Circus Promoter Tom Golisano

There’s big news about Tom Golisano.

The formerly upstate billionaire (he’s still got the money but he moved to Florida) is dating former tennis star Monica Seles. So reports Page Six. Oh, and the three-time candidate for New York Governor  just loves the circus. How else to explain his recent quarterbacking of the quasi-Republican coup in Albany?

Golisano has always been an odd bird in New York politics. In his three runs for Governor as an independent (94, 98, 02) he always seemed to have it out for Republican George Pataki (who won each time) even though they, at times, seemed to disagree about very little. Golisano’s reform mantle has really been a cover for lowering taxes in the state in which he built his successful payroll company. Nothing wrong with that.

So last fall Golisano put some of his money into Democratic State Senate candidates hoping to hitch a ride on the demographic train that spelled the inevitable end of decades-long Republican rule in Albany’s upper chamber, if not in 2008 than certainly in 2010. When the Dems did in fact win control of the Senate Golisano expected a hearing. Or at least a little courtesy.

Instead we’ve learned he got a fairly rude brush off from the newly-ensconced Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. Golisano says he was pissed after Smith spent an entire meeting with the billionaire fooling around with his Blackberry. Quel suprise!

Smith was incompetent on day one and, as numerous others have written in the last few days, he horribly misunderstood how to govern with a one-seat majority. So Golisano helped convince two Democratic Senators to back Republican Dean Skelos as the new Majority Leader and the coup was on. But if the G man seriously believes this will change anything he is more deluded than his mentor, Ross Perot.

First, the two Dems he lured to the team are both in serious legal trouble and may both end up sent packing before their terms end. Both Pedro Espada (under investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for using state funds for himself — a charge he went to trial on a few years back and won) and Hiram Monserrate (soon to go on trial for felony assault of his girlfriend) are hardly posterboys for reform. Indeed Espada has shown he will do almost anything to save his political skin. That’s what makes this next part pretty scary: As part of this deal, Espada becomes President Pro Tem of the Senate, meaning he will become Acting Governor the second David Paterson becomes incapacitated or even leaves the state. So now Paterson is a prisoner of New York. Could be worse. Let’s hope he doesn’t get an appendicitis though.

Of course everything is still in flux and it’s Albany so the only thing worth predicting is that this will all end in an unpredictable and highly entertaining way if you’re into dysfunction. And that’s what Golisano has bought for himself and the state he no longer calls home: Even more political dysfunction.

Smith was no leader but he was the Leader of the Senate and with only about a week left for the Senate, Assembly, and Governor to get a whole mess of really important stuff done, this chaos certainly does not serve the people of the Great State of New York. The Republicans agreed to Golisano’s demands for substantial reform in the way the Senate works which, if Skelos and Company really meant it, might actually be worth the turmoil. But Skelos? C’mon Tommy, don’t you listen to The Who? Try track the last track on Who’s Next. You might learn something.

The Senate Republicans proved over their 66 years of (almost) uninterrupted power (Dems were in “control” for nine months in 1965 due to redistricting-mandated multiple elections) to be as venal and corrupt as their Democratic opponents. It’s not for nothing that their former long-time Majority Leader Joe Bruno has been charged with 8 Federal corruption counts.

Golisano is clearly a savvier negotiator in business than in politics since any idiot realizes Republicans would have promised anything to get back in power. Keeping those promises is another story. And Golisano’s reform bona fides have always been a little suspect.

Last fall he promised to take on his fellow billionaire politician Mike Bloomberg over the Mayor’s extension of term limits (allowing MB to run for a third term) but then punted, spending chump change for a tepid last-minute “effort” that failed.

This time around Golisano has done little more than bankroll a new show for the Albany Circus Maximus. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his ringside seats before jetting back to his waterfront abode in Naples, Florida. As for the rest of us? Let ‘em eat popcorn.