The following article was sent out by the Institute for Latino Policy. We thought we should share it with our readers as well.
Latino-Black Rivalry Helped Fuel G.O.P.’s Takeover of State Senate
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM
New York Times (June 10, 2009)
ALBANY – When two Democratic state senators, Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate, joined Republicans on the Senate floor Monday to kick off their surprise takeover of the chamber, almost every other Democratic senator in the room walked out in anger, shock or disgust.
But as Mr. Espada stood to be sworn in as the new president of the Senate, several other Latino lawmakers, all members of the Assembly, filed into the room and stood behind him, beaming like proud parents.
“There are over two million Latinos in the State of New York; they are looking to be included in a partnership,” Assemblyman José Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, said later. “I don’t know if that’s going to last, but yeah, it’s a proud moment – a Latino making waves.”
Lurking just underneath the partisan battle that broke out this week is an uglier, longer-running rift within the Democratic Party. For years, Latino lawmakers have resented playing junior partner to the state’s powerful black establishment, which has supplied New York with a mayor for its largest city, a governor, and, last winter, the first black Senate majority leader: Malcolm A. Smith, who held that post until Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate defected this week.
Now, while other Democrats have denounced Mr. Espada as a crook and a turncoat, some Latino lawmakers view his ascension as a rightful and long-overdue assertion of their growing power and influence in state politics.
“If you were to poll the Latino members of the Legislature, you’d get a rah-rah response,” said Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera, who is also from the Bronx (but is not related to his colleague José Rivera). “There are a whole bunch of Latino officials who are concerned about representation.”
Because black lawmakers have worked together as a unified bloc within the Legislature, they have been well represented among the leadership in both the Senate and the Assembly. They have long dominated the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which has elected only one Hispanic chairman since it was founded in the 1960s.
In the Senate, black lawmakers’ unity was key to the election of Mr. Smith, first as the Senate minority leader and then as the majority leader – a position he gained in December only after promising perks and titles to Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate in exchange for their votes.
Latino lawmakers, meanwhile, have long complained of being shut out of top positions. They were angry that no Hispanic candidate was put forward when a vacancy opened up on the State Court of Appeals earlier this year, and even angrier when Gov. David A. Paterson did not appoint a Hispanic to the United States Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton this year.
“There is a black and Latino alliance that at times has been tenuous and at times has been robust,” said Hakeem Jeffries, a black assemblyman from Brooklyn. “This could make it more tenuous.”
Perhaps mindful of these divisions, Mr. Espada has conspicuously wrapped himself in the garb of Latino empowerment, speaking of his new position as a victory for the broader community. Other Democrats, however, note that before defecting, Mr. Espada had demanded from Senate Democrats – and been denied – extra staff members, expensive office space and potentially illegal pork-barrel spending. And on Wednesday, as a group of Senate Democrats negotiated with Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate to come back to the Democratic fold, a sticking point, according to people familiar with the discussions, was whether a black senator would remain the majority leader.
“You’re seeing the ugliest side of identity politics,” said one Democratic lawmaker, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of fears that he could anger his colleagues. “In the name of community liberation, people are negotiating for better jobs for themselves or their children.”
Some Latino lawmakers bristled Wednesday when the Rev. Al Sharpton, an ally of Mr. Smith and Mr. Paterson, organized a demonstration in Mr. Monserrate’s Queens district to pressure him to rejoin the Democratic caucus, though Mr. Monserrate and Mr. Espada remain Democrats. Mr. Sharpton, accompanied by black and Hispanic lawmakers from Queens, said Democrats “cannot to afford to break the coalition” between the two groups.
Viewing Mr. Sharpton’s comments as presumptuous, Assemblyman Peter Rivera said, “It’s kind of disappointing to see race being used to toe the line.”
The divide is not as simple as black and brown, however. Those Latino lawmakers praising Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate are mostly fellow Puerto Ricans. Nearly all represent powerful Bronx political dynasties that have dominated Hispanic politics for years but have recently lost ground to elected officials of other Latino backgrounds, most prominently Dominican.
Those changes have been mirrored, in part, in the evolving name of the minority caucus, once known merely as the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus. That shift has also been reflected in voting patterns. Where once Puerto Ricans represented an overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters in New York City, migration from Mexico and South America has steadily diminished their clout.
Today, according to census figures, Puerto Ricans represent only about half of registered Hispanic voters in the city. Some Hispanic lawmakers from other backgrounds questioned whether Mr. Espada’s alliance with Republicans was aimed at empowering Latinos.
“Latino empowerment is empty if it does not contain an agenda to move us forward,” said Assemblyman José R. Peralta, a Queens Democrat of Dominican descent. “There are going to be some individuals who are trying to galvanize this as a lightning rod to mobilize people, when what they are really after is personal power.”
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting from New York.
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