New York State Capitol

So the Albany soap opera has come to a close. Crystal and Alexis will live to catfight another day. Serena and Blair will return in the fall. And Malcolm and Pedro will assuredly be ready for more battles next session. In the meantime let’s figure out the winners and losers from the month of madness.

Losers

We’ll start with the losers because it’s easier.

Republicans

Already in a deep state of disarray and on the wrong end of the demographic pendulum, New York Republicans came thisclose to pulling off a miracle. The problem is they had to consort with a criminal (OK not a convicted criminal but still) to get there and surprise surprise he stabbed them in the back. The GOP gets no credit for trying to fix Albany and ends up with no more power than when this all started. Ouch.

Senate Democrats

It was clear when they won control last November that these guys (and gals) were waaaay out of their league. Having spent their entire careers in the minority where they had been paid to do virtually nothing (since they had no power and no real function), they ascended to the leadership without any idea how to run the place. Nothing that has happened in the last 30 days will convince anyone otherwise. Indeed now everyone knows what reporters and Albany insiders knew nine months ago.

Mike Bloomberg

This may not seem so obvious because Bloomberg kvetched about the problem plenty, echoing the sentiments of most New Yorkers. Nonetheless in having to fight for school control and the ability to raise taxes, Bloomberg was forced to draw attention to two things that may not help him much in his reelection effort. Then again he’s gonna spend $100 million bucks against a guy no one knows is even running.

Tom Golisano

Having first helped produce the Democratic win in November and then having prodded the deserting Dems into action, billionaire Floridian (nee Rochesterite) Tom Golisano has proven he can play the puppetmaster — he’s just not very good at it. Golisano wants reform but nothing he has precipitated is likely to produce lasting change. I would LOVE to stand corrected on this one.

New Yorkers

We made California look good. New Yorkers got the government they deserve. By reelecting their State Senators and Assembly members year after year New Yorkers have, like many Americans, cast aside their responsibility to elect officials who will work in the best interest of his or her constituents. Now no one can argue they don’t know what the result of this has been. New Yorkers got screwed to be sure, but honestly, don’t we deserve it?

Winners

David Paterson

The only winner here is, oddly, Governor David Paterson. Sure there will be arguments that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will benefit in his quiet attempt to be the right Democrat for Governor in 2010 but where’s the evidence? His limited contribution was to declare that Paterson couldn’t appoint a Lieutenant Governor. Most New Yorkers will think that makes Cuomo part of the problem.

Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver might also be deemed a winner but he was already the most powerful guy in Albany before the chaos and he remains so today. And don’t talk to us about Pedro Espada. Yes he is now Majority Leader. No, it won’t keep him from being indicted.

The only person who gets any bump out of this is Paterson who made the right noises and, with his Lt. Governor move, will be perceived by the public to have created the spark that made this problem go away. That being said, winning in this case is a relative thing. Paterson had no where to go but up.