New York Capitol. Via Newscom
After the leadership agreement between state Senate Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference was announced on Tuesday, a plugged-in Senate staffer wrote to The Insider that the deal raises many questions about how the chamber and its staff will function with Republican Dean Skelos and Democrat Jeff Klein sharing power and trading the leadership post every two weeks.
“How does this work for us? Who is our boss? Do we have one set of priorities for two weeks, then another the next two?” the staffer wrote. “Does everything need approval from Skelos AND Klein? How much of a say does Klein have in central staff? Who stays, who goes? Staff does most of the negotiations. Is Robert Mujica [the chief of staff and finance secretary for Senate Republicans] going to speak for Skelos and Klein? Will there be double the staff in all those conversations?”
“It’s totally f—–,” the staffer added.
At the least, this staffer’s concerns demonstrate that even some staffers fairly in the loop don’t know the details of this recently struck deal.
A spokesman for the IDC, Eric Soufer, provided a rather general comment to the Insider in response to the staffer’s concerns.
“The conference leaders will make all major decisions on a bipartisan basis,” Mr. Soufer said. “On an operational level, I think most people would agree that the Senate has been very functional over the past two years. All decisions in that regard will be made in the interest of fostering stability and without costing taxpayers a single additional cent.”
One thing worth watching is whether staffing levels for the five IDC members jump, given the conference’s new responsibilities and power—and whether that comes at the expense of the Senate Democratic conference. Regardless, Senate Democratic staffers can’t be happy that new hires and raises for the conference could be put on hold during another two years in the minority.
Updated 2:45 p.m.