SHOCKING: Assembly Democrats Support Speaker Over Settlement

New York Times: ALBANY — Assembly Democrats rallied around Speaker Sheldon Silver on Thursday, as he faced an inquiry into his handling of sexual harassment allegations made against a prominent lawmaker and continued attacks from a lawyer who represented some of the women.

Mike Groll/Associated Press

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in 2011; Vito J. Lopez is at top right.

He has already said he will give up his role as the borough’s Democratic Party leader. But even a longtime ally thought likely to succeed Mr. Lopez as chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Frank R. Seddio, said it was time for Mr. Lopez to resign after new descriptions of sexual language and harassment in his office.

In one indication of his precarious position, Mr. Lopez has not been calling around to other Assembly members to gauge his level of support — something he would surely do if he were maneuvering to stay, said one member who is close to him.

For Mr. Silver, the fallout from the scandal continues. For 18 years, he has led the State Assembly, and presided as the Legislature’s most powerful Democrat. But he now faces an investigation by the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is controlled by appointees and allies of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a fellow Democrat with whom he has had an uneasy relationship. Last year, state lawmakers approved the governor’s plan to expand the jurisdiction of the ethics commission to encompass the Legislature; the investigation of Mr. Silver’s office represents a largely unprecedented incursion by the executive branch into his chamber.

Member Items Include Fancy Cigars and A Prison Sentence

Incumbents typically use state subsidized literature as campaign material. This is an all too common practice.

Did former state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez charges of mail fraud somehow relfective of this unethical practice?

Whether it's an overpriced bagel, a private cigar company, or lining the pockets of a lobbyist, corruption is the order of the day in local politics.

The former senator, Efraín González Jr., once one of the longest-serving Democrats in the State Senate, was indicted in 2006 on charges that he had routed state grants known as “member items” to nonprofit groups in the Bronx, including one that he founded, and then used some of the money for personal expenses. Mr. González was defeated for re-election last fall by Pedro Espada Jr.

Mr. González’s indictment was part of a flurry of public corruption cases in Albany linked to the member-item system, which allows lawmakers to dole out tens of millions of dollars a year to favored community groups, until recently with little oversight.

One former state assemblyman, Brian M. McLaughlin, also a Democrat, pleaded guilty last year to charges that he skimmed money from a Queens community group to which he had directed grants over the years. He is awaiting sentencing. In January, Joseph L. Bruno, the former Republican leader in the State Senate, was indicted on charges that he took millions of dollars from companies seeking business from the state, part of a long-running federal investigation originally rooted in state grants he steered to a technology firm in his district. Mr. Bruno is fighting the charges.

On Friday, Mr. González pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of conspiracy connected to the personal expenses, which also included financing a private cigar company, membership fees in a vacation club in the Dominican Republic and college tuition for his daughter.

Five other charges against him in the indictment — including money laundering, fraud and the abuse of his office — were dropped by prosecutors, meaning that he is likely to face a significantly shorter sentence than he may otherwise have.