For Democrats, Corruption Arrest Is One More Barrier to Control of the State Senate

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Nobody has ever accused Democrats of being intelligent.

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By THOMAS KAPLAN and JESSE McKINLEY

ALBANY � There are many more Democrats than Republicans in New
York State. There are even more Democrats than Republicans in
the State Senate.

But the seemingly unending string of indictments of Senate
Democrats is making it more difficult for the party to win
control of the legislative chamber, which it does not lead
despite having a numerical majority.

The arrest on Monday of Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, who
was charged with embezzlement and other crimes, was the second
time in barely a month that a former leader of the Senate
Democratic caucus was accused of corruption by federal
prosecutors. The senator whom Mr. Sampson succeeded in 2009 as
Democratic leader, Malcolm A. Smith of Queens, was charged last
month with trying to bribe his way onto the ballot for mayor of
New York City.

�The Republicans are going to ram this down the Democrats�
throats,� said Douglas Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at
Baruch College. �The indictees may be stupid, but you, the
voters, are not stupid. You�re going to return these folks and
their ilk to power?�

The latest scandal does not have immediate implications for the
balance of power in Albany; Republicans currently share control
of the Senate in a coalition with four breakaway Democrats, and
lawmakers are not up for re-election for 18 months. Democrats
also insist the accused lawmakers are vestiges of a leadership
group that they have already moved past � they voted in December
to oust Mr. Sampson as their leader, and Mr. Smith defected to
the breakaway faction of lawmakers.

But his arrest is another embarrassment for the scandal-plagued
Senate Democratic caucus, and it appears likely to provide
additional ammunition to Republicans, who have argued in past
campaigns that Democrats cannot be trusted to run the chamber.

Before Mr. Smith and Mr. Sampson, a parade of colleagues have
run afoul of the law in recent years, for offenses including
stealing taxpayer money to pay for takeout sushi (Pedro Espada
Jr., a former majority leader) and shopping trips (Shirley L.
Huntley, who was revealed last week to have made secret
recordings of other public officials at the behest of
prosecutors).

Republican senators are unsympathetic in private, and their
spokesman, Scott Reif, observed wryly, �While the Senate
Democrats said they had cleaned up their conference, the latest
arrest of one of their New York City members shows they may
still have some work to do.�

Jessica Proud, a Republican political strategist, said the
latest scandals would be particularly damaging for Democrats
seeking re-election upstate and in the Hudson Valley, who even
before the arrests were seen as vulnerable to challenges.

�This is a huge black eye for them, and they�ve been unable to
get out from under it no matter who their leadership is,� Ms.
Proud said of the caucus�s propensity for scandals. �Senate
Republicans were able to effectively use this against them in
reclaiming the majority in 2010, and these latest arrests will
allow them to continue that narrative.�

It is not clear, however, the extent to which voters are
inclined to continue punishing Democratic candidates for the
corruption of some of their party�s elected officials. Even with
the taint of past scandals, Senate Democrats performed strongly
in the November elections. And the Senate Democratic caucus now
is quite different from the one in 2009, when a leadership coup
made the chamber a public laughingstock; 12 of the 26 members of
the current Democratic caucus were elected to the Senate in 2010
or later.

On Monday, after Mr. Sampson�s arrest, there was a mix of anger
and agita among the newer members of the Democratic conference,
with a sense that the indictment of Mr. Sampson, like a big gulp
of bitter medicine, could be an unpleasant but ultimately
beneficial moment.

�It tastes really bad, but you trust the physician,� Senator
Brad Hoylman, a 47-year-old freshman lawmaker from Manhattan,
said, adding that he thought the arrest could be a �positive
step forward for the entire chamber.�

Many newly elected Democrats were trying to find the bright side
when they returned to the Capitol this week, pointing out that
many of those arrested this year were from a previous era of
dysfunction and dirty dealings in Albany.

�These were not current members of the brain trust,� Mr. Hoylman
said. �And if there are future indictments, I wouldn�t be
surprised if it was other members outside the fold.�

Another freshman Democrat, Senator George S. Latimer of
Westchester County, said, �The institution needs the cleansing
process.� But he added, �I wish it could happen in one cathartic
movement.�

That said, Mr. Latimer added that a talking cure would not be
enough.

�It�s not going to go away by saying, �Oh, we�ve turned a
corner,� � he said. �And then the next one will come out in
three weeks.�

Senator Terry Gipson, a freshman Democrat whose district runs
along the east side of the Hudson River north of New York City,
echoed that, putting some of the blame for corruption on �idle
time� and long tenures in Albany. To that end, he said, he
planned this week to propose term limits for legislators, a
suggestion that has found little support in the capital over the
years.

�If there is a silver lining to this, it�s that we are finally
purging our government of the bad apples and letting the cream
rise to the top,� Mr. Gipson said. �Which I think is what is
happening.�

The arrest of Mr. Sampson was not bad news for all Democrats.
Some had conspicuously kept their distance from him � most
notably Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who did not even campaign for
Democrats to take over the Senate last fall.

�There was a tremendous amount of second-guessing about the
administration�s unwillingness to embrace John Sampson and the
Democratic caucus�s leadership throughout the first two years of
the administration,� said Steven M. Cohen, Mr. Cuomo�s former
top aide. �Maybe people now understand that there�s something
more important than a party label.�

Mr. Sampson�s arrest also offered some vindication for Senator
Jeffrey D. Klein, a Bronx Democrat who defected from the
Democratic caucus in 2011, asserting that he had lost confidence
in Mr. Sampson�s leadership. Mr. Klein and three other breakaway
Democrats now share control of the Senate with the Republican
caucus. But they, too, have been touched by scandal: Mr. Klein
recruited Mr. Smith to join his group in December, only to expel
him from the group after he was charged with corruption.

While accusations of misconduct by Democrats have been much in
the news lately, in recent years, several Republican senators
have also been embroiled in corruption scandals.

Seymour P. Lachman, a former Democratic state senator, on
Tuesday reviewed a photograph of his Senate colleagues from
about a decade ago that he now has in his office at Wagner
College, where he directs the Hugh L. Carey Institute for
Government Reform.

Mr. Lachman counted about a dozen who had gone to prison or had
been charged, including the majority leader at the time, Joseph
L. Bruno, a Republican who is facing a second trial on fraud
charges. Mr. Lachman said that New Yorkers should be embarrassed
and that their lawmakers in Albany needed to address the problem
seriously.

�It�s like a serial novel, or a le Carr� mystery,� he said.
�Who�s next?�

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further-hurts-albany-democrats.html?src=recg

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