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Skelos may be part of Senate leadership talks for weeks

Dan Janison | dan.janison@newsday.com

December 1, 2008

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos' fervid attempts to retain as much clout as he can, despite his party's loss of a majority, will keep him in behind-the-scenes talks through New Year's week, insiders predict.

So far, Minority Leader Malcolm Smith falls three Democratic votes short of the 32 needed to win the majority leadership. But aides and allies of Smith (D-Queens) take a confident pose, saying their man will prevail despite three holdouts in his conference. Skelos is trying to leverage the best deal possible, as more than 40 years of GOP domination ends in the upper house.

Of course Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who'll have a GOP caucus of 29 or 30, wants the three holdouts to break ranks outright and put him back in charge. He's reportedly reluctant to back Sen.-elect Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) as majority leader and settle for the post of deputy majority leader. He may, however, be willing to cede the Finance Committee chairmanship of Sen. Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon) to Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn). With voter enrollment trending Democratic, though, Skelos remains under pressure no matter what. He'll want to ensure senior Republicans such as Johnson and Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) stay on. The mostly likely to retire soon - threatening further erosion of the GOP caucus - seem to be upstaters Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie) and Hugh Farley (R-Niskayuna).

A well-placed source said, "We don't think there'll be any certainty until a vote is cast on the floor Jan. 7."

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