State Senate Republicans huddled behind closed doors, trying to resolve a leadership crisis now that Majority Leader Dean Skelos has been charged with six counts of corruption and has lost the support of his GOP members.
Senator John DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican who’s been running to replace Senator Skelos, says first, the leader would have to resign, and that is not yet guaranteed.
“I have not talked to Dean, not anybody that I’ve talked to has a clear answer on that,” DeFrancisco said.
The sense among the GOP, though, is that Skelos’ hours as leader are numbered. Skelos will be speaking to the conference. The Majority Leader, according to published reports, threatened to resign his seat altogether if his Republican members forced him out. The Senate holds a slim 32 seat majority, the minimum number of Senators needed to lead the chamber, so losing just one member could leave the Republicans out of power.
Senator DeFrancisco says he believes he could become the next leader, based on support he gathered over the weekend, but it’s not guaranteed.
“If everyone who said yes to me meant it, I believe that I do,” DeFranciso said. “But things change in a conference.”
The other top candidate for Senate Leader is John Flanagan, a Republican from Long Island. If Flanagan wins, the post would remain in the hands of a Long Islander, and Flanagan has the support of several of his colleagues from that region.
Meanwhile, government reform groups took advantage of the crisis in the Senate to call for stricter anti corruption laws, including enacting public campaign finance laws. Karen Scharff, with Citizen Action, says Senator Skelos, and his counterpart in the Assembly, former Speaker Sheldon Silver, are in trouble with federal authorities over charges they enriched themselves, and in Skelos’ case, his son, in schemes that involved major campaign dornors.