Perhaps to the surprise of some, freshman Sen. George Amedore has joined Bonacic in calling for Skelos to resign as majority leader. Bonacic, one of the lords of the Senate after more than 16 years in office, owes the leader nothing. Amedore, by comparison, was handed his newly apportioned senate seat by Skelos in 2012 and has been lavishly supported by the senate Republican Campaign Committee, which Skelos controls, through two elections.
Skelos, for his part, is quoted in published reports that the handful of senators calling for his resignation “should have better things to do.”
For the record the majority leader and his lawyer son are accused of funneling over $200,000 from a Long Island sewer project into their own hands.
Not a word has been heard from the third man in the room, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But as federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said after the Silver indictment, “Stay tuned.”
Paretes on the spit
I thought last week’s call by Ulster County Democratic Chairman Frank Cardinale for Legislature Chairman John Parete to explain his unholy alliance with legislative Republicans was an isolated incident. Not so. This pre-convention anti-Parete movement has all the markings of a vast left-wing conspiracy, perhaps emanating from the very top of the totem pole.
The columnist Reynolds.
Now comes word that Marbletown Town Councilman Doug Adams will primary Parete progeny Rich Parete for the Democratic nomination for county legislature. The town committee will caucus on May 21, when it is expected to endorse favorite-son Adams. The district also includes part of the Town of Hurley.
Adams, who calls himself a [Mike] Hein “progressive Democrat” (a description that redefines Hein’s Republican conservative record, should he seek higher office), accuses the Paretes of “usurping power for their own purposes.” Complained Adams, 59, a financial planner based in Marbletown, “It’s just gotten out of control.”
Adams is by no means alone in that assessment. Former legislator Alan Lomita, the quintessential Hein Democrat, practically foams at the mouth at mention of the name Parete.
As a practical matter, the more zealous anti-Paretes, who number only about half the 13-member Democratic majority, do not at present have enough votes, absent the Paretes and their solid (for now) Republican majority, to elect one of their own.
The political answer, then, is to go grassroots and elect new legislators. As such, can a primary threat to the usually popular Poppa Parete be in the offing? Parete has faced these challenges before, but this time could be different.
Note: Parete and Cardinale apparently differ on the definition of the word “agenda.”
Parete said he repeatedly asked Cardinale to define the county committee agenda at their face-off prior to the county executive committee meeting last week. “All I got was mumbles,” he said of Cardinale. Parete outlined his home-grown agenda at his state-of-the-county speech last month, which he reiterated with a letter to “executive committee members” dated the same day.
“We have a mission statement. It’s on our [party] website,” Cardinale said. Among the eleven boilerplate “Democratic principles” listed therein (none of them county-specific) was No. 7: “We believe in bridging our differences, not segregating and demeaning one another because of those differences.”
Do tell.
Citing a generic statement list that was lifted from some other website is not an agenda, it is not a plan, and most importantly it is not an original thought. It is simply an excuse. Where is the specific agenda that Parete is supposedly blocking? Where are the “progressive” resolutions from the Hein sycophants that are not being passed? What Cardinale really means to say is that Chairman Parete is not kowtowing to Hein which is ALL Cardinale cares about. He forgets that Parete was building the party, winning elections, exposing the Jail overruns, creating single member districts, and the county charter while he was out cashing in on his politically connected jobs and begging the Legislature to hire his wife. Frank Cardinale is an ass and he should not let the door hit him on the ass on the way out.