Albany’s new king of swing (vote)

The son of a Brooklyn rabbi has become the unlikely political kingmaker of Albany.

Simcha Felder, a rebel conservative Democrat from South Brooklyn, is all that’s standing in the way of Democrats regaining control of the state Senate for the first time since 2010.

Democrats have 32 of the 63 seats after two victories in Tuesday’s special elections, but one seat belongs to Felder — and he won’t abandon the Republicans with whom he has caucused since 2012.

He told The Post it was a gutwrenching decision.

“I wasn’t flippant about this. It affects many people’s lives. I take that seriously,” said Felder.

An ordained rabbi himself, the 59-year-old lawmaker said some Old Testament values guided his thinking.

“One of my characteristics is I don’t forget people who were good to me. I have a very good, long memory,” he said.

And the Republicans have been very good to Felder, showering his district with funding and services.

As the swing vote in an election year, Felder is being importuned by the state’s top Democrat — Gov. Cuomo — to return to the fold.

In an open letter, the governor told his Democratic colleague he needs him back because “these are no ordinary times.”

Cuomo insisted he’s not trying to bully Felder, who is very popular in his heavily Jewish district that includes Borough Park, Midwood and Flatbush.

“I’m not a pressure kind of guy,” Cuomo said to laughs from reporters, who know him to be a political arm-twister without compare.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, for whom Felder served as an aide for a decade, said Cuomo’s letter was intended only for show.

“It’s only to satisfy the criticism from the left,” Hikind said.

“If the governor had a relation- ship with Simcha, he’d pick up the phone.”

Politicos in the city and Albany who know Felder praise him as a “people person” and a “mensch” with a wry, Seinfeldian sense of humor.

He obtained a graduate education in politics at Hikind’s side and now Felder has outdone his tutor.

“My hat goes off to him — or my yarmulke,” quipped Hikind.

Felder, a CPA, was elected to the City Council in 2002 and served for eight years. He joined the state Senate in 2012.

While in the council, Felder found himself in the middle of a leadership fight.

During a roll-call vote on electing a new council speaker, Felder ducked out.

He said he believed that Christine Quinn was the most qualified candidate, but because of his religious beliefs, he couldn’t vote for an openly gay candidate.

But — in a Solomonic solution — neither did he vote for her chief rival, Bill de Blasio.

My hat goes off to him — or my yarmulke. — Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, the political mentor to state Sen. Simcha Felder (right), who now holds a powerful swing vote in Albany