Surprisingly high-ranking Democrats, including Rep. Keith Ellison,
deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, have lately been
badgering the party’s rival factions in New York’s state Senate to
create a working majority that can control the chamber.
For years, a group of eight Democratic senators, the self-styled
Independent Democratic Conference, has collaborated with Republicans to
give the GOP effective control of the Senate. With control comes the
crucial power to hire staff, dispense funding and advance, stall or kill
legislation.
This drives the larger, main Democratic conference nuts. They have been
appealing to various higher powers — including Ellison and Gov. Cuomo —
to put pressure on the IDC and mainstream Dems to unite.
“New York must serve as a beacon of progressive governance for the rest
of the nation and the only way that will happen is if the Senate
Democrats are in the majority, where they belong,” Ellison said
recently, according to The News’ statehouse bureau chief, Ken Lovett.
Ellison is headlining a fundraiser for the mainline Senate Democrats
this week.
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Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report)
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