Camden: Democrats in state Senate need to work on addition

When the session dawned, the coalition held a 25-24 edge. With Dansel gone and Ericksen encamped in Washington, D.C., the numbers for any kind of controversial legislative action are 23-24.

There was a running debate about whether the Senate was tied or had a majority of one party or the other. Republican officials in Northeast Washington, Dansel’s old district, are expected to bring that number up one with his replacement. (Editor’s note: State Rep. Shelly Short, a Republican from Addy, was appointed to the Senate on Monday to replace Dansel.)

The Senate has a provision that allows the lieutenant governor to vote to break a tie, and that would seem to favor the Democrats because Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib is a Democrat who came from the Senate ranks. But in order for Habib to vote, there must be a 24-24 tie, and should the prospect of that loom, a single Republican need only be absent from the hallowed chamber, and voila, it is 24-23.

Math is hard

Math lessons forced an interminably long day Friday, which was scheduled to be a “pro forma” session. That’s a fancy term for a legislative quickie, where nothing important happens and no more than one person need show up.

But on Friday, all 24 Democrats showed up on the floor, with a lone Republican, Floor Leader Joe Fain, of Auburn, on the other. Rather than doing mostly nothing, Democrats wanted to push a bill to the floor that would give the state’s school districts a one-year reprieve from an impending reduction in their taxing authority. This “levy cliff” delay had passed the House earlier in the week.

Fain objected to doing anything but adjourning after a few routine procedures: “There are no votes in a pro forma session.”

Democrats then offered a motion to change the rules and make it not a pro forma session. That’s not the way the system works, Fain argued, and is messing with tradition and pushing the Senate to the edge of a cliff. (Note: This is a hyperbolic cliff, unlike the levy cliff, which is merely a figurative financial structure.)

Habib called a recess to study precedent.

For several hours, Habib researched and senators negotiated. By midafternoon, Habib announced that the kind of motion Democrats wanted would take 25 votes, not just a majority of the senators present. As they were mounting another parliamentary attack, Fain noticed one Democrat was missing, bringing the headcount down to 24. There must be at least 25 to conduct any business, and when senators had to stand up and be counted, Habib ruled there wasn’t a quorum, forcing an adjournment.

Democrats claimed a symbolic victory, contending the daylong parliamentary battle highlighted the importance of addressing the levy cliff, and suggested Republicans released their big school improvement plan because of the threat of their maneuvers.

That may be true, but the real lesson of the day is that to succeed, Democrats will need to work on their addition skills, because Republicans can rely on subtraction.