Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Renegade Democrats hand control of New York Senate to GOP

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' NY-St. Sen: Gaze upon the horror: Renegade Democrats in the New York state Senate have, at last, come to an appalling power-sharing agreement with the Republicans, handing control to the GOP even though they represent a minority in the chamber. Power will formally rotate back and forth between Republican Sen. Dean Skelos and "Independent" Democratic Sen. Jeff Klein, whose band of rogues just added a fifth member in the form of Sen. Malcolm Smith. Remarkably, Smith used to be the Senate majority leader until he was deposed after two now-extinct Dems were bought off by the GOP. Indeed, disgust at Smith's leadership was allegedly why Klein formed the IDC in the first place; the fact that they're letting him into the clubhouse now sure looks like proof that Klein is only interested in power.

In any event, Colin Campbell has Skelos's press release, which contains the precise details of this arrangement:

Under the unprecedented agreement, the Independent Democratic Conference will be formally recognized as a third, permanent Senate conference. Senator Klein and Senator Skelos will assume the roles of Conference Leader for their respective conferences and will administer joint and equal authority over (1) the daily senate agenda (a/k/a the "Active List," which lays out which bills will be voted on each day), (2) the state budget, (3) appointments to state and local boards, and (4) leadership and committee assignments for their respective conferences.

Under the agreement, coalition leaders will need to work together to lead the Senate forward. The new agreement will also provide for a process by which the title of Temporary President will alternate between the two conference leaders every two weeks. Therefore, the role of the temporary president will be constitutionally fulfilled at all times.

As a reminder, candidates with a "(D)" after their names won 33 seats this November, while Republicans only won 30. But the five members of the IDC, as well as a sixth conservative Democrat (Simcha Felder), have all elected to side with the GOP, even though I doubt that's what they were elected for. Once again, Felder aside, this isn't about ideology: Klein describes himself as a "progressive." Well, there's a ton of progressive legislation that mainstream Dems want to pass. Klein claims this is about ending dysfunction in Albany. Let's see if he bothers pushing for a floor vote on a single Democratic priority.

And let's not forget the blame supposedly Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo bears here, too. Cuomo not only endorsed Republican senators for re-election but he also refused to say which party he preferred to see control the Senate'even after Dems won a surprise majority on election day. And a report in Crain's even claims (according to an unnamed source) that Klein "has been running ideas past Mr. Cuomo before moving forward." I certainly believe it.

It's all further proof that Cuomo, despite occasional departures like gay marriage, is deeply anti-progressive and has little interest in being a Democrat. And if there's a silver lining, it's that abandoning your party (and progressive ideals) at a moment of extreme need like this ought to badly hurt Cuomo with presidential primary voters, should he make the mistake of seeking the brass ring.