ALBANY — The head of a breakaway group of eight Democratic state senators indicated last week he has no plans to end his conference’s partnership with the Senate Republicans, sources said.
Speaking at a private bipartisan dinner of current and former Senate members, Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein vowed that “if I have anything to do with it, (GOP Majority Leader) John Flanagan is going to be the leader for a long, long time,” according to two Republicans and two Democrats who were in the room.
“He was pretty strong about it,” said one Republican. “It definitely raised some eyebrows.”
Klein, who has had contentious relations with the mainline Senate Dems since breaking with them in 2011, is said to be livid over his belief his former conference is behind stories the past two weeks about questionable stipends paid out in recent years to three of his members and five Republicans senators.
He made his comments about Flanagan only hours after Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called for a probe into the matter. One source said he was looking directly at her when he commented about Flanagan remaining leader.
“When Andrea called for the investigation, the IDC (Independent Democratic Conference) members felt it was a bridge too far; they were saying they’re never coming back,” said one mainline Dem who was at the dinner.
A former Republican senator who was in the room said that “it’s clear what (Klein’s) position was and it was clear he was aggravated at (Stewart-Cousins). For her to put out a statement calling for a criminal investigation really was over the top. For someone who should be trying to mend fences with the IDC, she built a higher wall between them.”
If Klein meant his recent remarks in earnest, it could jeopardize Democratic efforts to take control of the chamber next year — they would most likely need some type of reconciliation with the eight-member IDC and Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans.
Since President Trump’s election, Klein and his members have been under intense pressure from the left wing of the Democratic Party to end their leadership coalition with the GOP and re-align with the mainline Democrats. That pressure will likely grow even stronger after a special election Tuesday for a Senate seat in Harlem that is expected to again give the Democratic party a numerical majority, but not control of the chamber.
“With Trump continuing to cycle down into his right-wing paranoia and cover-ups, it’s harder and harder for them to stick with keeping his party in power,” said one Democratic operative.
The Manhattan Democratic Party recently passed a resolution saying it should “refuse to vote or support” any member of the state Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference, according to Politico New York. Queens Democratic Chairman Joseph Crowley has also privately talked of backing a primary against Sen. Jose Peralta, a Queens Dem who earlier this year switched over to Klein’s conference.
A Democrat at last Tuesday’s Senate dinner said he believes Klein was hoping his comments about Flanagan remaining majority leader would leak out to send a message to the Dems to back off. “He said it in a room full of people,” the Dem said.
A second Senate Democrat who was there called it “shocking that he showed his hand like that. I think it was reckless and strategically unwise.”
The Senate stipend process has come under fire since it was revealed that eight senators received committee chairmen stipends even though they did not lead the panels — and records the Senate submitted to the state controller’s Office said they did.
The Daily News reported on Friday that the state attorney general and the U.S. attorney in the eastern district are looking into the matter, and have contacted the controller’s office seeking documents.
A Klein spokeswoman declined comment about the remarks her boss made at the Senate dinner last week, as did a Stewart-Cousins representative.
But one Dem said: “I think when people are under attack, they get emotional and probably make bad decisions.”
