EdVANTAGE Blog

After its leadership upheaval on Monday, the State Senate failed to convene on Tuesday or Wednesday and cancelled all committee meetings both days.

Today, a brief session was held involving only the 30 Republican Senators and the two dissident Democrats.  But it lasted only 10 minutes and no bills were passed.

Now both houses have left Albany for the weekend and are scheduled to reconvene on Monday.

During today’s session, Senator Hiram Monserrate, of the two Democrats siding with the Republicans, announced he would vote no on all bills, and left the chamber leaving it with out a quorom of members.  Had he remained, any “party-line” vote to pass a bill would have failed in a 31-31 tie.

Here’s the New York Daily News’ Albany blog report on today’s events.

Senator Monserrate also made some ambiguous comments about where he stands.

The purported new majority is seeking to recruit other Democratic Senators to joins their coalition, but so far none have come forward.

Backing up, for those who might be interested, Wednesday’s New York Times detailed the genesis of the “coup” and the role played by billionaire Tom Golisano.