State Senate Still Stuck as Everyone Backs Away From Espada

With attempts by the Republicans in the state senate to hold a legislative session continuing to go nowhere, a bipartisan group of senators met behind closed doors today in an attempt to get through the impasse they have found themselves in. That too proved futile.

Now the Democrats are going back into court in order to block Pedro Espada, Jr. from performing the office of president pro tempore. They have filed a preliminary injunction in connection with an appeal of a judge's decision telling the senators to work it out themselves. Democratic senators attempted to do that by encouraging Republicans to ditch Espada as their point man. Senator Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx encouraged the GOP to replace Espada with someone who is willing to "meet in good faith and find a workable solution."

Espada certainly wasn't extending any olive branches to his Democratic colleagues, spending the day condemning what he said were "racist" robocalls by the party that referred to him as "the Bronx guy." He also said, "They have to come to work. You have to come to work. You're getting paid. It's the one matter that I don't think is defensible at all."

Meanwhile even Espada's closest ally throughout this process, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos wouldn't explicitly back him today. When Skelos was asked if he agreed with Espada's declaration that a united coalition was behind him, the Long Island Senator responded, "The election (was) 32-0. He was president pro tem and I’m the majority leader. So we just want to make that clear."