New Dem challenge

Face Senate seat loss as member runs for Council

ALBANY — As the war between the fractured Democrats in the state Senate rages on, the mainline Dems could lose another member this week — though not to a rival faction. Harlem Democrat Sen. Bill Perkins (photo inset) is the favorite to win a City Council special election Tuesday. If he’s victorious, he’ll immediately resign his Senate seat, leaving the mainline Dems with 22 members in the 63-member chamber heading into budget season.

More importantly, it would mean even if all nine breakaway Senate Democrats who are aligned with the Republicans had rejoined the fold — as progressives demand — the Dems would be a vote shy of holding the majority for at least a few months.

And the Senate would be thrown into chaos since neither party could muster a majority.

The earliest the Democrat-safe Perkins’ seat could legally be filled would be mid-April, which is several weeks past the budget deadline. But Gov. Cuomo, who has an icy relationship with the mainstream Senate Dems, is under no obligation to order a special election.

With previous vacancies, he sometimes waited months or didn’t call one at all. If he doesn’t set a date, Perkins’ seat would remain unfilled until the November elections. Perkins is running for the Council seat vacated by Inez Dickens, who won election to the Assembly.

The intrigue comes as tensions between the traditional Democrats and the eight-member renegade Independent Democratic Conference have hit a boiling point. A ninth Dem, Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, actually caucuses with the Republicans. He recently was quoted as saying he’d consider switching sides if the Independent Democratic Conference also went back.

The tensions were inflamed by the election of President Trump and bubbled over after veteran Sen. Jose Peralta (DQueens) recently defected to the conference.

Conference member Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) said after Peralta’s move, she got a call from Senate Deputy Minority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) seeking a commitment that her group would not poach any more members.

“I said the bigger problem for you, my friend, is you need to figure out why your members are unhappy,” Savino said.

Senate Democratic spokesman Michael Murphy said Gianaris’ point was that the Independent Democratic Conference should stop fighting fellow Dems because it only helps prop up the Republicans at a time when the party should be unified in fighting against Trump’s agenda.

Hundreds of people recently turned out to protest Peralta’s defection, and Queens Democrats have raised the specter of finding a primary challenger to run against him in 2018.

Progressives have also taken aim at new conference members Jesse Hamilton of Brooklyn and Marisol Alcantara of upper Manhattan. A protest rally against Sen. Tony Avella of Queens is scheduled for later this week. “These rogue Democrats are empowering Trump Republicans and holding up progress in New York,” Murphy said.

“It’s not surprising that people in their communities are sending a loud message that they will not stand for this chicanery.”

Conference members say that by working with the GOP, they are in a position to not only stop anti-immigration and other Trump initiatives, but also push through progressive legislation.

They argue there aren’t enough Democratic votes in the Senate to pass bills to strengthen the state’s abortion rights laws or make New York a sanctuary state for immigrants.

They say the mainstream Dems are angry that they didn’t win enough races and recently lost two members to the conference.

Savino says the party could unify if the Senate Democrats dumped their leadership and put conference head Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx in charge. “These people are not our enemies,” Savino said. “We’re not at war. They lost. They didn’t win enough seats. They know that. That’s life.”