Text size:

Suozzi wants Silver, Bruno out

BY LAUREN WEBER | NEWSDAY ALBANY BUREAU

May 10, 2006

ALBANY - Thomas Suozzi grabbed attention for his struggling gubernatorial campaign yesterday when he called for the ouster of Albany's two top legislators, saying Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver should "be replaced, because they have failed to fight for the reforms that we seek."

The remarks, given at a gathering of organizations pushing for reform of Albany's political structure, further cemented Suozzi's stance as an outsider.

Silver, a fellow Democrat, dismissed Suozzi's comments. "Desperate candidates say desperate things. He's still trying to cover for his latest guffaw, which was taxing all of his constituents on the Long Island Expressway," Silver said, referring to Suozzi's suggestion that drivers pay to use the LIE during peak hours.

A spokesman for Bruno, a Republican, said, "It's just internal Democratic Party politics."

But beneath the word-slinging was the real topic of the day: the often inflexible structure that governs Albany and, by extension, New York State.

Suozzi called for reform in campaign finance, lobbying laws and other areas. He saved his most passionate words for the topic of redistricting, the means of setting geographic boundaries for legislative seats.

Currently, that process occurs every 10 years and is controlled by the majority parties in the legislature - the very people with the greatest interest in maintaining their power bases, watchdog groups argue. The most recent redistricting took place in 2002.

"We need to pass redistricting reform this year," Suozzi said. "Having more competitive elections will force our elected officials to be more accountable. Democracy does not work unless there's competition."

While Gov. George Pataki has declined to push for reforms on redistricting, Suozzi has called for the naming of a nonpartisan commission and challenged his gubernatorial rivals to do the same. Because the governor must approve the political mapmaking, the state leader has some leverage over the process.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner, and GOP candidate William Weld both say they would veto boundaries passed without the input of an independent commission. Another candidate, John Faso, said he supports stronger standards for redistricting, but not a separate commission.

"We're encouraged that the four gubernatorial candidates are talking the talk, and Suozzi has sharpened the edge on the issue," said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

A spokesman for state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who co-chairs the legislature's Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, defended the current process, saying it is "quite stringently governed by the state constitution, the federal Voting Rights Act, the federal Constitution and the courts."