Best, worst week
Syracuse Post-Standard
Delen Goldberg
November 8th, 2008
Albany Notebook
While most of them are celebrating now, the winners of last week's elections may not necessarily be the ones to come out on top. Many "winners" could find themselves "losers" in the end.
Here's a look at who had good weeks, who had bad ones and why:
Good week for:
Sen. David Valesky and other Senate Democrats, who will enjoy far more power and a greater share of pork next year than their Republican counterparts. Valesky also wins because he's in line to chair the Senate Transportation Committee, which he says sees as much discretionary money as any other committee in Albany.
Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who stepped down from his top Senate post before Republicans' stronghold on the house crumbled.
Howie Hawkins, the Green Populist candidate for Congress, who this year earned more than twice the votes he did in 2000 during his last three-way race for Congress.
Bad week for:
DeFrancisco and other Senate Republicans, who almost certainly will see huge reductions next year in the member-item money and leadership positions they receive. DeFrancisco especially loses out because he no longer will be able to capitalize on his close friendship with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, because Skelos will no longer be majority leader.
Skelos, who was elected Republican leader of the Senate five months ago. With the exception of a few special sessions, it's likely the entirety of his term as majority leader will have been spent while the Legislature was in recess.
The blame game, which will probably take a hit next year since Democrats will be in charge of both the Senate and the Assembly. The ruling parties of each house will be the same, so Assembly Democrats can no longer blame Senate Republicans, and vice versa, for bad moves or inaction.
Delen Goldberg's Albany Notebook runs Sunday in The Post-Standard. She can be reached at dgoldberg@syracuse.com or 470-2274.
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