Silver: Saint or Sinner?
May 7th, 2008
With Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver facing a credible challenge for his Assembly seat on the Lower East Side, a heated debate has broken out in some progressive circles over whether Silver is really so bad after all.
Blogging on Open Left,
Dan Cantor, founder of the purportedly progressive (but very tied to the Democratic Party) Working Families Party, comes out enthusiastically for Silver, even though the party has not made an endorsement. “His batting average has not been perfect - nobody’s is. But he prevented more harm and accomplished far more good than anyone could have expected during an era when Democrats were a minority party among Albany’s power centers,” Cantor
said, citing Silver for standing up to former Gov. George Pataki and for backing bills that made it “more difficult for employers to fight union organizing, barred discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, restored Food Stamps for immigrants and increased the minimum wage.”
Now Paul Newell one of two announced challengers to Silver (Luke Henry is the other), has fired back on the same blog. “Sheldon Silver is neither a progressive Democrat nor a conservative Democrat. Sheldon Silver is a status quo Democrat,” Newell writes. “Sheldon Silver chooses his positions so as to best maintain his power. As Silvers power derives from a Democratic held body, it is often in his interest to strike a comparatively progressive pose. But progressive action is rare.”
Another progressive, Chris Owens, chair of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, tries to take (on this one) a middle of the road position, telling the Daily Politics that Silver is “a mixed bag for progressives.” “Silver’s “greatest weakness has been his maintenance of old-school Albany politics,” Owens said.
The Daily Gotham leaves little doubt where it stands. “Shelly Silver Killed Congestion Pricing” it blares in huge white on orange type.
By Gail Robinson on May 7, 2008, 1:58 pmIn category: Albany
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May 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I don’t know enough to judge individuals, and I don’t feel the need to given that the vote in the legislature is usually 212 to 0 or something close. I look at the results.
Very good in the short run for small groups of people out for themselves and working the system. Very bad in the long run for everyone else.
With no articulated principles as to why the small groups of people out for themselves somehow deserve a better deal than everyone else.
They are all sinners.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
To say that the Working Families Party is “very tied” to the Democrats is misleading. Sure, they endorse a lot of Democrats, but they buck the party establishment went it makes sense. That is is, when doing so really pulls the Dems in a progressive direction. See:
http://www.danielsquadron.org/2008/03/working_familie.php