Klein, Cuomo Announce IDC-Democrat Coalition
The Independent Democratic Conference is forming a new coalition, but the breakaway conference will wait until the November elections are over to join its new governing partner.
In a statement issued jointly with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, State Sen. Jeff Klein pledged that his five-member conference would “work together to form a new majority coalition” with the larger Senate Democratic Conference, which they defected from in early 2011. In the 2013 session Klein’s conference joined the Senate Republicans in an unprecedented governing coalition, which, along with state Sen. Simcha Felder’s defection to the GOP, kept the mainline Democrats out of power in spite of their numerical majority.
The latest agreement was announced in a press release sent out Wednesday evening from both Klein’s office and Cuomo’s office.
City & State broke the news that an offer to bring the IDC back into the fold was brokered in a secret meeting on Monday, with Klein maintaining his role as Senate co-leader in the new Dem/IDC coalition. Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and representatives of several key labor unions were also at the meeting.
Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, Klein’s governor partner the past two sessions, sought to downplay the chances of an actual rift and directed his ire at de Blasio, the “radical” Working Families Party and their “co-conspirators” in the Senate Democratic Conference.
“This ‘agreement’ is nothing more than a short-term political deal designed to make threatened primaries go away,” said Skelos, who chalked up Klein’s announcement to “the heat of primaries and elections.”
“When primary season is over, I’m confident that cooler heads will prevail,” he added. “And, make no mistake that once the dust settles from this election, Republicans will have a full majority.”
While Klein touted a list of accomplishments—some achieved during his partnership with Skelos—he said that other “core Democratic policy initiatives that the IDC championed remain unfinished,” including the Dream Act, abortion rights, a higher minimum wage and “meaningful” campaign finance reform.
“Therefore all IDC members are united and agree to work together to form a new majority coalition between the Independent Democratic Conference and the Senate Democratic Conference after the November elections in order to deliver the results that working families across this state still need and deserve,” Klein said.
In a brief statement, Cuomo applauded the IDC’s decision, and said that despite a litany of accomplishments during his term in office, “There is also no doubt there are progressive goals that we have yet to achieve and that we must accomplish next January."
The news set off a flurry of statements from other elected officials and labor unions, some involved in the deal and some not.
If Klein sticks to his pledge—and if the Republicans fail to win an outright majority this fall—Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins would be expected to serve as co-leader alongside him.
“The Senate Democratic Conference has long advocated unity among all Democrats,” she said, “so we can better achieve the progressive agenda that New Yorkers demand and we look forward to working with any Senators that share those values.”