NY'S 'GANG'BUSTER GOV IS FEELING ILL.

GOV. PATERSON has shifted gears and now believes that the bitter battle for state Senate control can end with an agreement excluding the renegade Democrats known as the "Gang of Three," the Post has learned.

He's even told associates that he fears that Gang of Three members have made demands bordering on the illegal - especially in light of the Illinois scandal involving Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Paterson, who helped negotiate an initial agreement with Gang members earlier this month only to see it fall apart last week, told associates he's hoping current Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) will negotiate a final deal with Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) making Smith the new majority leader in January, at which point Democrats will hold a 32-30 majority.

The main reason for Paterson's strategy shift is that he, Smith, and other Democratic and Republican senators have concluded that none of the Gang members - Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn and Sen. Ruben Diaz and Sen.-elect Pedro Espada, both of The Bronx - can be trusted.

Demands by the trio have appeared so over-the-top that aides to Paterson and the legislative leaders have begun using such terms as "Somali pirates" and "the three indictees" to describe them.

The latter reference reflected the widespread concern that Gang members could have crossed a legal line with their demands.

The concern took on added urgency in the wake of last week's bombshell federal indictment of Blagojevich for allegedly seeking cash in exchange for filling President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12152008/news/columnists/nys_gangbuster_gov_is_feeling_ill__144273.htm

Jersey State Commission Urges Marriage Equality Now By: PAUL SCHINDLER, Gay City News 12/10/2008

Jersey State Commission Urges Marriage Equality Now
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
12/10/2008

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE/ STATE OF NJ" hspace=0 src="http://images.zwire.com/local/Z/Zwire2729/zwire/images/2008/12/story/CorzineWeb_story.jpg" width=240 vspace=2 border=0>
Photo Gallery
A key issue now is whether Governor Jon Corzine will allow a marriage bill to move before his 2009 reelection bid.GOVERNOR'S OFFICE/ STATE OF NJ
In a report comprehensive in scope and sweeping in its conclusions, an official government commission in New Jersey recommended that the Legislature change state law "to allow same-sex couples to marry" and to do so "expeditiously because any delay in marriage equality will harm all the people of New Jersey." The findings, released on the morning of December 10 and which ran to 45 pages plus appendices, were issued in the "final report" of the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, a 13-member body established when civil unions were enacted in late 2006 (complete report). The Legislature adopted the civil union law in response to a State Supreme Court ruling that October mandating that New Jersey afford same-sex couples all the rights and benefits of marriage. The Review Commission was created to monitor the effectiveness of the civil union law in meeting the mandate laid out by the high court, and its establishment represented a significant consolation prize for Garden State Equality, New Jersey's LGBT rights lobby group, which had unsuccessfully pressed the Legislature and Democratic Governor Jon Corzine to enact a marriage equality law in response to the court ruling. At the time, the governor and legislative leaders were not publicly antagonistic toward full marriage equality, but argued that a civil union law should first be given a chance to meet the court mandate.
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The Review Commission decisively found that the law fell short in addressing the equality requirements of the Supreme Court ruling. "I believe that New Jersey will be the first state in the union to enact marriage equality through legislation," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality and the co-chairman of the Review Commission. "With this report, I believe it is more likely than ever to happen very soon." Asked if he thought it was possible that a marriage equality bill could be enacted in 2009, prior to statewide elections in New Jersey in November, Goldstein responded, "I would not preclude that possibility." The governor and the entire State Assembly face the voters next November, but not the State Senate, which has four-year terms that end after November 2011. Both Senate President Richard J. Codey (the former acting governor) and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. - the two men are Democrats - have said they support marriage equality, while Corzine has for more than a year acknowledged that he would sign a marriage law if it came to his desk. Although the Senate, which is not up for election in 2009, has only a narrow Democratic majority, in the Assembly, the party has a commanding advantage over the Republicans. In a meeting with gay journalists in 2007, Corzine said he would prefer the Legislature not move on marriage equality until after the 2008 presidential election, but said he had no concerns about signing such a law prior to his own expected reelection bid in November 2009.Even though the Review Commission issued a preliminary report in early 2008 identifying significant shortfalls in the ability of civil unions to deliver true equality, the unanimity and boldness of the final report are striking. "Given where we started and the fact that nearly half of the commissioners are government employees from a state that fought to defend the status quo on marriage in court, this result is surprising," said J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, the Review Commission chairman who is director of the state Division on Civil Rights. "To have gone from that to these conclusions speaks volumes about the comprehensiveness and transparency of this review process and about the quality of the information we gathered." Five of the 13 commissioners represent state government agencies that report directly to Corzine - in addition to Vespa-Papaleo's Civil Rights Division, the departments of Human Services, Banking and Insurance, Health and Senior Services, and Children and Families. A sixth commissioner represents the state attorney general, Anne Milgram, a Corzine appointee herself, but one with broad statutory independence from the governor. Of the other seven commissioners, five were appointed by the governor, and one each by the Senate president and the Assembly speaker. Goldstein was appointed by Speaker Roberts. The Review Commission report laid out a range of criteria, on each of which civil unions were judged as failing to deliver equality. It also labored to incorporate the personal stories from the more than 150 witnesses who testified at eight public hearings lasting a cumulative 26 hours. In perhaps the most pointed indictment of the separate status for same-sex couples created by the New Jersey Legislature, Lynn Fontaine Newsome, president of the state Bar Association, told the commissioners that the law is "a failed experiment." AnnLynne Benson, a Republican appointed to the Commission by Corzine and a former director of Gloucester County Right to Life, acknowledged that it "was not an easy process to reach consensus" in completing the final report, but said that the conclusions were clear."The civil union law was like planting a tooth pick and expecting a tree to grow," Benson told Gay City News. Noting that gay and lesbian couples have had the right to adopt for many years, she added, "It doesn't make sense for those children's parents not to have the right to be married." Among the key conclusions were that the law fails to provide members of civil union couples with the ability to act as a spouse in making health care decisions for their partners in emergency situations; that employers continue to discriminate against civil union couples as compared to their married employees; that the public in general had an inadequate and often mistaken understanding of what civil unions are; that the children raised by civil union couples are disadvantaged relative to those in married households; and that people of color couples face particularly difficult burdens in gaining equal access to the rights and benefits that marriage would provide. The report opens with an especially compelling case of a Montclair civil union partner confronted with a potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmia that landed her in an emergency room. Gina Pastino testified that even though she gave the hospital all the relevant information about her family members, including her civil union partner Naomi, when Naomi arrived at the emergency room, the attending physician said he did not know what a civil union was. As the result, valuable time treating Gina was wasted in clarifying her partner's authority to make medical decisions. In the case of a Plainfield couple, a gay man was not allowed to visit his partner in an emergency room and was finally removed from the hospital by security. Most of the employers who refused to extend equal benefits to civil union couples cited the federal Employee Retirement Insurance Security Act (ERISA) that exempts from state regulation all companies that "self-insure," rather than relying on a third-party insurer to take on the cost risk of their health care benefits plan. According to the Review Commission, an estimated 50 percent of all companies in New Jersey self-insure. It is not clear whether full marriage rights for same-sex couples would alter the legal impact of ERISA - New Jersey might still be constrained from requiring equal treatment under self-insurance plans - but the Review Commission argued that in practice the ERISA problem would largely subside. "The testimony suggests that employers may decline to provide insurance and health benefits to civil union partners not because of an objection to the government recognition of same-sex couples, but because of the term used by statutes establishing government sanctioned same-sex relationships," the Review Commission wrote. In fact, testimony from Massachusetts pointed to employer acceptance of same-sex marriages despite the potential for them to invoke the ERISA loophole. Tom Barbera, a vice president of that state's AFL-CIO, testified, "From the first few weeks after May 17, 2004, when marriage equality took effect in Massachusetts, ERISA has barely been an issue in Massachusetts... In the first few weeks of marriage equality, only a few companies chose not to provide retirement benefits under ERISA to same-sex couples." The Review Commission in New Jersey found a markedly different experience under civil unions, and stated that the problem had not lessened since the law took effect. Dr. Marshall Forstein, a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor, testified that a purportedly separate but equal relationship status for same-sex couples was psychologically harmful both for such partners and for young people first coming out and faced with prospect that they can never enjoy the same family status as their heterosexual peers. Dr. Judith Glassgold, president of the New Jersey Psychological Association, who works with children, adolescents, and their families, testified that unequal treatment in terms of relationship recognition harms children in gay and lesbian families. The Review Commission report noted that transgendered people who married while living in their birth gender but now having transitioned receive no clarification about their marital status as the result of the civil union law. Whether they remain married or are now considered to be in a civil union - or neither -is an unanswered legal question. Dr. Sylvia Rhue, director of religious affairs for the National Black Justice Coalition, testified about the economic burden facing poorer couples, many of them people of color, who are not given equal treatment by their employers. Unlike more affluent couples, this population often cannot afford the financial and legal advice necessary to protect each other, their retirement, and their life after the death of one of the partners. The Review Commission pointed to the broad public benefits of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, estimating that the weddings of 10,589 New Jersey couples, or approximately one half of the total identified by the Census, over the next three years, plus the influx of wedding tourists to the state, would generate $284 million in economic activity during that period, create 800 jobs, and increase state and local tax revenues by $19 million. The report pointed to a similar range of benefits identified last year by the New York City comptroller in assessing the potential impact of marriage equality here, and noted that a range of observers in Massachusetts have found a positive benefit from the migration of skilled gay couples to that state since 2004. The report did acknowledge that the refusal of the federal government and most state governments - New York is a notable exception - to recognize same-sex marriages from those states where they are legal will continue to create inequalities for same-sex couples. Access to federally-funded programs, such as Medicaid, as a spouse or married couple would be barred, and married couples traveling outside New Jersey might face limitations on having their spousal status recognized - in emergency health care situations, for example. Still, Garden State Equality's Goldstein argued, it would likely be easier for a gay man or lesbian to explain that they are their partner's spouse than to spell out that the couple enjoys civil union rights. The Commission recommended that the domestic partnership law that allows couples in which one partner is 62 or older to have their relationships enjoy government-recognized legal status be retained. More than 150 such couples have registered as partners, presumably to avoid the complications in their estate planning, likely already underway, that marriage would have entailed.
©GayCityNews 2008

About-Face By: PAUL SCHINDLER, Gay City News - 12/10/2008

About-Face
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
12/10/2008

Senator Malcolm Smith, at a 2007 Pride Agenda dinner, pledged prompt action on marriage equality when the Democrats gain the majority. DOUG MESZLER/COURTESY ESPA
Malcolm Smith Walks Back From PrecipiceIn a stunning reversal, Malcolm Smith, the Queens Democrat in line to become the leader of the State Senate should his party hold on to the fragile 32-30 majority it won in the November election, announced he was ending negotiations with the so-called Gang of Three, a trio of rebellious city Democrats who had threatened to withhold their support for him in next month's leadership contest. Significantly, Smith repudiated a deal it was widely reported he had made with Senator Ruben Diaz, a Bronx Democrat and Pentecostal minister, who shortly after the election said he would not vote for any Senate leader who would bring a marriage equality bill up for a vote. A meeting that Smith held with Diaz and the other two dissident Democrats on December 4, briefly attended by Democratic Governor David A. Paterson as well, led to numerous press accounts reporting that Smith pledged to Diaz that the marriage bill, which the governor supports and the Assembly has already passed, would not get a vote. News stories differed as to whether that pledge encompassed only 2009, or the complete 2009-2010 legislative session.
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"We are suspending negotiations, effective immediately, because to do so otherwise would reduce our moral standing and the long-term Senate Democratic commitment to reform and to change," Smith said, in a written release issued December 10. "Real reform cannot and should not ever include limiting the civil rights of any New Yorkers." If any two of the three rebellious Democrats - including Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn and Senator-elect Pedro Espada, Jr. - choose to side instead with the Republicans in January's leadership race, Long Island GOP Senator Dean Skelos would retain the majority leader position (assuming Queens Republican incumbent Frank Padavan's razor-thin margin over challenger James Gennaro holds up in the final, certified count). Smith acknowledged as much in his statement. "Frankly, we would rather wait two more years to take charge of the Senate than to simply serve the interests of the few," he said, characterizing the negotiating tactics of the Gang of Three as "self-serving politics." Smith's statement capped a week of drama that gripped Albany and spilled over downstate during the weekend when many of Greater New York Democrats went home. In Manhattan on December 6, Smith met with at least some of his Democratic colleagues, in an effort to quell unhappiness among many of them, progressives in particular, about what they had heard of the deal struck two days before. Now, observers are left to assess the relative weight in the negotiations' collapse of the marriage issue, other qualms Democrats had about the concessions made to Diaz, Espada, and Kruger, and unhappiness that Espada voiced on December 9 about whether he was really getting the deal he understood last week. The Gang of Three had never articulated a coherent rationale for their common dissent except for their ability to exact what each of them wanted individually from Smith. Espada had voiced unhappiness with the lack of Latinos in top state positions, and Smith agreed to bifurcate what had in recent years been two jobs combined into one - the roles of president pro tempore and majority leader. Under this scheme, Espada would become majority leader, which early reports indicated would make him Senate President Smith's number two. Kruger, who had so assiduously courted Republicans in the past that they gave him a committee chairmanship over one of their own, was to be given the reins of the powerful Finance Committee. Diaz, in contrast, only won a commitment that he would chair the Aging Committee, a second-tier post that lent credibility to the conventional wisdom that his major objective was to block gay marriage in New York - which of course is what he said. For four days, this agreement clung to life, as the three rebels were the only ones willing to talk about it on the record. Diaz crowed about his victory over the gay community, and Espada and Kruger reveled in their new-found prominence in the Democratic leadership. Meanwhile, throughout the weekend, Smith, in the face of unanimity in press accounts of what happened last week, continued to insist that no specific deals had been struck. On December 5, the day between Smith's meeting with the Gang of Three and his sit-down with other members of his caucus, out gay Democratic Senator Tom Duane of Chelsea, who years ago introduced a marriage equality bill, said he had not been briefed on details of the negotiations and argued, "You know, right now, it's Malcolm Smith versus Dean Skelos. I'm for Malcolm Smith. That is the question on the table." Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's LGBT rights lobby, which worked hand-in-glove with the Democrats to flip the Senate and helped attract more than $1 million to that cause, told Gay City News, "Not one single senator has told me that as part of the deal that was reached there was an agreement to delay the timing for marriage. Malcolm Smith has earned the opportunity for our community to give him a chance to explain what the deal is." On December 8, two days after meeting with Smith, another Senate Democrat, who did not wish to be quoted by name and would not discuss the specifics of the caucus gathering, nevertheless confirmed the gist of what Van Capelle said - that nobody had asked for sign-off on a deal that would have explicitly precluded a gay marriage vote. That senator pledged to go public if the question of what was or was not agreed to on marriage was not resolved by the end of December. Meanwhile, the agreement with Espada spiraled south over the weekend. On December 8, Smith confirmed that Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx, currently his deputy minority leader, would be the deputy president, meaning that Espada was at best number three in the pecking order. Smith had also come to recognize that certain authority that he intended to wield was in fact formally given to the majority leader post, and that this situation would need to be remedied by the full Senate in January. At a particularly odd press conference in Albany that day - the NYSNYS News Service captured the incredible scene - Smith named Bill Stachowski of Buffalo, who had been in line for the Finance post Kruger would now be given, deputy majority leader. However, Smith would not confirm the identity of the majority leader Stachowski would be deputy to, nor for that matter did he name the Finance chair who had bumped the new deputy from that slot. Faced with those questions, Smith abruptly announced he was leaving for another meeting, and Stachowski was saddled with an irate Capitol press core demanding to know why they had been called to a news conference where no questions were being answered. The following day, Tuesday, Espada bailed on the deal, griping to the New York Times, "I feel tremendously dismayed and disappointed that the office of the majority leader has been gutted and reduced to a sad joke on all New Yorkers, but particularly the Latino community." Diaz echoed the sense of wounded ethnic pride. The fat lady was cued. Smith has taken a gamble - he and his fellow Democrats may well be consigned to another two years in the minority. And whether in the minority or the majority, Smith has undoubtedly gotten at least some of his Senate colleagues wondering whether he is the Democrat best suited to lead the caucus. No sure-bet challengers have come forward or even come to mind for most political observers. If the Democrats cannot hold onto the majority, marriage equality is effectively dead for two years - it was the intransigence of Skelos on that issue and others such as transgender rights that convinced the Pride Agenda that it needed to cast its lot fully and squarely against the Republicans this year. At the same time, Van Capelle is breathing a huge sigh of relief that the potential betrayal has been staved off. "We applaud Senator Malcolm Smith's ongoing efforts to lead the new Senate majority that voters chose during the recent elections," he said in a written release. "By stating that reform in the Senate cannot include bargaining away civil rights, Senator Smith has once again demonstrated his commitment to standing up for all New Yorkers." On an upbeat note, Van Capelle continued, "The Pride Agenda looks forward to continuing to work with Senator Smith when the legislative session starts." However, with a bow to the political reality that even if the Democrats run the Senate, GOP votes would be needed to get gay marriage over the goal line, he added, "In the meantime we will be working with legislative leaders - Democrats and Republicans... to earn the votes we need to bring the marriage equality bill to the floor of the Senate for passage." Ethan Geto, a longtime gay political insider who informally advised the Pride Agenda in its negotiations with Democratic leaders over the past week, had high marks for Van Capelle's steadiness. "It was untenable for the gay community and the Empire State Pride Agenda, which played such a critical role in the Democratic wins in the Senate this year, to leave unanswered the questions about the marriage equality bill," he told Gay City News. "Their efforts demonstrated a level of political maturity and political clout as manifested by the statement by Malcolm Smith this morning." Asked to assess what role he felt Governor Paterson played in blocking the original deal struck, Geto said, "It is my impression that David Paterson played a very constructive role in resolving this to the satisfaction of the gay community." Geto went on to warn that the three rebellious Democrats "will have to think long and hard about not voting for the Democrats to be the majority." "If they keep the Republicans in, the voters in their districts will understand that it means no reform of the rent regulation laws, no greater tenants rights protections, and I think that those voters will rebel and turn them out." Geto's accolades for the Pride Agenda appear borne out in the emphasis in Smith's statement on the principle of civil rights not being negotiable. But, his spokesman, Hank Sheinkopf, even as he insisted he could not speak to the agreements reached during the December 4 meeting "because I was not there," largely debunked the importance of marriage equality in the collapse of the negotiations. "What happened was that yesterday Espada decided to change the rules, withdrawing his support for Senator Smith," Sheinkopf told Gay City News. "And the leader said, 'You know what? That's it.' If these guys want to talk to us as Democrats, that's fine. Otherwise, tough luck."

Deal off for Dems to control State Senate

source: http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story/Deal-off-for-Dems-to-control-State-Senate/jXO4ou8ZbUC08muBqT7lvg.cspx

(AP) New York Senate Democratic leader Malcom Smith says any deal with three dissidents meant to secure his party's hold on the chamber majority is officially off.

Saying he has the support of the Democratic Caucus, Smith says Wednesday he has ceased negotiations with the three, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. and Sen.-elect Pedro Espada Jr., both of the Bronx, and Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn.

Their support would give the party a 32-30 majority beginning Jan. 1 after decades of Republican control.

Smith says "personal interests" motivated the three renegades, but he's willing to talk to them individually and to any Republican senators that support the Democratic reform and transparency agendas.

Earlier in the week, Democrats said they had a deal under which Senator Smith would be named the Senate's President Pro Tem and the renegade senators would remain in the Democratic fold.

Smith then announced the appointment of several committee chairs, including north country State Senator Darrel Aubertine as chairman of the Agriculture Committee

Malcom Smith, Gang of Three, and Marriage Equality

For Immediate Release

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Cathy Marino-Thomas, Communications Director (516)302-5198 or cathy@meny.us

Malcolm Smith has time and again pledged his support for marriage equality for all families. At this time, MENY has no indication that this has changed. We are awaiting confirmation, from Senator Smith, that he still holds true to his promise to bring marriage equality to the Senate floor for a vote. It has always been an understanding that this bill would not come to the floor until it has the votes to pass.

Contact Senator Malcolm Smith's office and in the most polite and friendly way thank him for the pledge of his support for marriage equality. Ask him, "Are you still committed to bringing the marriage bill to the floor when it has enough votes to pass?" After that, let him know that you think it would be helpful to have a public clarifying statement with regards to his intention on this issue.

District Office
Office of New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith
205-19 Linden Boulevard
St. Albans, NY 11412
Tel: (718) 528-4290
Fax: (718) 528-4898

Albany Office
Office of New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith
907 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
Tel: (518) 455-2701
Fax: (518) 455-2816

In the meantime, we must continue to work to bring more New York State Senators to our side of this issue. Our time is now. Help MENY (by getting involved with our trip to Albany in 2009) to secure the votes needed to pass Marriage Equality for all families here in New York State.

Presumptive Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith [D-St. Albans] reportedly agreed to not introduce legislation to extend marriage to same-sex couples in an agreement he reached with a group of dissident Democrats who had opposed his election to lead Senate Democrats in Albany.




Democratic Senate leadership reportedly strike marriage from legislative agenda
by Michael K. Lavers
EDGE Mid-Atlantic Regional Editor
Friday Dec 5, 2008

An agreement reached between state Sen. Malcolm Smith [D-St. Albans] and a handful of dissident Democrats over his presumptive election as Senate Majority Leader has reportedly pushed marriage for same-sex couples off next year’s legislative agenda.

Businessman Thomas Golisano and Congressman Gregory Meeks convened a meeting between Smith, state Sens. Ruben Diaz, Sr., [D-Bronx] and Carl Kruger [D-Brooklyn] and Senator-elect Pedro Espada, Jr., [D-Bronx]-dubbed the "Gang of Three" by local media-in Manhattan on Thursday. Governor David Paterson also attended a portion of the three-hour meeting.

The New York Times reported Espada would become vice chair of the powerful Rules Committee, which decides which legislation will be introduced in the Senate.

"The meeting held today involved rules changes proposed by [Sen.] Smith which will result in Senate reform and the election of Malcolm Smith as [Senate Majority] Leader," Smith spokesperson Hank Sheinkopf said in a statement.

He did not say whether marriage was discussed during the meeting, but the Daily News reported Smith will not introduce a marriage bill. The newspaper added he would announce the legislation does not have sufficient support to pass in the Senate.

A Smith staffer who asked to remain anonymous declined to disclose to EDGE whether the announcement would provide political cover for the agreement the presumptive Senate Majority Leader reached with Diaz, Espada and Kruger to not introduce the bill. Democrats control both legislative houses and the governor’s office for the first time since the Great Depression. The Assembly passed a marriage bill in June 2007. And local activists remain confident the Senate will vote on the issue next year.

"We are still awaiting the final details of the announced state Senate leadership deal," Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle said in a statement released shortly after news of the agreement broke. "We would expect that any rumors that marriage equality was somehow a part of this deal are just that-rumors."

Smith has repeatedly expressed his support for marriage for same-sex couples. Marriage Equality New York executive director Cathy Marino-Thomas added she feels this position has not changed.

"We are awaiting confirmation from [Sen.] Smith that his promise to bring marriage equality to the Senate floor for a vote once there is confirmation that this bill as the votes to pass is a fact," she said. "In the meantime, we must continue to work to bring the New York State Senators to our side of this issue."

Michael K. Lavers is the Mid-Atlantic editor for EDGE Publications. His blog Boy in Bushwick can be found at www.boyinbushwick.blogspot.com

Details Of A Leadership Deal

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/12/details-of-a-leadership-deal.html

More details have emerged about what, exactly, Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith had to give up to the Gang of Three in order to get them to agree to support him as leader of the Democratic majority conference when the Senate reconvenes in January.

Here's what we know so far. Keep in mind that all of this is based on a handshake deal and requires changes in the Senate rules, which is also subject to a vote.

- The positions of Senate majority leader and president pro tempore, which were both held by former Majority Leader Joe Bruno, have now been bifurcated. Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. will be the majority leader while Smith is president pro tempore.

The majority leader post in other legislative bodies in New York, the City Council and the Assembly, for example, is not one with a lot of power. Espada told me he has been assured by Smith that his position will "have absolute substance," and, as a result, "the Latino empowerment issue has been substantially enhanced."

Espada said he will have a "meaningful role" (Nick Confessore reports it's vice chairman) with the Senate Rules Committee, arguably one of the more powerful committees in the chamber and the last stop for all the bills before they go to the floor for a vote. He'll also have a part to play in the next big fight coming down the pike: Redistricting.

- Sen. Carl Kruger will not get the Housing Committee, as some activists like ACORN's Bertha Lewis, had feared, but he will chair a pumped-up Senate Finance Committee. Recall that this was something the Republicans proposed in an effort to woo the Gang of Three to their side. The committee will have an enhanced staff and a fair degree of independence.

- Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. will chair the Aging Committee.

- A bill to legalize same-sex marriage will not be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote this year. Smith will announce that he does not believe the measure has sufficient votes to pass - a statement that is at this point undoubtedly true, although it's unclear how long that will last if, as Democrats are hoping, the prospect of being in the minority leads to mass GOP retirements.

- Senators will no longer be seated based on political affiliation with all the Democrats on one side and all the Republicans on the other. Instead, they will be seated alphabetically.

Espada said he believes this signals an end to party-line voting, adding: "This doesn't guarantee any voting blocs."

- There will be some degree of equity on resource sharing with the minority. Said Espada: "We are going to be the nice guys."The thinking behind this is that the lopsided allocation of staff, member items, budgets for printing etc. led to what the senator-elect called "a dysfunctional and inequitable Legislature."

According to Espada, Gov. David Paterson was in the room for at least part of today's negotiations. Espada insisted neither he nor any of the other Gang of Three were at any time threatened with repercussions if they didn't cave in and be good Democrats.

"We don't scare very easily," he said. "This was not about intimidation. The governor never intimidated anyone."

Espada said he spoke to Senate Minority Leader-in-waiting Dean Skelos yesterday to break the news, but he refused to discuss the content of that private chat.

TAKE ACTION TODAY for marriage equality in New York

In the wave of new activism spurred by the passage of Prop 8 in California, some very creative tactics have emerged. One such tactic has been promoted by New York City activist, Jeff Campagna. He has been working to ensure that Sen. Malcolm Smith is elected the Majority Leader of the New York Senate.

As quick background, millions of dollars were poured into the State Senate races in New York with the promise that they would provide marriage equality via legislative action. This would be a first. It would also be the next big step towards achieving equality for LGBT people. However, following the election, which provided Democrats with a majority in the NY State Senate, three opponents of marriage equality have threatened to withhold support from Senator Malcolm Smith. They have become known as the gang of three.

During the protest organized by JoinTheImpact.org at New York City Hall, Campagna urged the protesters to program in their cell phones the phone number of Gang of Three member, Senator Ruben Diaz and to call his office to demand that he support Sen. Smith for Majority Leader. This action resulted in over 1500 phone calls in one week to Sen. Diaz's office. It had an appreciable impact on his rhetoric concerning the election of Sen. Smith.

TODAY, Campagna is urging people to call fellow Gang of Three member, Senator Carl Kruger. TODAY is Senator Kruger's birthday. It's a brilliant strategy. I'm pasting information from Campagna below. PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN THIS AND HELP PRESERVE THE POSSIBILITY FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN NEW YORK.

From Campagna:

Today is New York State Senator Carl Kruger's birthday. Carl Kruger opposes marriage equality. He also opposes Malcolm Smith for Senate Majority Leader, which means he's getting in the way of our efforts to pass marriage equality here in New York.

Let's ALL call him. All 4000+ of us in th this group, and all of our friends, and all of their friends, and anyone in a marriage equality group. It doesn't matter what state you are in.

Let's all call and say, "Hi, I'm calling to wish Senator Kruger a very happy birthday and more importantly because he's a Democrat and I expect him to vote with the Democrats for Malcolm Smith for Sena te Majority Leader."

Senator Carl Kruger
Democrat, Brooklyn
Phone: (718) 743-8610
Email: kruger@senate.state.ny.us

Start early if you want. The more calls the better!

And while you're at it, make sure nobody forgets Senator Diaz's number - (718) 991-3161. It's not his birthday, but don't let him feel left out.

Then change yoru status to say, "I want marriage equality so I called Sen. Kruger to tell him to support Malcolm Smith - (718) 743-8610."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lane-hudson/take-action-today-for-mar_b_148071.html

Marriage Equality New York Monthly Meeting

Marriage Equality New York Monthly Meeting

Dec 3 at 6pm
The LGBT Center- 208 W. 13th Street in NYC

We will have a planning meeting on the next steps through education and political planning for this movement. We will then go join the discussion plans for Dec 20th's "Light Up The Night Vigil" and beyond.

www.jointheimpact.com
www.civilrightsfront.com