On 10/22/2007 I posted a piece called The Joe Bruno Democrats, for which I took a lot of abuse at the time. In part, I made the following observations, which were adapted from remarks I first posted in a thread on another blog back in May 2007:
The Senate Republican majority is doomed in the long-term unless they find a way to corral some non-Republicans into either switching parties or voting with them to organize. This has now been their long-range strategy for many years. They find "Democrats In Name Only" and run them in prohibitively Democratic districts, so they can hold them in reserve in case the Dems ever take the majority.
Example #1: Get washed up go-go dancer Nancy Larraine Hoffman, to change parties. Query: When Joe posed the idea, did she fall out of bed? When she told the Senate Dems she was screwing them all at once, did they think they were being invited to an orgy, or were they just bored? In Albany, Nancy was known as “The Tail of Two Parties” even before she switched sides. Actually, two parties would have been a slow night for her.
Example #2: Get Olga Mendez to switch parties. Even if I provided salacious details, who would believe them?
Example #3: Get Pedro Espada to change parties while maintaining his Democratic enrollment so he can still run in the Democratic Primary. The Democrats actually stopped this one by beating Bruno at his own game by running DINO Ruben Diaz. Diaz, Espada; both have Jewish messiahs, but one follows Jesus and the other Fred Newman.
Example #4: Woo Diaz. That'll teach 'em.
Exampla #5: Run Guillermo Linares against Eric Schniederman. Joe Bruno trying to screw Schniederman; it’s the arrogance of power versus the power of arrogance.
Example #6: Give Nellie Santiago the Republican line and try to draw the Satmar into her district. This was only foiled because George Pataki owed Santiago enemy Vito Lopez a bigger favor.
Example #7: Get Democratic Assemblyman Joe Robach to switch parties and run for the Senate. This was abetted by Shelly Silver, who was glad to have Robach gone.
Example #8: Run Noach Dear in the Democratic Primary against divided black opposition. Tried it three times, would have done it a fourth, but Dear (he hopes) got a job that doesn’t require commuting. Between Santiago and Dear, Vito Lopez has done more to foil Joe Bruno accidentally than most county leaders, himself included, have done on purpose.
Example #9: Run Democratic Assemblyman Steve Kaufman in the Democratic Primary against Jeff Klein, while also attempting to run him as a Republican, Conservative and Independence. This was abetted by Shelly Silver, who was glad to have Kaufman gone.
Example #10: Get political transsexual Tony Herbert, already surgically remade as a Republican, to pretend to have his Democratic credential reattached, and run him against Velmanette Montgomery.
Rule of thumb: not every primary to a Senate Democratic incumbents stems from Bruno, and some of the Senate Demorats may even deserve primaries, especially the one(s?) owned by Bruno, but, generally, if there's talk of giving a Senate Dem a primary, one should at the very least go hunting for the man behind the curtain.
Example #11: Carl Kruger; already bought and paid for, many times over, but like a case of the clap, or Nancy Larraine Hoffman, Kruger is the gift that keeps on giving. Worth an article all his own; will get one soon.
#12: Woo Hiram Montseratte and attend his fundraiser. This is being aided and abetted by John Sabini and Jack Daniels. Sabini may end up the only person in his immigrant heavy district unable to get a driver’s license. Does Sabini really have a drinking problem? Have you any idea who he’s dated?