Parsing the primary

Weeks of campaigning, heavy press coverage and a heated debate in Brooklyn culminated in a presidential primary with no surprises (though there was plenty of confusion among voters here). Hillary Clinton decisively defeated U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race and Donald Trump pummeled the competition on April 19, when detailed results came out after that week’s issue of The Press had gone to print.

Numbers here mirrored those in the rest of the city. Ms. Clinton won the 81st Assembly district, which covers Riverdale and Kingsbridge, by 10,502 to 6,047 votes, or roughly two to one, according to the Board of Elections in the City of New York (BOE). The small number of northwest Bronx Republicans voted heavily in favor of Mr. Trump, who received 892 votes. John Kasich won 352 votes and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, 309.

Mr. Sanders won more votes in the 81st district than any other part of the Bronx. That suggests this neighborhood is the most liberal part of the borough — or at least most sympathetic to underdogs. Recall that Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein trounced former Councilman Oliver Koppell, who launched an idealistic primary challenge in 2014, everywhere but in the 81st district.

The Kaminsky question

In addition to the presidential primary, voters on Long Island elected the successor to Republican Dean Skelos, the former state Senate majority leader who last year resigned amid corruption charges for which he currently is awaiting sentencing.

Unofficial BOE results showed Democrat Todd Kaminsky with several hundred more votes than Republican Chris McGrath, who has not conceded the race.

Mr. Kaminsky has some strong local ties: he was one of the federal lawyers who prosecuted former Bronx state Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. in 2010.

If and when Mr. Kaminsky’s victory becomes official, it presents a small but significant change to the balance of power in the state Senate.

When Mr. Skelos stepped down, there were 30 Democrats and 31 Republicans — but five of the former, led by Mr. Klein, have allied with the Republicans for the past several years. Additionally, there’s Brooklyn state Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat who votes with the Republicans.

After the special election for the Long Island seat, Mr. Felder was quick to announce he will stay on the Republican side. So even counting Mr. Kaminsky and Mr. Klein’s group of breakaway Democrats, that leaves the Democrats with 31 members and the Republicans with 31 plus Mr. Felder.

Thus the math is on the Republican’s side, at least until November, when a general election could shift the balance in the Democrats’ favor.

Democrats including Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who defeated Mr. Espada in a 2010 primary, are considering Mr. Kaminsky the winner. Mr. Rivera said the outcome will “change the narrative, change the momentum.”

“The narrative that Republicans have been pushing forever is the reason we don’t want to go back to a Democratic majority is because we don’t want to go back to that debacle,” the senator said, in reference to a period starting in 2009 when Mr. Espada and another state senator jumped back and forth between the Democratic and Republican sides, prompting a crisis over who was in control.

“We are a completely different conference. We are all very much of one mind here,” Mr. Rivera said.

Unless the Democrats win a large number of seats in the fall, they will need Mr. Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference to form a majority.

From 2011 to the end of 2014, Mr. Klein and the IDC enabled the Republicans to form a majority, giving Mr. Klein the title “co-majority leader” and access to millions of dollars in discretionary spending. When the Republicans won an outright majority of seats in fall 2014, Mr. Klein was relegated to “co-coalition leader.”

What does that title currently mean, and how would things change if the Republicans stand to become the minority after the next general election?

Mainstream Democrats did not directly address the former question. But Mr. Rivera, northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, and Senate Democratic Conference spokesman Mike Murphy all said they want regular Dems and the IDC to be reunited for the next session.

Mr. Klein did not answer an interview request for this article.

Asked whether he wants Mr. Klein to end his coalition with the Republicans, Mr. Murphy said, “We think Democrats should always work together and we hope that happens. 

“Our leader, [state Sen.] Andrea Stewart-Cousins, has a good relationship with Senator Klein and they’ve talked,” he continued. “We’ve made our position known. We hope that going forward, something can be worked out. We share so many of the same values that it’s good for everyone if we’re working together.”

Mr. Murphy then rattled off a list of Republican seats throughout the state that Democrats are targeting — Martin Golden’s in Brooklyn, Carl Marcellino’s on Long Island, Terrence Murphy’s in Putnam County and more.

Mainstream Democrats were furious when Mr. Klein broke a campaign promise to return to the fold after the 2014 election. But it sounds like they would welcome him back if he can help them create a majority in 2016.

Now he’s sorry

First he said he would beat the charges. Then his attorney claimed he was just doing business as usual for Albany. Now that former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is facing sentencing for receiving millions of dollars in illegal payments, he has issued an apology.

“I failed the people of New York. There is no question about it,” Mr. Silver wrote federal judge Valerie Caprioni on April 14. “Because of me, the government has been ridiculed. I let my peers down, I let the people of the State down, and I let down my constituents.”

Assembly members who followed the Manhattan pol’s decades-long lead largely have been silent about Mr. Silver’s apparent change in tone. Most, including Mr. Dinowitz, emphasized the need for due process and Mr. Silver’s record of service up until the conviction arrived in December.

In a phone interview, Mr. Dinowitz weighed in on the man who has led the Assembly almost since the northwest Bronx official took office in 1994.

“He’s convicted of serious crimes and people who are convicted of serious crimes have got to do the time,” he said. “I happen to think that the things he did were terrible. Whether some of those things were criminal offenses, that’s not for me to say. It appeared to me that there are too many things that may or may not be criminal, but should be.

“He’s going to be appealing. I assume he had to take that into account when he apologized,” Mr. Dinowitz added.