Arrested Senator Removed From Senate Caucus

A small group of Democratic New York senators who share majority control of the Senate with Republicans has kicked out one of its members who was charged in a federal corruption case.

Sen. Malcolm Smith’s ban from the Independent Democratic Conference comes as a new poll shows state residents increasingly consider corruption a “very serious” problem in Albany and say Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t handling it well.

IDC leader Jeff Klein said Wednesday that he stripped Smith of his leadership post after he was arrested two weeks ago. He said he also stopped the last check for most of Smith’s annual leadership stipend, and then the IDC dropped Smith, of Queens, from the conference, which shares Senate control with the GOP. The sanctions came without speaking to Smith, who hasn’t been convicted of a crime.

“Everyone deserves their day in court, but I think it was up to me as leader of the Independent Democratic Conference to act decisively and quickly,” Klein said. “I have watched corruption and convictions and arrests over my career, unfortunately, in the Legislature and it didn’t bode well for our democratic process…. This was my opportunity to act as a leader and I think I did the right thing.”

Smith declined to comment. He had been one of the Democrats’ majority leaders during a brief and tumultuous term from 2008 to 2010 that prompted four Democrats to form the IDC. Smith is now without a Senate conference.

He posted a message online on Wednesday: “G-d knows the heart.”

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday finds 48 percent of New Yorkers see corruption as “very serious,” the highest share since the poll began asking the question in 2003.

New Yorkers said Cuomo is responsible for cleaning up Albany, as he pledged in his 2010 campaign, but 52 percent said he was doing a “not so good” or “poor” job. The poll also found 75 percent of those surveyed gave the Legislature the same low grade.

“The people are fed up,” said Maurice Carroll of the Quinnipiac poll. “They don’t like the pictures of their lawmakers in handcuffs, and they think it’s the governor’s job to clean up.”

Yet, “They do feel Albany is about the same as everywhere else … but the fact is, it’s not the same everywhere else.”

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the April 18th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.