Παραιτήθηκε από την ηγεσία των Ρεπουμπλικανών ο Σκέλος/ Dean G. Skelos’s resignation
OΛΜΠΑΝΙ. Ο ομογενής Ντιν Σκέλος παραιτήθηκε προχθές από επικεφαλής της πλειοψηφίας στην πολιτειακή Γερουσία της Νέας Υόρκης, υπό το βάρος των κατηγοριών που αντιμετωπίζει για διαφθορά.
The capital was thrown into familiar tumult on Monday as yet another of the state’s leaders fell from grace: Dean G. Skelos, the majority leader of the New York State Senate, stepped down from his leadership post.
The announcement followed a week of escalating pressure on Senator Skelos, who sought to stay on as the chamber’s leader despite his arrest last week on federal corruption charges. To succeed him, Republicans selected John J. Flanagan, who, like Mr. Skelos, is from Long Island.
“It was the right decision to step aside,” Mr. Skelos said, adding, “I was a distraction.”
His downfall adds a chapter to what has already been a difficult year in Albany. In a span of only 16 weeks, the leaders of both legislative chambers have been arrested and replaced as a result of separate corruption cases, a head-spinning change in a capital known for its inertia
Mr. Skelos’s decision on Monday came after his counterpart atop the State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, was forced to give up his post as speaker after his own arrest on federal corruption charges in January. In a similar series of events, Assembly Democrats first rallied around Mr. Silver, before deciding days later, amid calls for his ouster, that he could no longer continue as speaker.
Dean G. Skelos, at the State Capitol on Monday, said, “I think I was somewhat of a distraction.”
CreditNathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
The recent arrests unavoidably place a focus on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who, with Mr. Silver and Mr. Skelos, had comprised Albany’s “three men in a room,” a reference to the capital’s traditional decision-making process. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is the last man standing.
His relative experience compared with the new legislative leaders, Mr. Flanagan and Speaker Carl E. Heastie, could give him an upper hand in negotiations.
But the “three men” culture has also been criticized by many, including Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office brought the cases against both Mr. Silver and Mr. Skelos.
Mr. Bharara has been waging a public campaign against corruption in Albany, and his efforts appear to have gained momentum since his office took over the files of the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel that Mr. Cuomo created in 2013 and then shut down last year. Mr. Bharara also began a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the panel’s closing.
As Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver await their trials, they are in good company. A former leader of the Senate Democrats, John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, is awaiting his own trial on federal charges. Just last week, Assemblyman William Scarborough, a Democrat, pleaded guilty to federal and state corruption charges and gave up his seat in Queens.
And Mr. Skelos’s second-in-command, Senator Thomas W. Libous, whose district includes Binghamton, was indicted last year on accusations that he lied to federal authorities in a corruption investigation. (Mr. Flanagan said he would keep Mr. Libous in that post.)
Standing in the hallway outside the Senate Republicans’ conference room, Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizen Action of New York, a liberal advocacy group that supports campaign finance reform, said New York was experiencing “a statewide governmental crisis.”
“We just need to all wake up to that,” Ms. Scharff said, “and I think voters are waking up to it ahead of our elected leaders and are going to demand change.”
Mr. Skelos’s decision to step down as majority leader came as the Senate Republicans held a closed-door meeting on Monday, which he had not been expected to survive. He had been his party’s leader in the Senate since 2008.
Mr. Skelos, 67, who will keep his seat, preferred Mr. Flanagan, 54, over the other candidate, Senator John A. DeFrancisco, 68, from Syracuse, who is chairman of the Finance Committee. Mr. Flanagan and Mr. DeFrancisco shared a frozen pizza on Sunday night; Mr. DeFrancisco described the meeting as cordial.
The choice of Mr. Flanagan, who is from Suffolk County and has led the Education Committee, preserves the clout of the bloc of nine Republican senators who represent that region in the Senate.
Mr. Skelos is accused of using his influence to extort payments for his son, Adam B. Skelos, who was also arrested last week. The senator has said he is innocent of the charges against him. But he said on Monday that he had decided to step down after an “obnoxious” news photographer went into his son’s backyard last week, and his 2-year-old grandson fell and split his lip.
“I said: ‘You know what? It’s not worth it,’ ” Mr. Skelos told reporters after a brief Senate session during which Mr. Flanagan was sworn in. He added a second motivation for his decision, pertaining not to his family, but to his Senate colleagues: “Quite frankly, I think I was somewhat of a distraction.”
The change in leadership occurs as the end of the current legislative session, scheduled for mid-June, approaches. A number of important public policy matters have yet to be addressed, including the future of rent regulations and and a tax exemption program for new residential developments.
Mr. Flanagan will also have to contend with the cloud of corruption that seems fixed above the Capitol, even as Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers have made several attempts at ethics reforms in recent years.
For one thing, lawmakers are allowed to hold part-time jobs, and a number of them work as lawyers, an arrangement that has prompted concerns about possible conflicts of interest. Mr. Flanagan, himself a lawyer, said he had resigned from his firm, though he said his decision to do so was driven by the demands of his new job.
Asked about Albany’s seemingly intractable corruption problem, Mr. Flanagan said he wanted to bring more light to the business of government, though he did not mention any specific reforms he plans to champion.
“I think it is extraordinarily important that people be able to have faith in their government,” he said. “And I want to work to the largest extent possible to help effectuate that.”
Mr. Skelos’s decision to step down avoided what could have been a messy parliamentary squabble, since Democrats were again planning to seek his removal on the floor of the Senate, after an unsuccessful attempt last week.
Mr. Flanagan was formally elected as the Senate’s leader on Monday afternoon. Before the vote, he roamed around the Senate chamber shaking hands and accepting congratulations while photographers captured the moment. Mr. Skelos sat quietly in his seat.
The minister who delivered the invocation asked that the Senate be able to “move forward from the corruption and the problems of the past.”
After Mr. Flanagan took his oath of office, he and Mr. Skelos embraced. In remarks from the Senate floor, the new leader paid tribute to his predecessor.
“I want to thank Senator Skelos for decades of public service,” he said. “This gentleman has devoted his entire adult life to the service of the people of the state of New York. He’s done a fantastic job.”
Mr. Flanagan added that Mr. Skelos’s life had come “full circle” because he was now a grandparent. He recalled Mr. Skelos’s eagerness to show off photos of his grandchildren. (The criminal case against Mr. Skelos focuses on what prosecutors said was his desire to find income for his son.)
“It’s all about his family, and rightfully so,” Mr. Flanagan said, “and that’s something I respect and admire.”
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