state senate

In the last state senate race to be decided, incumbent State Senator, Frank Padavan has won.  With 265 ballots being fought over, Padavan holds a 578 vote lead.  Challenger Jim Genarro put up a great fight and almost took out a long time incumbent. Padavan drew much criticism during the campaign for attacking St.

The State senate has offically become blue.  Sen. Malcolm Smith last night was able to broker a deal that would bring the Gang of three over to the Democratic side and ensured that he got the nessecary votes.  Heres what he needed to give according to the Daily News:

- Kruger, who ducked out without speaking to reporters, will chair the Finance Committee ($34,000 lu-lu), which Smith said does have a budget of between $5 million and $6 million. Sen.

With the deal for control of the NY senate falling through, where are we left. With a little less then a month to go before the senate takes over, will we have a leader. The College Democrats of New York want to ask you, the voters, what you think is going to happen.

Today at a hearing on the ballots in the SD 11 case, the judge ordered that the St. Johns students that were subpoenaed could leave because they where not about counting the votes but about intimidating the students. According to the NYTimes:

...at a hearing that lasted just half an hour, Justice Kevin J. Kerrigan of State Supreme Court stated that the subpoenas were nothing more than a nuisance and ordered that they be dismissed.

In the battle to lead in the NY State Senate, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. has said that he believes gay marriage will come up if the Democrats are in control. He is adamantly opposed to even voting on gay marriage. Well today Sen. Thomas Duane, the only openly gay senator had this to say about the battle for leadership:

It's a whole new way to operate. It's not just going to be up to Sen.

In the race for senate, challenger Jim Gennaro is refusing to concede to Senator Frank Padavan. With a 752 vote lead, Padavan is hoping to survive a recount and absentee ballot count. Here is the statement from the Gennaro campaign:

I'm gratified by the tremendous support that I received in every corner of this district, and am confident that when all of the ballots are counted we will be victorious. There is serious work to be done: fixing New York's economy, closing record budget deficits, and reforming state government.

Control of the state Senate is in flux right now as the "Gang of four" decides who they want to support for majority leader. These four are four Democrats who are more conservative then their fellow Democratic senators. They have previously supported the GOP and hold powerful positions on committees in the GOP controlled senate. After meeting with the two leaders, 2 of the senators have begun to temper their views. According to Pedro Espada, one of the Gang of Four,:

Mr.