Who’s put in their $2 chance for a chance at the $550 million-plus Powerball jackpot? That total is before taxes, but it would still be quite a fun challenge to spend the rest. What would you do? The odds are 1 in 175,223,510, according to Powerball, so get planning. What’s the first thing you’d do? Tweet your Powerball spending spree plans to @LoHud with the hashtag #LoHudPowerball.
Meanwhile, speaking of power, the back-and-forth over just how the state Senate Independent Democratic Conference — led by Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who represents Yonkers and the Bronx, and including Rockland’s Sen. David Carlucci — will proceed for 2013. With two seats too close to call after November’s elections — the 41st, which will include part of Putnam, and the 46th — the four-member IDC could determine which party takes control of the chamber. Klein’s talk about a ‘coalition government’ hints at giving the GOP more support, rather than his own Democratic Party. The IDC has mostly sided with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, rather than a particular party, on big issues.
Klein gave his perspective in a Community View for LoHud.
On their record, Klein said:
By sticking to our principles, we helped move New York forward by passing historic and progressive legislation that had been stalled, held hostage, and buried over the two years prior. We attribute our success to each member’s commitment to putting policy above politics. Our record in the legislature speaks for itself: in just 23 months, the IDC passed more than a hundred bills through New York’s byzantine legislature.
On the future, Klein said:
Make no mistake; the IDC is a permanent third conference in the New York state Senate. We are committed to our vision of bipartisan governance that places progress above politicking. We believe that hyper-partisanship serves no one except those who dig in their heels to defend it. … For that reason, coalition government may be the model whose time has finally come.
Read the Community View here.