Bruno Fires Finance Secretary

Senate Republican majority leader, Joseph Bruno, has fired his finance secretary, Jeffrey Lovell, just two days after lawmakers passed this year's budget. Mr. Lovell, a former senior policy adviser to Governor Pataki, became the second highest-ranking Senate aide to be ousted in less than two months. His firing on Friday comes as Senate Republicans hope to reverse a streak of election losses that have cut their majority lead over Democrats in the chamber to 32-30.

Last month, the director of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, Edward Lurie, resigned after Republicans suffered an embarrassing loss in an upstate special election.

Senate sources said Mr. Bruno was concerned about Mr. Lovell's performance as the Senate's top budget negotiator. Mr. Bruno, sources said, received internal reports from Senate staffers that Mr. Lovell was countermanding orders by taking bargaining positions that had not been approved by the majority leader.

Robert Mujica, who was a deputy under Mr. Lovell, will serve as acting finance secretary to Mr. Bruno.