Free Republic

ALBANY – Assemblyman Robert Castelli (R-Goldens Bridge) has won reelection after close race against Democrat Thomas Roach. The win in the 89th District in Westchester County gives the Republicans at least 50 members in January, said Caucus Leader Brian Kolb. Castelli won by 112 votes once a judge ruled in his favor and certified the tally. Castelli is hopeful that Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, will lead a state turnaround. “I know that many of the things that he has said during the course of his campaign were certainly policies that I would have pursued and I know the Republican...

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican nominee who issued an election eve endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens in the Nov. 3 New York special election, will meet with Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb Monday to discuss whether she will be stripped of her Assembly leadership position. POLITICO has learned that Kolb will announce after the face-to-face meeting whether Scozzafava, the Minority Leader Pro Tempore, will remain as the GOP floor leader. “Fundamentally my members are very disappointed with her endorsement of Bill Owens and aiding him in helping achieve the Nancy Pelosi health care plan in Washington,” Kolb said. Scozzafava’s last-minute endorsement,...

Veteran Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio was indicted for fraud yesterday after plea negotiations in his corruption case apparently broke down. The Manhattan federal court indictment boosted to $1 million the amount of cash the Queens Democrat is charged with collecting through an eight-year, influence-peddling scheme. In early September, federal authorities charged that Seminerio pocketed money in exchange for access to Albany lawmakers. Payments allegedly went to a bogus consulting outfit linked to the Assemblyman.

ALBANY, Feb. 8 — Pity the New York State lawmaker, if only for a moment. For years, the state’s senators and Assembly members have been widely tarred as barely competent time-servers, hostage to their all-powerful leadership and resistant to change. Two years ago, a study deemed New York’s the most dysfunctional state legislature in the entire country. Last month, a panel that was asked to pick finalists for the vacant state comptroller’s office passed over several Assembly members angling for the job, suggesting they were unqualified. For a crowd where aspirations to higher office are common, it was the last...

ALBANY, July 21 - Over a five-year period, 11,474 bills reached the floor of the two houses of the Legislature in Albany. Not a single one was voted down. And during that period, from 1997 through 2001, the Legislature held public hearings on less than 1 percent of the major laws it passed. When those laws made it to the floor of each chamber for a vote, more than 95 percent passed with no debate. Civic groups, policy advocates and even some lawmakers have long rolled their eyes at what has become known as Albany's "dysfunction." But a study released...