NOVEMBER: Sen. Brian Foley vs. Lee ZeldinBrian Foley, a Democrat who swept to victory in 2008 over longtime incumbent Caesar Trunzo, has his hands full in his first re-election bid running against Lee Zeldin, a young Iraq War veteran who has strong Tea Party support. Foley’s vote for the 2009 budget is a key issue, with the MTA payroll tax in particular a source of ... Read more »

In a closely divided Senate, every vote matters. Maybe that is why 25 of the upper chamber’s 62 members had perfect attendance records last year. The members with the greatest truancy rates—State Sens. Eric Schneiderman and Charles Fuschillo—only missed six out of 80 sessions, though José Peralta did miss 10 sessions as a member of the Assembly before ... Read more »

This year’s showdown for ultimate control of the State Senate—independent redistricting or not, the Republicans will almost certainly be consigned to the oblivion, Malcolm Smith threatened back in May—comes down to a handful of races. And those races will come down to the votes. And those votes will come down, in large part, to the registration.For the 11 ... Read more »

Government can be grubby work. The hours are long, the pay is poor and the rewards of all the hard work not apparent often until decades later. And in New York, working in politics can bring its own special kind of hardships. Politicos must explain to out-of-town relatives about working in an environment that has descended into a state of national ridicule. They must field ... Read more »

We now know who the nominees from each party will be in this year’s statewide elections. But much of the convention planning and hand-wringing that goes on behind the scenes will go unremembered after the booths are taken down and the confetti swept away. Here is a number-by-number breakdown of both the Democratic and Republican state conventions. ... Read more »

Gov. David Paterson sparked a war with the public employee unions when he announced in late April that he would seek a one-day-a-week furlough for state workers. For months, the administration has tried to extract about $250 million in labor reduction costs from the unions, but was rebuffed. Paterson was taking a page from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who began ... Read more »

If the Republican Party state convention were held today, Steve Levy would need practically all the undecided county chairs’ support to come out ahead of Rick Lazio.That is because Lazio, who has been campaigning for the nomination months before Levy announced his decision to switch parties and run as a Republican, has almost 50 percent of the weighted vote, while Levy ... Read more »

Sources: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and local ... Read more »

Seemingly every budget session lawmakers promise to cut spending. This year is shaping up to be no different. But as the following graph shows, Albany has been shelling out bigger and bigger bucks every year almost without interruption.  State spending is nearly twice what it was fifteen years ago, and has been rising at a steady clip.Naturally, revenues have been forced ... Read more »

By Andrew J. Hawkins and Chris Bragg Now the fight is over whether he should resign and whether people are irresponsible for even suggesting it. There is only so much that can be done to quell the talk of revolt from within, sighed state Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs.“Well, we’re Democrats,” he said. “We’re not Republicans.”But as the ... Read more »