It remains to be seen if the standoff between Gov. Paterson and his fellow Democrats who control the Legislature results in a slew of vetoes, but if it does then Senate Republicans need to back up the governor and block any overrides.
On Friday on the third floor of the Capitol, I ran into Ken Riddett, a lobbyist whose clients include the state Trial Lawyers Association, walking with another guy whose name I forget but I believe is also a lobbyist, and like Riddett used to be a lawyer for the Republican Senate majority, and like him testified at the corruption trial of Joe Bruno. (Riddett's most famous contribution to the trial was testifying how he used to advise senators to hand-deliver their ethics disclosure forms so as to avoid federal wire fraud charges.) The trial lawyers are not usually seen as a Republican constituency, and these days it's Democratic connections that pull in the big-time lobbying bucks, but in Albany there's gravy enough for all sorts of wheeler dealers.
Senate Republicans have to choose. They can either stick to the Bruno era script -- the same script followed by Democratic legislative leaders, who continue to appease every special intest including the trial lawyers, while concealing their own private-sector income and clients -- or they can stand with Paterson and fight. Doing the latter might cost them campaign cash, but it would give them issues to run on against their opponents in November.
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