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Skelos Needs to Rebuild the House or Risk Losing the Chamber by KT McFarland
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:24:00
Skelos Needs to Rebuild the House or Risk Losing the Chamber
Senator Bruno’s departure from the State Senate offers a unique opportunity for the New York Republican Party to reinvent itself—an opportunity which may be the last one for a generation to reverse the party’s steady decline. As Senator Skelos takes the reigns, he also becomes the leading Republican official in the state, and the only one in a position to take the Party in a new direction. One thing is clear: if he does not reform the Republican Party and its message, Senator Skelos’ tenure as Senate majority leader could be one of the shortest on record.
We all know the reasons for the ill fortunes of the New York GOP: the failure of former Gov. Pataki and his colleagues to groom a farm team to succeed them; party leaders who sacrificed Republican principles of good government and fiscal responsibility for campaign contributions from lobbyists and unions; officials who routinely handed out taxpayers’ dollars to special interest groups to ensure their own reelection; and a national political environment toxic to all Republicans.
While New York voters have little faith in Republicans, they don’t have much faith in the Democrats, either. Poll after poll shows New Yorkers are fed up with both political parties: they think Albany is dysfunctional and the State has been going in the wrong direction for years. And, up until now, they’ve felt powerless to change it.
But voters are in a revolutionary mood. Confidence in their elected officials is at an historic low. The presidential election has energized the electorate. A year ago, no one would have predicted Senators McCain and Obama would be their parties’ standard-bearers, or that two out of the three statewide officials New York voters elected in landslides just 18 months ago would be forced to resign in disgrace.
Voters are fed up with politicians who seem to care more about perpetuating themselves in office until they die or are indicted. Senators Obama and McCain are starkly different candidates running on very different platforms, but they are both perceived as serving a higher purpose than their own self-interest. All of a sudden, it seems like anything is possible in politics, in Washington and even in Albany.
New York is ripe for change, and the leaders who first champion a reform agenda are the ones who will seize the initiative. There isn’t room for two Reform parties, the party which is not the party of reform is by default the party of the old and corrupt ways. And the old and corrupt ways are exactly what voters are jettisoning as fast as they can.
One of the saddest comments on the change of leadership in the State Senate was a sentence at the end of a recent New York Post article: “The change in guard will also likely mean the millions of dollars in state funding and projects Bruno steered to his Albany area district will now go to Long Island if Skelos and the GOP keep the majority.”
Is that what elected office in Albany boils down to? That the man who sits at the head of the Grand Old Party in one of the greatest, most powerful states in the Union is thought of as nothing more than a bagman for special interests in his district? No wonder voters are disgusted.
The New York GOP is like an old family living in the decrepit mansion the forbearers bought. Nobody has made money in generations. Slowly, but surely, the heirs have been selling off the carpets on the floor, the paintings on the walls, and now the furniture and silverware to stay in the mansion. No one in the current generation has said, “heck, we can’t go on like this. If we don’t do something drastic we’re going to be evicted in another year or two.” But no, we keep hanging on, thinking if we just sell another piece of furniture we can live here a little longer.
As majority leader, Senator Skelos has a choice: he can try to sell off the last of the furniture and hope the eviction notice doesn’t come on his watch. Or he can stand tall, throw open the windows to change and start rebuilding the mansion.
Senator Bruno’s departure from the State Senate offers a unique opportunity for the New York Republican Party to reinvent itself—an opportunity which may be the last one for a generation to reverse the party’s steady decline. As Senator Skelos takes the reigns, he also becomes the leading Republican official in the state, and the only one in a position to take the Party in a new direction. One thing is clear: if he does not reform the Republican Party and its message, Senator Skelos’ tenure as Senate majority leader could be one of the shortest on record.
We all know the reasons for the ill fortunes of the New York GOP: the failure of former Gov. Pataki and his colleagues to groom a farm team to succeed them; party leaders who sacrificed Republican principles of good government and fiscal responsibility for campaign contributions from lobbyists and unions; officials who routinely handed out taxpayers’ dollars to special interest groups to ensure their own reelection; and a national political environment toxic to all Republicans.
While New York voters have little faith in Republicans, they don’t have much faith in the Democrats, either. Poll after poll shows New Yorkers are fed up with both political parties: they think Albany is dysfunctional and the State has been going in the wrong direction for years. And, up until now, they’ve felt powerless to change it.
But voters are in a revolutionary mood. Confidence in their elected officials is at an historic low. The presidential election has energized the electorate. A year ago, no one would have predicted Senators McCain and Obama would be their parties’ standard-bearers, or that two out of the three statewide officials New York voters elected in landslides just 18 months ago would be forced to resign in disgrace.
Voters are fed up with politicians who seem to care more about perpetuating themselves in office until they die or are indicted. Senators Obama and McCain are starkly different candidates running on very different platforms, but they are both perceived as serving a higher purpose than their own self-interest. All of a sudden, it seems like anything is possible in politics, in Washington and even in Albany.
New York is ripe for change, and the leaders who first champion a reform agenda are the ones who will seize the initiative. There isn’t room for two Reform parties, the party which is not the party of reform is by default the party of the old and corrupt ways. And the old and corrupt ways are exactly what voters are jettisoning as fast as they can.
One of the saddest comments on the change of leadership in the State Senate was a sentence at the end of a recent New York Post article: “The change in guard will also likely mean the millions of dollars in state funding and projects Bruno steered to his Albany area district will now go to Long Island if Skelos and the GOP keep the majority.”
Is that what elected office in Albany boils down to? That the man who sits at the head of the Grand Old Party in one of the greatest, most powerful states in the Union is thought of as nothing more than a bagman for special interests in his district? No wonder voters are disgusted.
The New York GOP is like an old family living in the decrepit mansion the forbearers bought. Nobody has made money in generations. Slowly, but surely, the heirs have been selling off the carpets on the floor, the paintings on the walls, and now the furniture and silverware to stay in the mansion. No one in the current generation has said, “heck, we can’t go on like this. If we don’t do something drastic we’re going to be evicted in another year or two.” But no, we keep hanging on, thinking if we just sell another piece of furniture we can live here a little longer.
As majority leader, Senator Skelos has a choice: he can try to sell off the last of the furniture and hope the eviction notice doesn’t come on his watch. Or he can stand tall, throw open the windows to change and start rebuilding the mansion.
