Cuomo to Go After Senate Republicans Unless They Agree to Campaign Finance

  In what has to be a blow to die hard Democrats who are against the Independent Democratic Conference In a Daily News story If Republicans don't get a campaign finance deal done this session, Cuomo will move to toss them out of power, say sources.

  The first line of the story reads - Gov. Cuomo will work to toss the Senate Republicans from power by reuniting the chamber’s fractured Democrats if the GOP does not agree to create a statewide public financing system for campaigns, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. 

  After reading just the first line one has to wonder if Governor Cuomo wants Senate Republicans to stay in a leadership role in the State Senate. That would explain why two years ago Governor Cuomo did little if anything to help Democratic State Senate candidates win over their Republican opponents.

  The Daily News story goes on to say that State Senate Republican Leader Dean Skellows in March promised to finalize a campaign finance deal, one that State Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein had agree to with Governor Cuomo by the end of May. There are only a few days left for this to happen.

  Another source in the Daily News article confirmed that Klein isn’t ruling out aligning the mainstream Democrats, and quotes Klein as saying “If Dean is reneging, then all options have to be on the table come November,” 

  I asked Senator Klein last week at the Riverdale endorsement if he is thinking of having the same co-leadership of the state senate with the Senate Democratic Conference instead of the current co-leadership with senate  Republicans. Senator Jeff Klein's answer was "we will have to wait until after the election in November." One of Klein's aides then asked me why I asked that question.

  It would seem that by the Governors action (or lack of), new State Democratic Party Leader David Paterson's statement that it is not important that Democrats win back the State senate this year, and Senator Klein's coyness, that an eminent agreement will be reached with State Senate Democrats for a co-leadership with the IDC whether the Senate Democrats like it or not.

  It is only a matter of time in which we will see what happens to the two IDC challenges Oliver Koppell and John Liu now that this deal between the Senate Democratic Conference and the IDC seems to be a done deal.