The New York State Capitol building is seen on March 17, 2021 in Albany, New York. | Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
ALBANY — At around 6:30 p.m. on the last scheduled day of the 2021 session, state senators and their staff were served Italian ice.
It’s an Albany tradition that dates back to at least the 1980s. But it disappeared last year — the image of legislators crowding together to smile and eat dessert at a time when indoor dining was banned in New York and the Capitol was mostly being used as a film studio for the nationally televised Cuomo Show would’ve had quite the Marie Antoinette vibe.
Thursday’s choice of lemon, key lime or watermelon set the stage for the conclusion of a week that better resembled business as usual than at any point since two Assembly members tested positive for Covid-19 453 days ago. True, the public is still banned from the Capitol. But committees often had decent in-person attendance, an increasing number of Democrats can be found in the hallways unmasked, and Republicans have almost entirely dispensed with facial coverings when outside of the chambers.
“More members are physically present in the chamber, there’s the opportunity to sit together in the lounge on a bipartisan basis, which we haven’t had in a year,” said Sen. Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers). “It’s a mutual sense that things are much better — people are anxious to do our work and then go home. We’ve worked hard, it’s been a very trying time.”
“We’re getting a lot of stuff done, we’ve got colleagues in the room, there’s more camaraderie,” said Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens). “We’re getting back to a sense of normalcy.”
The Covid-19 storm might be entering the rear-view mirror in the capital of a state that was the pandemic's epicenter during its worst days. But it’s quite possible that Albany is simply in the eye of a very different sort of storm.
When the Assembly next returns to town, it could be to hold New York’s first impeachment trial in over a century. If not, then members will have to explain why they declined to take any action against Gov. Andrew Cuomo — at a time when the building will likely be reopened to protestors.
“I don’t think this goes away,” Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said of the mountain of allegations that Cuomo faces. “The attorney general’s got her job to do, and I expect she’ll do it. I expect that at some point that investigation will be concluded and that report, or some kind of report, will have to be made public," he added, referring to state Attorney General Tish James' probe of the governor.
Whatever happens to the governor, next year’s legislative session has a very good chance of being more consumed by politicking than any session in state history.
In the last gubernatorial election, neither Republican Marc Molinaro nor Democrat Cynthia Nixon launched their challenges against Cuomo until March of 2018. Nixon received plenty of national headlines, but with the primary not until September and both challengers viewed as significant underdogs, neither dominated the legislative session that wrapped up in June.
The primary has since been moved to June, mere weeks after the 2022 session will likely end. And almost nobody would predict that Cuomo, even if he manages to keep his reelection hopes alive, will enter the new year as an overwhelming favorite to win a fourth term. By the time any other gubernatorial candidates are focused on collecting petitions in March, their campaigns could start to drown out the focus on the state budget.
Outside of the lack of public access to the Capitol during this year’s session, Cuomo’s absence has been the biggest difference between this June and the end-of-sessions of yesteryear.
He did reemerge as a policymaker a little bit towards the end, as he pushed to have the Legislature sign off on a plan to reorganize the MTA.
That got linked to talks on legislation on sealing more criminal records, leading to a last-day-of session in which the Capitol and Twitter were filled with gossip and rumors about an imminent deal that would be rushed through the Legislature after sunset — the type of talk that’s all too familiar in Albany this time of year. No deal was reached, however, and senators went home without passing the “Big Ugly” deal that’s common in June.
There was a taste of normalcy, in other words, but the complete feeling of business as usual wasn’t quite there yet.
"some" - Google News
June 11, 2021 at 09:24AM
https://ift.tt/3xe2KxU
Italian ice, and some normalcy, back in Albany - Politico
"some" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37fuoxP
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Italian ice, and some normalcy, back in Albany - Politico"
Post a Comment