Citizen Action of New York News

ALBANY—Vote counts, court orders and locked doors aside, demonstrators from Citizen Action made it even more difficult for a Republican-led coalition to consummate the coup it initiated Monday by trying to get into the State Senate chamber.

“It was an absolute crush of people,” State Senator Jim Alesi told me by phone afterward. “For me, I’ve got a weak ankle anyways and I’m not the biggest guy in the world. I just sort of stood back and just watched everybody.”

Finally, he had to try and enter the chamber, past what he described as “not an Oldsmobile” of a demonstration. His fellow coalition members did conduct a brief session.

“I was getting pushed as it was, and then someone stepped on my foot. I had nowhere to go but down,” he said. He said that someone spat in the face of a female counsel who was with him.

Alesi told me he wasn’t thinking about legal action of any sort, but felt the protesters’ intent was to “physically intimidate and jostle people.”

Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action, told me “I don’t think any of that’s true. It was a peaceful demonstration. The guards were all right there, so I don’t know how that could have happened.”

ALBANY—They came, they gaveled, they left.

Despite pending litigation, the Republican-led coalition claiming to control the State Senate after a coup Monday entered the chamber and conducted some brief business, but left without passing any bills.

I didn’t get back to Albany in time to see it (Liz has a blow-by-blow here), but State Senator Kemp Hannon said that 32 members entered the chamber—30 Republicans plus the turncoat Democrats Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr.—were counted in a quorum, and adopted the journal from Monday’s proceedings. No bills were enacted, because the official bill jackets remained locked in a drawer, Hannon said. The officially appointed clerk, Thomas Testo, and stenographer did not show up. The coalition provided staffers. State Senator George Winner, an Elmira Republican, presided.

Monserrate, who has been under considerable pressure to come back into the Democratic fold, was counted in the quorum, made a statement saying he wouldn’t vote for any bills today, and left.

Protesters organized by Citizen Action swamped the lobby outside the chamber, chanting “voters not donors” and “the Senate is not for sale.”

I asked State Senator Marty Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, whether he was concerned the proceedings today would be nullified by a court.

“How can it be declared illegal if you have 32 members and they have 30 members?” He asked. “Any judge in the land can count.”