Skelos, GOP about to get back in the saddle

Four months after he became the state Senate's top Republican in 2008, Dean Skelos suddenly slid in status, from majority to minority leader, on a Democratic electoral tide led by Barack Obama.

"We have to regroup," Skelos said softly on the sidewalk that night in front of the Rockville Centre Republican Club. "We'll be back."

And back they are.

After a smattering of close counts around the state, he and his conference ready themselves to take charge of Albany's upper house by a 32-30 margin.

The return could mark a new normal - or at least, a revival of the old normal. Or, if you're cynical, the old abnormal.

The coming partisan mix of a Democratic governor, a Democratic Assembly speaker and a Republican Senate majority leader ruled the Capitol for 20 years until 1995, and again in 2007 and 2008.

Manfred Ohrenstein, of Manhattan, the former Democratic Senate minority leader, recalled a cooperative role in enacting city financial-aid measures back in the day.

"You really didn't have three men in a room, you had four," he said.

With the fiscal crises looming now, he added, "I assume that's going to have to be the case this time. I'd be very surprised if the Republicans are going to agree to any kind of heavy lifting in which the Democrats don't share - in terms of doing the hard votes," Ohrenstein said. "It'll take them a while to figure out how to do it."

Whether they reach key agreements with Senate Democrats, it looks unlikely the Republicans will fall into the same internal discord that marred the Democrats' reign of the past two years.

The 24 men and eight women who made up this last majority were a shaky coalition from the start - with fault lines within and outside the party's New York City stronghold. Occasionally ethnic issues added complication: Even before Malcolm Smith in 2009 was elected the first African-American majority leader, three Latino members formed a dissenting bloc that threatened to derail the party majority, protesting a paucity of Hispanics in leadership roles.

By contrast, the incoming GOP majority comprises 29 men and three women, mainly upstaters and suburbanites, all white. Only two represent New York City districts. Even before the Nov. 2 election results were certified, the conference showed solidarity with a vote reinforcing support for Skelos as leader. He is also the dean, so to speak, of a newly restored all-Republican nine-member delegation from Long Island.

Not that any political caucus is ever friction-free. It was no secret that Senator-elect Greg Ball (R-Carmel) won his primary against the wishes of Senate GOP insiders. And Sen. George Maziarz (R-Newfane) expressed interest in October in becoming leader if his party recouped the majority.

But an institutional habit in the state Senate of Democrats openly quarreling and Republicans suppressing differences goes back decades.

In the 1964 election, Democrats won a majority of Senate seats, which soon led to an epic battle for majority leader. Eventually Joseph Zaretzki of Manhattan won. But his party's hold lasted less than a year, due to a special court-ordered reapportionment.

Once again - after a milestone election loss, after one midterm coup attempt, after many dissenting votes, and after a series of key campaign battles - Skelos and his Republicans are back at the table.