The collapse of the Democratic Party continues. The trail of tax increases, broken promises, out right intimidation and incompetence that has characterized the past several months of total Democratic rule of state government led the collapse Monday of the Senate's Democratic majority.
Senate Democrats found themselves badly out maneuvered by Republicans and two Democratic defectors. After just five months, Republicans are back in control of the upper chamber, at least for now, and have dealt Democrats a major blow. Democrats made themselves ripe for a takeover thanks to incompetent leadership of the Senate, the plummeting ratings of Governor Paterson and a wildly unpopular state budget that raised taxes past the breaking point.
The loss of control of the Senate mirrors the rough times for Democrats in Rensselaer County. Democrats are facing a series of primaries and leadership challenges, weak selection of candidates and poor fundraising. The Senate leadership controversy and coup only reminds voters of the tough time Democrats have had leading the state.
Perhaps most importantly, Democrats failed to deliver on any meaningful promises of reform. Since winning back the governor's job in 2006, Democrats have seen their promise of good government undone by the Spitzer scandal and a string of tax increases and spending hikes. Monday provided the exclamation point to those failures.
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