Madmallard
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State Senate could be a model for D.C.
Republicans and Independent Democrats in New York’s state Senate have successfully checked mainstream Democratic authority in Albany. Similarly, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey, Cory Gardner and Rob Portman, along with U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent’s band of House Tuesday Group moderates, can be the bulwark against federal overreach in the next Congress.
New York’s State Senate Independent Democratic Caucus has proven bipartisan coalition governing practicable, if politically fraught.
Turncoats. Opportunists. These seven state legislators have been called both and worse over the past six years since they broke with mainstream Democrats and allied themselves with Senate Republicans.
Not only have they been ridiculed and undermined by their former Democratic colleagues, they’ve also been targeted by a take-no-prisoners ultra-left Working Families Party that’s made a point to field several high-profile primary challengers.
Never mind that the IDC has helped institute tax caps, wage increases, deficit reductions; voted to curb an extreme legislative agenda advanced by a Democratic Assembly supermajority; and helped keep a leash on Senate Republicans from straying too far right.
Clearly, Washington centrists should look to New York as a model for a future federal governing strategy.
From 2014-16, John William Schiffbauer was the deputy communications director for the New York Republican State Committee. Last fall, he served as campaign manager for Republican Melinda Crump’s state Senate campaign in New York’s 31st District.
John William Schiffbauer: State Senate could be a model for D.C.
Republicans and Independent Democrats in New York’s state Senate have successfully checked mainstream Democratic authority in Albany. Similarly, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey, Cory Gardner and Rob Portman, along with U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent’s band of House Tuesday Group moderates, can be the bulwark against federal overreach in the next Congress.
New York’s State Senate Independent Democratic Caucus has proven bipartisan coalition governing practicable, if politically fraught.
Turncoats. Opportunists. These seven state legislators have been called both and worse over the past six years since they broke with mainstream Democrats and allied themselves with Senate Republicans.
Not only have they been ridiculed and undermined by their former Democratic colleagues, they’ve also been targeted by a take-no-prisoners ultra-left Working Families Party that’s made a point to field several high-profile primary challengers.
Never mind that the IDC has helped institute tax caps, wage increases, deficit reductions; voted to curb an extreme legislative agenda advanced by a Democratic Assembly supermajority; and helped keep a leash on Senate Republicans from straying too far right.
Clearly, Washington centrists should look to New York as a model for a future federal governing strategy.
From 2014-16, John William Schiffbauer was the deputy communications director for the New York Republican State Committee. Last fall, he served as campaign manager for Republican Melinda Crump’s state Senate campaign in New York’s 31st District.
John William Schiffbauer: State Senate could be a model for D.C.
