Klein, diminished but still desired, sides with power
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5:06 a.m. | Nov. 7, 2014 follow this reporter
SAN JUAN, P.R.—The struggle between Democrats and Republicans for Jeff Klein's allegiance was supposed to be the dominant undercurrent of this weekend's Somos El Futuro conference, with impromptu poolside meetings, threats exchanged, and deals cut.
After Republicans won an outright, 32-seat majority in the State Senate, Klein and his five-member, breakaway Independent Democratic Conference were no longer a must-have item. Practically, though, the I.D.C. remained very much in play, despite promise to ally with Democrats.
In an interview with NY1 late Thursday, Klein picked the Republicans.
"I've had a great working relationship with Senator [Dean] Skelos. I hope that continues," Klein told NY1's Zack Fink, referring to the Republican conference leader. "And I hope he agrees with me—that a coalition government was not only good over the last couple of years, but is something that works really really well in the months and years ahead."
Top Republicans, mindful of the hazards of relying on several octogenarians and a person under federal indictment to keep their razor-thin control, seems happy to have him.
Skelos said during a radio interview that he looks forward to having a conversation with Klein about next year, then noted that partnering with the I.D.C. (first informally, like the Republicans' alliance with Governor Andrew Cuomo, then formally) has resulted in four on-time budgets.
“Bipartisanship is bipartisanship. I'm a Republican, and it shows that I can work well with the governor and Assembly Democrats,” Skelos said.
One of his senior lieutenants, Senator John DeFrancisco of Syracuse, said several days before the election that he'd like to see the alliance with Klein continue. Right now, Skelos and Klein are co-presidents of the chamber and must jointly approve bills that come to the floor, but Republicans have been the dominant partner.
“I would be urging the Independent Conference to come with us,” DeFrancisco said at a rally on Saturday. “We've worked well together. We wouldn't need them because we had the numbers, but realistically I think they add something to the conference and I think we should continue that. Whether [Klein] would or not I think he would, but I would encourage him.”
This kind of arrangement would also be pleasing to Cuomo, whose agenda of social progressivism and economic moderation is almost perfectly in sync with the I.D.C. Cuomo gave the I.D.C. his blessing when it seceded from mainstream Democrats in 2011.
The exact form of the new partnership is in flux, though. Several senators said they would be surprised if Klein continued as co-president, but expected he and the I.D.C. would maintain the chairmanships of several committees as well as a more robust staff allocation than the mainstream Democrats. That would be similar to the situation in 2011, when the I.D.C. first formed.
“Klein is the ultimate negotiator, and cares about titles,” said one source close to him. “So I'd suspect that will matter.”
But to re-formalize his alliance with Republicans would be a huge reversal from earlier this summer, when Klein struck a deal to make a deal with the Democratic conference in exchange for the Working Families Party and major unions holding their fire during primary elections against him and his colleagues.
They largely stayed good to their word, but some Senate Democrats—including Liz Krueger, a liberal representative from the Upper East Side—continued to offer monetary and other assistance to Klein's challenger, Oliver Koppell, as well as John Liu's unsuccessful challenge against I.D.C. Senator Tony Avella.
Klein has alluded to feeling burned, but those ostensibly hurt feelings also serve now as a convenient rationale for bailing on the agreement. The same Democratic forces that stood down against Klein will now be eager to try and annihilate him in 2016, when a Democratic surge is expected and the party's chances of re-taking the State Senate are much higher than they were in this year's Republican wave.
That's two years from now, though. Things change, and Klein has in the past brushed off liberal threats, or co-opted them: Klein has also positioned himself as an ally to Bill de Blasio, and with the mayor's campaigning Republican senators, may just be the mayor's most influential friend in Albany.
Kevin Finnegan, political director for SEIU 1199, said he still expected Klein to ally with Democrats, but stopped far short of making any threats.
“I don't think he has a lot of choices here. The Republicans have a clear majority, they don't need the I.D.C. They'll just be out there,” he said. “But the election is two years away and the world can change in a day in politics.
“Jeff Klein is a man of his word and I expect that he'll stay with the Democrats,” he said.
Either way, mainstream Democrats are chortling at Klein's loss of influence, with some privately describing it as the only bright spot they saw in an otherwise bleak night. Several people in the conference still deeply distrust Klein, and are angry at the way he managed the campaign committee's finances, leaving a $4 million debt.
State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who has praised Klein's actions in the past session, pronounced him the biggest loser in Tuesday's elections.
“I don’t think Jeff Klein will get back from the Republicans the same power and decision sharing to stop bills from coming or not coming to the Senate floor. I don’t think that by abandoning the Republicans when they were down, the IDC and its members will be given back what they once had. Jeff Klein and the IDC will probably get something, but it will not be the full authority they had before,” Diaz wrote in his semi-regular “What You Should Know” encyclical. “On the other hand, some members of the regular Democratic Conference don’t want Jeff Klein back. And so, Jeff Klein and the IDC could find themselves in a situation where they will not be trusted by the Republicans nor by the Democrats.”
A spokesman for Senate Democrats declined to comment.
Klein's first defense will come at the Somos conference. He arrived in Puerto Rico earlier this week, but was nowhere to be seen at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's opening reception at the Condado Plaza Hilton, or at a separate event honoring San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz at the Museo de Arte de San Juan.
On Friday evening, though, he's sponsoring a reception at the Intercontinental Hotel honoring Assemblyman Marcos Crespo. It's another long-term move to make friends and, potentially, future colleagues; like Klein also spent political resources to help George Latimer's re-election bid, Adriano Espaillat's run for Congress and Jesse Hamilton's primary victory in Brooklyn.
Over time, Klein is clearly calculating the makeup of Senate Democrats might change enough so that there aren't enough members who would say he could become majority leader over their dead bodies, or that he can grow his conference. It's unclear if he will lose some of his current compatriots, though: both Rockland County Senator David Carlucci and Queens Senator Tony Avella suggested, in the face of primaries, that they would not remain in the I.D.C. if it re-allied with Republicans.
This move is not unexpected, either. On Election eve, Klein spoke to the Capitol bubble during a radio interview with Susan Arbetter, telling her that working across the aisle is important “regardless of who is in charge” but clarifying that his deal-to-make-a-deal only applied if Democrats won a majority, which they have not. He said it was “premature” to talk about how he might align himself, but offered on clear promise.
“I think the Independent Democratic Conference is an important, stabilizing force in the State Senate,” he said.
