I went up to Albany on Friday with my husband to see what was going on in the state senate, we were reading about it and wanted to see it with our own eyes. It was just as silly as it sounds in the papers! Here I am ready to "take on" Albany!
Before the special session(s) we saw two Senators meeting in the shadowy chamber. I wonder what they were talking about!
The news media were out in force.
The Democrats met first then the Republicans. Notice how it's only half full!
If we had a Lieutenant Governor he could break the tie and end this, but the state constitution makes no provision for that office to be filled if the Governor steps down-- In fact, if something happens to Patterson (God forbid) there is no clear answer to who would be the next Governor.
What we saw were two very short sessions, It was very tense and each session was identical-- we had to say the pledge of allegiance twice and rise twice, and gavel-in and gavel-out twice. The only difference was the Democrats had a bigger gavel, I think it was the "real" one. They locked it in the desk when they were done. Then the Republicans came in with their own smaller much less expensive and nice looking gavel and ran their session. So who has the real gavel?? Hmm?
I wish I was up there yesterday to see the whole thing with the guy going to get a coke and then the Democrats rushing to pass a bunch of stuff since he was in the chamber and they thought they had a quorum. When will this end?
If you don't know what is going on here is the short version: The Republicans convinced some Democrats to come over to their side so they could take control of the NY State Senate. It almost worked but half-way through one of the Democrats backed out and would not switch parties. So, now the senate is tied and it has no leader. Without a leader they cannot pass any bills.