Jacobs silences Dems, but rift exposed

ALBANY -- Over shouts and jeers, state Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs on Thursday engineered a move that blocked an endorsement of a tax on millionaires and a ban on natural-gas drilling upstate.

By doing so, Jacobs, also the party chairman in Nassau, prevented the party apparatus from taking official positions in direct opposition to its de facto leader, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. But the conflict at a party meeting exposed a schism between the popular governor and the party's liberal wing.

"Why do we even come to these meetings, when it's all ramrodded through by the governor?" asked Tom Wood of Plattsburgh. ". . . This isn't anything like democracy. This is more like the Soviet politburo of the 1970s."

Jacobs defended his actions to shut down debate on the two contentious issues.

"I spoke to party leaders [who] said some of this could embarrass the governor," Jacobs said. "A vocal minority is not a reason for us to appear opposed to the governor, which we're not."

The flare-up occurred at the Democratic Party's autumn organizational meeting -- and erupted about 45 minutes after Cuomo addressed the crowd and left to raucous applause.

The unity of that moment faded in the time it took delegates to consume their boxed lunches after Cuomo departed.

Debra Cooper, of Manhattan, introduced a resolution calling for the party to back an extension of the so-called "millionaires' tax," a surcharge on those earning more than $1 million annually that is supported by many Democrats in the State Legislature but opposed by Cuomo as damaging to the state's competitiveness.

Cooper immediately withdrew her proposal, saying she realized that not all committee members had seen it before it came to the floor. That drew some incredulous shouts from resolution supporters.

Moments later, Rachel Lavine of Manhattan presented a resolution seeking to prohibit hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method used to tap natural gas deposits. Cuomo's administration is holding hearings on the practice, which is under way in other states.

Michael Reich, the Queens Democratic Party's executive secretary, rose to ask to table the resolution. "We need to work with him, not undermine him," Reich said of Cuomo.

Jacobs called for a vote on Reich's motion, and a back-and-forth ensued between him and outraged committee members about who was "out of order." Jacobs then asked for a show of hands, which he said was overwhelmingly in Reich's favor, though there was no actual count. Some angry delegates stormed out.

Cuomo's office declined to comment.