Ynn | May 18, 2012 More campaign news from Sen. Mark Grisanti, who is arguably the Republicans’ most vulnerable member this fall, thanks to a confluence of factors that include his “yes” vote on same-sex marriage, his fist-fight at the Seneca Niagara Casino in February and the general craziness of Western New York politics. Grisanti [...]

NY Times | May 6, 2012 To many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, the cornucopia in the shops along Brighton Beach Avenue — pyramids of oranges, heaps of Kirby cucumbers, bushels of tomatoes with their vines still attached and a variety of fish, sausages and pastries — seems like an exuberant rebuke of the meager produce [...]

The Wall Street Journal | May 17, 2012 ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Senate has approved legislation proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to create a new state agency meant to better protect about a million New Yorkers with disabilities under state-funded care. The bill passed unanimously Wednesday would establish a special prosecutor and inspector [...]

News Day | May 17, 2012 A panel of federal judges has dismissed Democrats’ final attempt to undo a set of new election-district maps for the state Legislature. Among other things, Democrats claimed that Republican-drawn Senate maps discriminated against minorites. But they failed to convince a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Eastern [...]

The Wall Street Journal | May 16, 2012 BUFFALO, N.Y. — Voters in New York were quick to approve school budgets that didn’t raise property taxes beyond new limits set by the state, but far less supportive of the ones seeking to override the tax cap, preliminary results compiled Wednesday show. A count by the [...]

The March 20th special election for the State Senate in southeastern Brooklyn just got one big step closer to a resolution earlier today when over a hundred ballots that were alleged to be fraudulent by the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, were counted after a judge dismissed his lawsuit last week. The Republican candidate, David Storobin, [...]

Aubrun Citizen | May 14, 2012 Legislation sponsored by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio that would require state and county inmates in New York to pay medical co-payments has passed the New York State Senate. Nozzolio’s bill would require inmates to pay a $7 co-pay for medical treatment. While no inmate would be denied treatment if [...]

Albany Times Union | May 14th, 2012 ALBANY — The state Senate on Monday voted to approve a measure that would deny anyone arrested for the murder of their spouse from having control over the victim’s remains. The law would place the same prohibition on anyone who was subject to an order of protection filed [...]

NY1 | May 14th, 2012 Final absentee ballots were counted Monday, giving Republican David Storobin a lead of only 27 votes in the race to replace former State Senator Carl Kruger, but the city Board of Elections still needs to recount the more than 22,000 cast ballots by hand before it will declare a winner. [...]

Capital Tonight- YNN | May 10, 2012 The Senate Republican Campaign Committee sent out an appeal to supporters today blasting Senate Democrats’ support for pushing for a public financing system of political campaigns. From the letter: They’ve even hatched a new plan to use tax dollars to pay for their political campaigns. Why now? Because [...]

Politicker | May 8, 2012 One of the biggest question marks hanging over an insanely close March 20th special election to the State Senate in southeastern Brooklyn was 100+ absentee ballots the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, alleged to have been collected fraudulently. Today, however, the judge overseeing the case ruled in favor of the Republican [...]

Much of today’s media attention may be focusing on President Barack Obama’s visit to Albany, but Senate Republicans, who will be in session later in the day, took some time out to renew their longstanding call for tougher penalties and new laws against auto insurance fraud. That fraud can take several forms, including staged accidents [...]

WXXA-TV | May 6, 2012 Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos joined supporters to lobby for the Assembly to pass “Alice’s Bill.” 71-year-old Alice Ross died in 2003, when a suspect intentionally crashed into her car just to collect insurance money. The Senate already passed “Alice’s Bill,” which would make staging a crime a felony. Alice’s [...]

Times Union | May 3, 2012 New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, center, questions attorney Eric Hecker, representing petitioners from the Democratic Senate minority, standing, during a petition by that minority to challenge the constitutional validity of legislation reapportioning State Senate districts based on the 2010 federal census, which increases the [...]

Published: Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 3:00 AM     Updated: Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 3:01 AM http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2012/04/republicans_sought_primary_com.html To the Editor: New York State Senate As Senate majority leader, I am compelled to respond to a recent letter from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (”Thank Republicans for extra election,” Sunday). The speaker’s misleading and disingenuous letter instantly brought [...]