Assemblyman David Gantt, the Democratic Party’s hero of the Public Defender Fiasco, is standing in the way of the democratic process once again.  This time, he is blocking legislation that would prohibit text messaging while driving in New York State. This is another story you won’t read in the Democrat and Chronicle. 

The Buffalo News had a scathing piece on how Assembly Democrats had a press conference trying to put pressure on Gantt to allow the legislation to come out of committee. From that piece:

ALBANY — For years, a single member of the Assembly blocked Buffalo and other communities from being able to install cameras at intersections to catch drivers running red lights.

With that measure recently approved, the legislator, Rochester Democrat David Gantt, now is using his power as chairman of the Transportation Committee to stop another plan with widespread support: banning text messaging while driving.

In a rare scene for Albany, Gantt’s fellow Democrats outed him Tuesday as the obstacle to what they call a common-sense measure after he refused to meet with Kelly Cline, a West Seneca mother whose son died while texting and driving near his home two years ago. Cline was at the Capitol to lobby for the bill’s passage.

“It’s amazing . . . to hear about a chairman who doesn’t meet with people, since I am a chairman and I meet with everybody,” said Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat and sponsor of the bill, which has been stalled in Gantt’s committee for several years.

A fuming Assemblyman Mark Schroeder, a Buffalo Democrat who also represents West Seneca, lashed out at Gantt for having his staff meet with Cline.

“If the chairman of the Transportation Committee in the Assembly would meet people who have been affected . . . then maybe that would change [the fact that] in five weeks, my sense is, nothing is going to happen in the Assembly on the texting bill,” he said at an event to push the bill.

(snip)

Ortiz said the bill is backed by 92 percent of the members on Gantt’s committee, and he said that, if necessary, an effort could be launched to force the bill onto the committee’s agenda for a vote, “because we’re getting tired of the same song and the same music” from the committee chairman.”

Last month we covered the story about Gantt caving in on the cameras at traffic intersections bill he blocked for years.  We speculate that it was because one of the firms that sells these cameras hired Speaker Sheldon Silver’s favorite lobbyist, Pat Lynch. Pat has her own issues and things have reached a point where the Speaker is trying to distance himself from her.

The answer to solving this problem is quite clear.  The families of the kids killed while texting should hire Pat Lynch to lobby on their behalf.  In the pay to play culture that is Albany, its the only thing that works!