Special elections, Felder not in the fold and a bag ban

Cynthia Nixon finally visited Buffalo this week, where she spent her time snacking on doughnuts, drinking coffee and presumably eating wings. When she wasn’t on her Western New York food tour, she was attacking Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his economic development programs. She also accused him of sabotaging two of her events in the city after the venues backed out. But the directors of both venues said the Nixon campaign failed to mention the events would be political. That and more in this week’s headlines.

Some very special elections

Democrats picked up both open state Senate seats in Tuesday’s special elections. Shelley Mayer won in the highly watched state Senate District 37 race in Westchester County and Luis Sepúlveda easily won in the Bronx. In the Assembly, each party largely retained control of their seats, with the exception being on Long Island where Steve Stern flipped Assembly District 10 blue for the first time in 40 years. With the two seats Democrats won in the state Senate, and the Independent Democratic Conference rejoining the mainline Democrats, the conference now has 31 members, giving the Republicans a precarious one-seat majority. And as usual, the deciding vote is state Sen. Simcha Felder.

Hey big spender

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an $89.1 billion executive budget on Thursday, with record-high spending offset by the city’s humming economy – and a one-time, $1 billion windfall thanks to federal tax changes. The City Council’s desire to provide half-price MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers was left out again, but they have until June 30 to hash out the final budget.

The kingmaker

Despite the Democrats having a technical majority in the state Senate, Felder has decided to stay with Republicans until at least November, allowing the GOP to keep its majority. Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to get the renegade Democrat in line by sending him a strongly worded letter, but to no avail. He insisted he’s “not a pressure kind of guy” when asked what more he would do to get Felder back in the fold.

A ban on bags

Forget the bag tax. Cuomo announced his plan to outright ban plastic bags in the state with a few exceptions. A spokesman for the governor said the announcement had absolutely nothing to do with the simultaneous large protest in Albany, attended by Cynthia Nixon, calling on Cuomo to do more to protect the environment. Wegmans hates the ban, environmental activists say it doesn’t go far enough and the bill faces an uphill battle in the state Legislature.

More Republican losses

When it rains, it pours – at least that’s the case for the tenuous Republican majority in the state Senate. After losing in the special elections, news broke this week that the Republican caucus would also be losing three of its members – state Sens. Kathy Marchione, John DeFrancisco and John Bonacic. Democrats are chomping at the bit to retake the state Senate in 2018, and the opening of three seats makes the calculus a bit more difficult for Republicans already playing defense.