So, How's That "Power-Sharing" Thingie Workin' Out for Ya, NYS?

[Smarmie Doofus]

The idea was: a small group ( five) of NYS DEM senators left the party's Alabany caucus and forged an alliance w. the GOP minority to create an effective GOP *majority*. Well, it's working out more or less as follows:

>>>>ALBANY — Amid the generally festive energy at this weekend’s Somos El Futuro conference in Albany, there was another emotion coursing through many of the event’s Latino participants: fury over the fate of the Dream Act, which would allow undocumented college students who meet certain criteria access to state financial aid.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the community as angry as I’ve seen it over the last week,” said Jose Calderon, the president of the Hispanic Federation. “There’s a real sense of ‘enough is enough.’ ”

Much of that frustration was focused on the State Senate, which failed to pass the act last week, prompting a last-minute effort to incorporate the legislation into this year’s budget, which is due to be completed by April 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. That lobbying included a full-court press by legislators at a reception at the governor’s mansion on Friday night, just hours before Mayor Bill de Blasio traveled to Albany to voice his support

But the Senate vote also raised questions about the motives and methodology of Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, who heads a breakaway group of Democrats who share power in the Senate with Republicans. It was Mr. Klein’s decision to bring the Dream Act to a vote without its passage all but assured — an unusual move in the Legislature and one seen by some at the Somos conference as a disingenuous attempt to put the issue to rest for this legislative session.

“I think he purposefully abused the momentum of the Dreamers to prove a political point,” said Lucia Gomez, executive director of La Fuente, a labor-oriented nonprofit group.

Ms. Gomez and others said the vote had been called last Monday afternoon with little time for advocates to pressure fence-sitting senators. (Many of the advocates had appeared that morning in New York at a rally for the Dream Act and rushed to Albany when they heard the vote had been called.) And that lack of notice, they say, cost them: None of 29 sitting Republicans voted for the bill, and one potential Republican supporter, Phil Boyle of Long Island, was absent from the chamber that day. The final tally — 30 yeas and 29 nays, including two Democrats — was not enough for passage.

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Klein stood by the decision to bring the vote and said he had warned several lawmakers supportive of the bill that it would happen early in the week. “I actually brought the bill to the floor for a vote because I thought it was a very important issue,” said Mr. Klein, who represents portions of the Bronx and Westchester County and voted “yes” on the Dream Act. “And I was hopeful that not only would I bring this bill to the floor, but also it would pass.”

It’s not the first time that Mr. Klein, a partner in a Bronx law firm specializing in personal injury suits, has faced such criticism from traditional Democratic constituencies. He formed the Independent Democratic Conference in 2011 and later formed “a bipartisan power-sharing agreement” with Republicans, who are numerically outnumbered in the 63-member Senate.
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/nyregion/after-dream-acts-narrow-defeat-focus-is-on-timing-of-the-vote.html?ref=nyregion