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‘These Are Not Usual Days’: Cuomo Urges Felder to Rejoin Democrats
By Jesse Mckinley And Vivian Wang
ALBANY — For months, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has been publicly pushing the idea of Democratic unity in New York, where his seeming acceptance of a Republican-led State Senate has been seen by some in his party as a black mark on an otherwise legitimate record of liberal accomplishments. But on Wednesday morning — even after two critical Democratic victories in special elections on Tuesday — Mr. Cuomo was still one vote short of turning the Senate to Democratic control. That one vote belongs to Senator Simcha Felder, a Democrat from Brooklyn who has nonetheless caucused with Republicans in Albany’s upper chamber, and is now that party’s decisive 32nd vote in the 63-seat Senate. On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo — with a primary challenge in the offing — launched a salvo in an effort to convince Mr. Felder that the time to come home was now, warning that his unique influence in the Capitol might not last past the November elections. “Let me say that the Democratic conference will not need you in November the way they need you now,” the governor wrote in a letter to Mr. Felder and distributed to the news media. “I believe there will be additional Democrats who win and are seated for the next Legislature. You have said that you act in the best interest of your constituents. For their benefit, now is the time that matters.” For all that rhetoric, however, it was not clear that Mr. Cuomo, or other Democrats, had enough leverage to convince Mr. Felder that he would pay a political price, and even if so, whether they would use it any time soon. Indeed, the governor’s letter was met with a polite shrug from Mr. Felder — “I look forward to productive conversations with the governor and respect his position,” he said on Wednesday — and little, if any, immediate follow-up. The leader of the Senate Democratic Conference, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who was cc’d in the governor’s letter, had not spoken to Mr. Felder on Wednesday, nor had Mr. Cuomo. The state Democratic Party, meanwhile, seemed to have no plans to revoke Mr. Felder’s membership, a move that would end its mathematic majority. Mr. Felder does have a primary challenger, Blake Morris, but his campaign would seem to be a long shot in a district in which Mr. Felder runs on multiple party lines, and won unopposed in 2016. One group, however, was undeniably happy about Mr. Felder’s recent decision to continue to caucus with the Republicans. Before a brief legislative session on Wednesday in Albany, John J. Flanagan, the Long Island Republican who leads the Senate, addressed his Republican colleagues, with Mr. Felder in attendance, and thanked him for staying. The Republican conference then gave Mr. Felder a round of applause. Mr. Felder, a lifelong registered Democrat who represents a large Orthodox Jewish population in Brooklyn, has long embodied some of the perplexing horse-trading and politicking that are hallmarks of Albany. His reason for his defection, he said, is simple and consistent: He claims no loyalty to any party, but believes that the Republicans offer him more support for causes he cares about, including religious schools in his district, and is unapologetic about getting whatever he can for his constituents. “I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid,” Mr. Felder said, in an interview on Wednesday morning in his office in Albany. “I understand the opportunity for leverage, the situation, and I’m proud to do what I believe any colleague of mine would do if they had the opportunity.” Mr. Felder, who crossed party lines just days after he was elected in 2012, is not the only Democrat to stray during Mr. Cuomo’s seven-plus years in office. The Independent Democratic Conference, a group of renegade Democrats who collaborated with the Republicans, formed shortly after Mr. Cuomo was inaugurated in 2011 and helped to wrest control from the mainline Democrats in the Senate for years. The I.D.C. schism had infuriated and frustrated many Democrats, as well as Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Mr. Cuomo in a Democratic primary. Ms. Nixon said on Wednesday that the governor had made it “really very comfortable and very cozy” for Democrats like Mr. Felder to vote with Republicans. “He has created this climate,” Ms. Nixon said at a campaign appearance in Buffalo on Wednesday. “And it’s not surprising that we’re in the situation we’re in with Simcha Felder right now.” Earlier this month, the I.D.C., in a deal announced by Mr. Cuomo, agreed to dissolve its coalition with the Republicans. And on Tuesday night, two more Democrats joined the ranks of the Senate, after winning special elections in Westchester County and the Bronx. But even before the polls closed, Mr. Felder had already announced his intention to remain allied with the Republicans, at least for now, citing a desire to “prevent an unprecedented and uncertain late-session political battle.” A Democratic takeover of the Senate now would probably plunge its leaders into a morass of questions about how to allocate funding and staff for the final weeks of the session, which ends in June. Mr. Cuomo’s office had vowed not to take no for an answer. Yet the letter sent to Mr. Felder by the governor — no stranger to political hardball — seemed to be banking on his power of persuasion, rather than more pointed threats. “Usually an executive is warned to avoid ‘interference’ with the legislative branch of government,” the governor wrote. “Through the years, governors have been criticized for meddling with Senate or Assembly leadership decisions as it violated the separation of powers policy,” read the letter. “These are not usual days.” The letter may have seemed like an uncharacteristically gentle nudge from the governor, who is usually known more for strong-arm tactics than coaxing. But Douglas Muzzio, a professor of political science at Baruch College, said there was still time for more aggressive persuasion. “You don’t threaten yet,” Mr. Muzzio said. “You start with carrots before you move to sticks.” Mr. Cuomo himself said as much during the news conference, joking that he was “not a pressure kind of guy,” to laughter from the crowd. “I’m a charm, circle them with love, kind of guy,” he said.
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