ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Democrats resolved a longstanding internal rupture in the New York state Senate Wednesday that had empowered Republicans and prevented votes on liberal priorities including gun control, abortion rights and help for immigrants.
The agreement ends a seven-year feud between the IDC and mainline Democrats that allowed Republicans to hold on to the Senate, their last bastion in New York state government. It also relieves a big headache for Cuomo, who has been accused by liberals of exploiting the schism for political leverage.
Democrats already have a big majority in the state Assembly and hold the offices of governor, comptroller and attorney general. Control of the Senate, too, would ease the way for Democratic bills currently blocked by the GOP, including ones to increase firearm restrictions, allow early voting, authorize state financial aid to students who entered the country illegally as children, and extend the statute of limitations on child molestation to allow victims to sue for decades-old abuse.
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