Another Senate Democrat switches parties

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By AMY WESTFELDT The Associated Press 12/3/02 4:45 PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- Veteran state Sen. Olga Mendez switched to the Republican party Tuesday, indicating she was angered by a Democratic leader's criticism of party members who endorsed Republicans in last month's election.

"I know when I'm not wanted," said state Sen. Olga Mendez, 76, of Manhattan, at a news conference with Gov. George Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and other leading Republicans.

Mendez, the minority conference chairwoman who has served in the Legislature since 1978, said she was switching parties because Democrats were no longer able to solve the problems of Latinos, blacks and others in her East Harlem constituency.

She said she had been approached by Republicans previously to switch parties, but was hopeful the Democratic Party would change.

"They haven't, so I do what I gotta do," she said.

Mendez said she was offered a committee chairmanship but declined. "I have other plans," she said. She declined to elaborate but said the plans did not include retirement.

Mendez brings the Republican majority to 38 senators in the 62-seat chamber, the largest GOP edge in modern times.

Mendez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to public office in the United States and one of the longest-serving Puerto Rican politicians, was one of two Democratic senators to endorse Pataki this year in his successful re-election campaign against Democratic state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn also backed Pataki.

Sen. David Paterson, who will become the Senate's new minority leader in January, said two weeks ago that no Democrat who endorses a Republican over a Democrat in "major races" will hold leadership positions in the Democratic conference under his rule.

Mendez said Tuesday she was angered by Paterson's remarks and the implication that those who did not show enough party loyalty would be punished.

"That really incensed me," she said.

"It is likely that Sen. Mendez would not have been re-elected to her leadership position as chair of the Democratic conference," Paterson said in a statement Tuesday. "So I completely understand her decision to switch party affiliation. In the past, Sen. Mendez has distinguished herself as an independent Democrat. I hope that as a Republican she will be able to maintain her independence."

Paterson said he and his Democratic colleagues will decide whether Kruger should be punished, not for backing Pataki, but for endorsing the Republican opponent of Democratic incumbent Sen. Vincent Gentile. Gentile lost.

Mendez was joined at the Women's National Republican Club news conference by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whom she endorsed last year, and Pataki. The governor called Mendez a maverick who "has always done what she has believed is right."

Mendez will lose an added stipend, known informally as a "lulu" in Albany, for holding a leadership position in the Legislature. The Democratic conference chair gets an extra $16,500 a year above legislators' regular annual salary of $79,500.

The Senate's Republican majority has helped bolster its advantage over Democrats by wooing Democrats. In 1998, a Syracuse-area senator, Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, switched to the Republican side of the chamber. In 2002, Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada of the Bronx said he was switching to the GOP, but he never filed a change of enrollment card and ended up losing his bid for re-election this year to Democrat Ruben Diaz.

Also taking a Rochester-area seat in January will be Joseph Robach, a Democratic state assemblyman who ran as a Republican to capture the Senate seat given up by Democrat Richard Dollinger. Robach will join the GOP majority in the Senate.

Paterson was chosen as minority leader by Senate Democrats in the wake of the November elections. He will replace Martin Connor of Brooklyn.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002

Answers

Geez, with Paterson's attitude, I would expect to them to lose more democrats to the Republicans.

"It is likely that Sen. Mendez would not have been re-elected to her leadership position as chair of the Democratic conference," Paterson said in a statement Tuesday. "So I completely understand her decision to switch party affiliation."

Sounds like MAJOR sour grapes to me.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002


Paterson needs a timeout.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

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