Friends, because he comes from Staten Island, Senator Andy Lanza doesn’t get much love from us here in in Upstate. However, let me be the one to toot his horn today. Last night after confirming Dick, er…Rick Dollinger to the Court of Claims, Lanza stood up and called it what it was; a fraud.
Liz Benjamin has what happened: “Just in case you’re under the mistaken impression that the rules reform agreement is the hallmark of a more collegial and less partisan Senate…About seven hours before the post-3 a.m. reform vote, Democrats and Republicans had a tiff over judicial appointments, which appeared at one point to be the only thing the Senate would manage to get done last night. Seventeen judges were on tap to be confirmed, including former Democratic Sen. Rick Dollinger, who unsuccessfully sought last fall to win back his old seat from GOP Sen. Joe Robach. Dollinger was 13th on the confirmation list, but the Democrats bumped him up to the No. 1 slot – as a courtesy to a former colleague, they claimed – and rapidly confirmed him without any Republicans in the chamber. Although they were three Democrats short of a quorum, the majority claimed a sufficient number of members – both Democrats and Republicans – had checked in earlier in the day to allow for Dollinger’s confirmation. (Anyone else see shades of the Padavan pass-through session here?) The two sides had been bickering behind closed doors over mayoral control and the rules reforms for much of the day, causing the session that had originally been scheduled for 1 p.m. to be repeatedly pushed back. Somewhere around 7 p.m., according to the Republicans, the Democrats said they weren’t sure when session would reconvene and urged everyone to take a dinner break. Next thing you know, the Democrats were in the chamber praising Dollinger to the high heavens. The Republicans rushed in, crying foul all the while and noting the bells that usually call members back to the chamber for votes never rang.”
Because the Senate Democrats knew that they didn’t have the votes to confirm the State Democratic Party to Dollinger, they perpetrated a fraud against the people of the State of New York. While Robach stated on the record he would have voted “No” on the nomination, Lanza took his remarks a step forward and voiced his thoughts on the confirmation process.
LB goes on, Lanza “who is usually fairly mild-mannered, was particularly furious. He stood to issue a point of order and said he would have voted “no” on Dollinger – had he been given a chance – calling the vote a “fraud” and accusing the Democrats of “trading political favors for judgeships”. Lanza (and Monroe Rising) said he believed Gov. David Paterson, who helped Dollinger raise campaign cash, and his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, promised Dollinger the Court of Claims post (which carries a $136,700 annual salary) as a fallback plan if he agreed to challenge Robach.”
While I am disgusted that Rick Dollinger now sits on a state bench, I happy to see that our messaging is making it all the way to Senator Lanza in Staten Island. While those of us in Rochester know that Rick Dollinger is a bad guy and quid pro quo was given in getting him to challenge Robach, its nice to know that people in other parts of the state know this as well. I’m sure that if the Democrats would have followed the rules of the chamber and the agenda they set, Rick Dollinger’s confirmation would not have occurred and would have been defeated 30-29.