Koppell Pushes Decision Date Back as Rumors of IDC Return to Senate Dem Conference

   In one story from the New York Observer Oliver Koppell has moved his decision to run against State Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein to after the Easter holiday. Koppell had originally said that he would make the decision on running against Senator Klein after the state budget deadline. That was two weeks ago. This latest bit of pondering from Koppell come on the heels of another story in from the State of Politics Blog about a possible reconciliation between the Senate Democratic Conference and the Independent Democratic Conference.

  The Observer quotes Oliver Koppell as very happy from the number of signatures he has received in an on line petition numbering well into the thousands. The only problem is the over 90 percent of the signatures are not from the 34th state senate district home to Senator Jeff Klein. The Koppell residence was redistricted back into the 34th State senate recently after a 10 year absence. Republican State Senator Guy Velella cut the corner where the house sits out of the 34th state senate district after Oliver's wife Lorraine Coyle-Koppell ran for the seat against Velella in 2000. Running on the Democratic Party line she lost to Republican Velella by a singe digit percentage margin.

  The State of Politics Blog says that a meeting between IDC head Senator Jeff Klein and Mainline Democratic Conference Senator Mike Gianaris was set and then cancelled between the two senators. The topic of the meeting is said to have been bringing the IDC members back into the mainline Democratic Conference, possibly at a similar Co-Leadership as is now in place. State of Politics also mentions that mainline Democratic senators such as Ruben Diaz Sr., Adriano Espalliat, and others are tired of being shut out of the decision making process with the current senate leadership in place. Then there is the fear of the IDC gaining even more seats with primaries such one that Gustavo Rivera may face. Mainline Democratic senators kining up against this reconciliation idea are Liz Krueger, Gustavo Rivera, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Bill Perkins.