Bruno on the Brink
The loss by the Republican candidate in this week's special election upstate narrows Senator Joseph Bruno's Republican majority to 32-30. We're not shedding any tears. While Mr. Bruno has at times been an ally of Republican principles in Albany — battling for the death penalty and against rent control — all too often he and his Republican majority in the Senate have been indistinguishable from the Democrats. How else to explain the fact that two powerful labor unions, the New York State United Teachers and 1199 SEIU, supported the losing Republican candidate in the upstate special election?
In the event, 1199 greeted the loss with a statement aimed at allaying speculation that it would pull the plug on Mr. Bruno. "Senator Bruno's commitment to protecting quality care for all New Yorkers has made him a tremendous ally to the entire healthcare community. The Senate majority's advocacy on behalf of caregivers has been second to none. We have the deepest respect for Senator Bruno's leadership and we will continue to work with him to ensure that New York State maintains world class healthcare for all," the statement said.
Mr. Bruno's flaws go beyond his alliance with the healthcare union that has made New York's Medicaid program the most expensive in the nation on a per capita basis. His staff — 530 — is ten times the size of the 51 staffers that the speaker of the House of Representatives of America has at her disposal. Until Governor Spitzer had the state police follow him and publicize the practice, Mr. Bruno was using government helicopters for trips that were largely political business. He stayed at the Sheraton New York in a vast suite for which a campaign committee he controlled was charged a below-market rate by a company with business before the state.
We don't want to make too much of all that but neither do we want to make too little. The excesses they symbolize breed the cynicism that is an enormous part of the problem in Albany. Mr. Bruno maintained a private consulting business with undisclosed clients at the same time he was one of the three most powerful government officials in Albany. These aren't ideological issues but basic matters of government efficiency and modesty. If the Republicans in the Senate end up losing their majority it will be because they don't stand for anything different from the rest of the Albany politicians. With both houses of the legislature and the governorship end up in the hands of the Democrats, we'd like to think the Republicans will find the will to rebuild their party in New York on the principles that elevated the national party to greatness.
