When you deal with manure, you come out smelling like crap!
Thanks, but no thanks.
As they prepare to take over the majority, state Senate Democrats say Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder will not be welcomed back into their conference.
“New Yorkers elected the largest Democratic Majority in memory consisting of candidates who ran on a robust progressive agenda and proudly sought election as members of our conference,” Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy said. “As such, we have decided to remain a 39-member majority.”
Despite being a registered Democrat, Felder the past several years caucused with the Senate Republicans, who controlled the chamber.
He remained the swing vote for the Republicans after a separate group of eight breakaway Dems broke its leadership coalition with the GOP in April to rejoin the Democratic fold.
But with the Democrats having easily won control of the chamber in the November elections, Felder has been talking with incoming Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in recent weeks about rejoining the conference.
With the legislative session set to begin Jan. 9, Felder was told Sunday that won’t be happening, a source said.
The writing might have been on the wall when Stewart-Cousins recently appointed every Democrat in the chamber to chair a committee or subcommittee — except Felder.
Without Felder, the Senate Dems will still have 39 of the 63 seats in the chamber, far above the 32 votes needed to pass legislation.
With whomever he sits, Felder, an Orthodox Jew, is expected to vote against some of the more progressive legislation the Dems are set to pass, including bills to strengthen the state’s abortion laws and add protections for transgender people in New York’s anti-discrimination statute.
Felder, who ran in November on both the Democratic and Republican lines, had previously said he would sit with whichever conference offers him the chance to do the most for his constituents.
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