Despite the fact that New York is a blue state, its legislature is divided, and Governor Cuomo likes it that way. The Democratic-controlled State Assembly wants progressive legislation, the Republican State Senate does not. A breakaway group of 8 Democrats (called the Independent Democratic Caucus) has caucused with the Republicans, giving them complete control of the Senate, with perks for the breakaway Democrats who keep the Republicans in power. Cuomo’s support of Republican control of the State Senate protected him from ever having to veto progressive legislation because the State Senate reliably vetoed all progressive legislation, such as a tax on the 1% who finance Cuomo’s campaigns.
Under pressure from Cynthia Nixon’s challenge from his left, Cuomo took a crucial step to unite the New York Democratic Party. After eight years in office, Cuomo persuaded the members of the IDC to support the Democratic Party. As one Democrat said, he is wary and will “sleep with one eye open.” The more that Cuomo protests that Cynthia Nixon had nothing to do with his change of mind, the more it appears that she was the precipitating factor.
Now, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins will lead the Democrats in the Senate and Jeffrey Klein of the IDC will be her deputy. Only a few weeks ago, Cuomo and three other men were writing the state’s sexual harassment policy, excluding Stewart-Cousins; not a woman in the room as the guys determined what sexual harassment is and how to deal with it.
Four years ago, Cuomo promised the Working Families Party to corral the IDC, promised to help Democratic candidates running for the State Senate, got its endorsement, then broke his promise the day after he won the WFP endorsement.
Why is he shifting gears now? Because Cynthia Nixon has called out Cuomo as a phony progressive.
Sadly, control of the State Senate now resides in the hands of one man: State Senator Simcha Felder.
Felder represents the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Although nominally a Democrat, Felder caucuses with the Republicans. He makes clear that he is loyal only to the religious group who elected him.
”Without Mr. Felder, who recently held up the state budget for concessions on how yeshivas are overseen by the state, the new Democratic coalition would still be one vote short of a majority. In an interview, Mr. Felder reiterated that he has no loyalty to either party, but rather is looking for the best deal for his district, which includes a large population of Orthodox Jews.”
Felder held up adoption of the state budget, until he got reassurances about the independence of the state’s yeshivas, which enroll a small fraction of the state’s 2.7 million students. The Yeshivas do not want the state to monitor their curriculum, such as, whether they teach English and science. Ironically, the final legislation gives the oversight authority to the States Education Department, which has the power to make and enforce demands.
As the swing vote, Felder now controls the State Senate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Whatever Cuomo does in the run-up to the election is just a devious trick to win. After the election, Cuomo will revert back to who he was before.
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“… Felder now controls the state senate.”
Great, so now the NYS legislature is held hostage by a bunch of ignorant religious fundamentalists.
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Diane, that NYTimes link is still linking to that December 2017 story about the Virginia House election.
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That’s odd. I thought I fixed it. Will try again before my flight takes off for Santa Fe
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FLERP,
The story “Why is New York Condoning Illiteracy?” Is now linked to The NY Times article of the same title. Open it fresh.
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To be clear, I meant the link that you have in this post, not the one in the other post (“Why is New York Condoning Illiteracy?”). But don’t worry about it, flying is difficult enough without fixing links.
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For one reason or another it still doesn’t work but here’s a link to the article I Googled for “Why Is New York Condoning Illiteracy?”
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All true, what you wrote, Diane. But just as important is that we are in the midst of an all-out push to develop, support, and then elect anti-IDC Democrats to replace those 8 IDC Turncoat Dems. THAT effort, mounted by a combination of progressive groups like NYPAN and NoIDCNY along with the WFP, is what scared these clowns into accepting this deal, such as it is. And with any luck, we will not have to rely on Simcha Felder to obtain a majority in the Senate. This November, Progressives across NYS will, I hope and pray, come out in droves to defeat Repub’s in enough Repub senate districts that NON-IDC Democrats gain a comfortable majority.
But, given the extreme Repub gerrymandering of the NYS senate districts, THAT means Progressives have to come out in MASSIVE numbers in November. I hope everyone in NYS who reads this blog joins the effort to turn out the vote — for Cynthia Nixon and for the NON-IDC Dems who will lead NYS to a more Progressive future.
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Wonderful, Dorothy.
Time for a Big Blue Wave that takes out GOP leadership of a blue state and reduces the power of Senator Felder.
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Remember that is what Bill de Blasio’s “Campaign for One New York” was all about — electing progressives to Albany.
All he got for that trouble was progressives buying into the right wing attacks that he was corrupt. Even though an investigation cleared him. But like Hillary, the “appearance” was made to be much worse than any actual wrongdoing that Republicans do.
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