Results tagged “powersharing”

Shocking perhaps no one, Democratic and Republican State Senators were unable to come to an agreement for a power-sharing deal. The AP had reported, "The deal would rotate presidents of the Senate and create two equal floor leaders instead of a single majority leader," and that the two parties were meeting with Governor Paterson, who called a special session of the Senate and demanded that the stalemated lawmakers get to work. Now the Times Union says, "Senate Democratic and GOP leaders slipped out of the governor’s office, avoiding reporters. Paterson spokesman Peter Kauffman" confirmed there was no deal and said Paterson would give a press conference. Earlier in the day, Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said, "No I cannot support Pedro Espada as president pro tem or one heartbeat away [from the governor's position]. Because a governor or a sitting governor, even for 10 minutes, has enormous power to make decisions that I do not believe I could trust to Pedro Espada." Krueger even suggested that Espada is keen on being president pro tempore because of "pre-pardoning."