Tuesday. "So one can imagine, someone from outside, it might even be harder."

Still, Mr. de Blasio, like the governor, said that it was not for him to influence the Assembly's choice of a new speaker. "We're just trying to gather information," the mayor said.

Already, a number of candidates were quietly courting colleagues within the Democratic conference.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester County, said lawmakers needed some time. "I am a voter," she said. "I want to learn more about the candidates, and I think everyone felt the same."

Asked whether he would like to succeed Mr. Silver on a permanent basis, Mr. Morelle said, "I think there are a great number of people in our conference who have exhibited great leadership in the last several days." He added, "Today is not the day to make an announcement."

But Assemblyman Wright, whose call on Monday for Mr. Silver's resignation helped seal the speaker's fate, said he would seek the speakership, citing his "great experience" and more than two decades in office.

"I've been here," Mr. Wright said. "This is the body that I love, this is the institution that I love, and that's why I'm trying to do right by it."

And Assemblyman Lentol, who was first elected in 1972 and whose father and grandfather also served in the Assembly, said he also planned to run.

"I think that I'm a members' member," Mr. Lentol said. He added that the discussions Monday and Tuesday had been "very arduous," but satisfying.

"It reminds me of democracy," Mr. Lentol said. "And democracy is tough."

Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried of Manhattan echoed that sentiment.

Mr. Gottfried, who had initially supported Mr. Silver, said it had been a "wrenching week or so."

As for the Feb. 10 election, he said, he did not know who he would support for speaker. He did, however, have an idea of whom he would not.

"I can tell you with absolute certainty," Mr. Gottfried said, "I will not be supporting me."

[CountDeMoney]

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[jimmy olsen]

Sorry, not sure how I missed that.

[KRonn]

This is so shocking!! Er, shocking that it took so long to indict. The last two or three Mass House Speakers have been found guilty of various charges, with one in prison. The current one comes under fire every now and then and I think there are some more serious possible charges as it's wait and see now. But I figure that New York is like Massachusetts - people know there's too much corruption but just have to live with it.