Peralta joins the IDC

From NY1:

The breakaway Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, will now have eight members with its newest addition, state Senator Jose Peralta of Queens.

"Look, this is a process. Like I said, I've been doing a lot of soul searching. And I reached that crossroads," Peralta said.

Despite holding a numeric majority, Democrats do not run the state Senate. The Republicans do, with a power-sharing arrangement with the IDC. That means both members of the IDC and Senate Republicans control the legislative agenda in the upper house.

By party registration, Democrats actually outnumber Republicans by 32 to 31 seats. But in practice, it's much different. Mainline Democrats now have 23 seats, Republicans 31 and the IDC 8. And Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder caucuses with the Republicans.

Peralta says joining the IDC is the best way to deliver for his Queens constituents.

John Liu may primary Tony Avella

From the NY Observer:

John Liu is mulling a run against State Senator Tony Avella, three sources familiar with Mr. Liu’s plans told the Observer this afternoon.

Mr. Liu, the former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, is in active discussions with the Queens Democratic Party about a primary challenge against Mr. Avella, a northeast Queens lawmaker who recently defected to a breakaway Democratic faction that leads the chamber with state Republicans. Congressman Joe Crowley, the chair of the Queens Democratic machine, is personally pushing Mr. Liu to run, party sources said.

“Crowley is definitely courting him,” one source said. “They want him to carry the water of county. But if John Liu runs, it will be because John wants to, not because Crowley wants him to. They’re trying to make the case it’s about John and not knocking out Tony Avella.”

State pols not too keen on term limits

From the Times Ledger:

After campaigning his way to Albany on pledges to push for longer legislative terms and limiting lawmakers’ time in office, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said he made headway on his first state bill, which would extend legislators’ terms to four years, by joining the Independent Democratic Conference.

Avella joined the IDC, a breakaway group of Democrats that controls the Senate through a coalition with Republicans, Feb. 26.

On March 11, the Rules Committee moved a measure extending state lawmakers’ terms from two to four years, which Avella said he introduced shortly after getting elected to the Senate four years ago.

“The fact that it passed the Rules Committee is very significant because it could come up for a vote at any moment,” Avella said, noting that he attributed the measure’s progress to him signing onto the IDC. “It would not have come up otherwise.”

But a companion bill Avella introduced calling for the implementation of 16-year term limits for legislators stalled. A revised version cutting term limits to 12 years or three consecutive terms — whichever is longer — has not fared well either, sputtering in the Judiciary Committee since being drafted in 2013.

“There is a little more discussion this session than there has been in the past,” Avella said. “Term limits is a harder lift because the members have to, in fact, agree to term limits.”

Since most enjoy being senators for life, why would they agree to that?

Avella now part of Independent Democrat Conference

From Capital New York:

A decision by Queens State Senator Tony Avella to defect from the chamber's traditional Democratic faction to its Republican-allied Independent Democratic Conference is a coup for the I.D.C., boosting its ranks on the eve of major legislative negotiations and cementing its existence (and some type of Republican control) going into the November election cycle.

It is, first and foremost, a matter of numbers. After two retirements, the chamber is governed by a coalition of 29 Republicans, the now-five-member I.D.C., and Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who sits with the Republicans. There are 24 members of the mainstream Democratic conference, as well as two Democrats under federal indictment—John Sampson of Brooklyn and Malcolm Smith of Queens—who remain senators but are not invited into private confabs.

It takes 32 votes to pass a bill.