So Few Leaders

The NY Times has a good piece on the situation in Albany:

Albany, as the spectacle of the deadlocked Senate has shown vividly over the last month, is afflicted with many problems: lawbreaking leaders, feuding factions and powerful special interests.

But for those wondering how Albany could have sunk to the level it has, with the State Senate unable to function, one good answer is the extraordinary comfort among the state’s legislators that comes with knowing that they will almost never be voted out of office.

Many people inside and outside state government agree that such a comfort level has bred a kind of arrogance among the legislators about the costs of even profound embarrassments.

This whole time I had thought there would eventually be a revolt by a group of rank and file Democrats and Republicans, forming a coalition and tossing out their leaders. After all, there has to be at least 32 senators that are tired of this nonsense and realize how bad they are looking. And there have to be 32 senators between the Republicans and Democrats that want nothing to do with Espada, that do not want Dean Skelos to be their leader because he has tied the Republicans to Espada, and that do not want Smith to be the leader because of how badly he led before and how desperately he is clinging to power now. There have to be 32 senators that want to dump these leaders and get some business done.

But there are not, as the article shows, for two reasons. First, the leaders wield too much power, so rank and file are unwilling to cross them lest their plan fails. And second, no matter how embarrassed they are, they know they will be re-elected.

I have decided to vote against my Senator no matter who is running against him in the next election. (And I am going write him a letter telling him this.) While I hope many more people do the same thing, I know that the elections are over a year off, by which time people will have forgotten. And I know most people probably do not blame their own senator.

Albany needs a change (although some of the ideas have been stupid - Lazio - and show that the person does not actually understand the problem), but it is unlikely to get it.