There are few people in New York politics I enjoy speaking with more than former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. Which works out well for both of us, because there are few people who enjoy talking more than former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.
If this makes him sound like he loves attention, well — he does. But as I wrote in a 2009 column that marked the beginning of my interaction with him, we're talking about a politician first elected to public office — as a Westchester County Democrat — three decades ago, "so calling him a bit of a grandstander is sort of like accusing him of inhaling oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide."
This is not to suggest that Brodsky is a blowhard. He's a cogent observer of state government, and a sage river guide to the various tributaries that carry taxpayer money to every corner of the state's fiscal ecosystem, from municipalities to black-box authorities. He's a regular contributor to this paper's opinion section, in conjunction with his new gig as a senior fellow at the progressive public policy think tank Demos.
Brodsky was back in the news last week after reporters learned he had lunched with Sen. Jeff Klein, leader of the Senate's Independent Democratic Conference, and that the conversation had turned to what Brodsky had on his calendar for the 2014 election cycle.
"He said to me, 'Why don't you run for the Senate?,'" Brodsky told me on Friday. "And I said, 'I'm not interested.' And we moved on."
Brodsky's hopes and dreams aside, another roadblock to his candidacy is that it would require him to run against Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who leads the Senate's mainline Democratic conference.
After several quiet weeks in which state politics was dominated by the New York City elections, reports of the Klein-Brodsky summit marked a delicious resumption of saber-rattling between the IDC and the regular Democrats. Furious after the IDC's decision to form a majority coalition with the Senate's Republicans, the mainline Dems and their supporters — especially reproductive rights groups — have threatened to support candidates against the four breakaway lawmakers.
Of course, two conferences can play at that game — although so far neither one is playing it very well.
In 2012, Klein attempted to boost the primary prospects of Albany County legislator Shawn Morse against state Sen. Neil Breslin, the Bethlehem Democrat who had said ungenerous things about Klein in the wake of the IDC's 2011 schism. Morse ended up getting beaten like the proverbial rented mule.
I'd hate to see that happen to Brodsky. Would he really want to be the guy who attempts to knock out the first woman in New York history to lead a state legislative conference?
"I have no interest in primarying anybody for anything," Brodsky said.
That goes further than his previous statements to the press, but still falls short of Gen. William T. Sherman's 1884 "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve" — still the gold standard for public figures who genuinely have zero interest in running for office.
Brodsky's present-tense expressions could, of course, end up like Andrew Cuomo's public statements about his lack of interest in running for governor prior to May 22, 2010, when he announced his candidacy via online video.
Did the U.S. military, prior to Pearl Harbor, have any interest in fighting its way across Okinawa? Hell no — but circumstances change and duty calls.
For an example of just how rapidly the landscape can shift in New York politics, consider that two former Senate Democratic leaders, John Sampson and Malcolm Smith, have been charged with corruption by federal investigators — or three, if you count the Potemkin majority leadership of Pedro Espada Jr.
Now, nothing in my experience leads me to believe that Stewart-Cousins could face similar legal peril. So far, she has been a dignified voice for her often fractious conference: a class act. But who knows what might befall her in the days between now and the 2014 primaries?
And so Klein reached out to Brodsky, knowing full well that the former lawmaker would be psychologically unable to flatly refuse the offer. It's almost diabolical.
Brodsky told me that the whole thing is just Klein being a tummler — Yiddish for pot stirrer.
He's absolutely right. And he's absolutely the same type.
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619