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| Hiram Monserrate, in the center of the storm and used to it (461672) | |||
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Hiram Monserrate, in the center of the storm and used to it |
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Posted by trainsarefun on Sat Jun 13 00:47:22 2009 Full story from NYT here.excerpt: June 13, 2009 At Center of Maelstrom, a Senator Used to Chaos By RAY RIVERA and DANNY HAKIM He is under indictment on charges of assaulting his companion. A nonprofit group he underwrote with city funds is under investigation. And his political ascent came after he retired from the New York Police Department on the ground that a psychological disability prevented him from doing the job. Yet through it all, State Senator Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, has maintained a durable popularity in the Corona and Elmhurst neighborhoods he represents, in part because of his attention to issues like immigration and tenants’ rights and in part because he retains an image as an independent outsider. The woman he is accused of slashing with a drinking glass told the police it was an accident, though a judge who viewed video purporting to show Mr. Monserrate dragging her from the apartment said it caused “the blood to boil.” Mr. Monserrate calls the prosecution a political witch hunt. He has portrayed his troubles with the Police Department as a civil rights issue caused in part by its scorn for his work as a leader of the Latino Officers Association. Ultimately, his popularity with voters in a largely Hispanic district was such that, even though he had often needled Queens Democratic leaders, they jettisoned one of their own to support him for a Senate seat. Now, in a moment that might happen only in Albany, Mr. Monserrate is the man of the hour, courted both by Republicans who once blasted him and by Democrats who question his motives as they fight for control of the Senate. .... [T]he fragile new coalition government’s efforts to restart the legislative session have been thwarted by Mr. Monserrate, who says he wants more time to lure more Democrats. “I am not a Republican, I am a Democrat,” he said, in a brief appearance in the Senate chamber on Thursday. “For us to be an effective bipartisan body, we need cooperation from both sides.” Since Democrats have largely given up on bringing back Mr. Espada, Mr. Monserrate has become the most important lawmaker in Albany, a situation confused by his mercurial style and infrequent pronouncements. State government will remain paralyzed until at least Monday, when a hearing may resume on a legal challenge filed by Democrats to block the Republican effort to wrest control. On Friday, a State Supreme Court justice told the parties to try to resolve their dispute over the weekend. The chaos is not unfamiliar territory to Mr. Monserrate, whose career has marched forward undeterred by the dustups that frequently swirl around him. .... Mr. Monserrate, 41, was already a political brawler when he ran for City Council in 2001, a Marine reservist whose district had seen influxes of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Colombia. Of Puerto Rican heritage, he appealed to the new landscape, and had a compelling back story, as the youngest of three children of a maintenance worker and a home health aide. As a police officer, Mr. Monserrate successfully sued the department, claiming it had created a hostile work environment for minority officers. He left the department after 12 years in 2000 on a psychological disability after filing a doctor’s report that said he suffered from anxiety and depression and post- traumatic stress disorder. On the Council, he was co-chairman of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus and chairman of the Veterans Committee. A 2001 voters’ guide listed him as a Persian Gulf war veteran, though military records indicate he never left the United States. An adviser said his service during the Persian Gulf war, when he was on active duty for 90 days, qualified him to use the designation. .... Investigators are now looking at how he and other council members doled out their discretionary money to nonprofit agencies, among them a Monserrate-financed group that, in a separate investigation, is also being looked at on allegations that it used city money to campaign for him, a charge he denies. Last year, city examiners were unable to audit the group because its books had disappeared. Mr. Monserrate was also, by many accounts, an effective Council member. In 2003, for example, he secured a compromise from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to maintain a longstanding policy prohibiting city employees from reporting illegal immigrants to the federal authorities. “Hiram has always been an absolute bulldog and champion of the underdog,” said Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist who has had Mr. Monserrate’s help in battling the mayor and Council on several issues. In Albany, Mr. Monserrate had been chairman of the Senate Consumer Protection Committee, but he was forced to step down by the Senate majority leader, Malcolm A. Smith, after his arrest on the assault charges, and lost the $12,500 stipend, which was paid on top of his $79,500 salary. Though Mr. Smith also held a fund-raiser for him, Mr. Monserrate’s relationship with him had soured in recent months, and Mr. Smith’s departure as a leader is clearly one of Mr. Monserrate’s goals in siding with the Republicans this week. .... Mr. Monserrate said Thursday he wanted only three things — new leadership, reforms in the Senate’s rules and a bipartisan approach to governing. But there was concern in Mr. Monserrate’s camp that even if he returned to the Democratic fold, there would not be enough votes to install a replacement for Mr. Smith. And in the hallways of the Capitol, there is much skepticism of the view of Mr. Monserrate and Mr. Espada as reformers. For one thing, the coup was brokered by a Rochester billionaire, Tom Golisano, who was angered that the new budget included a tax on the wealthy. And Mr. Espada has a litany of ethical entanglements, including the question of whether he actually lives in his Bronx district. In the meantime, the Republicans are trying to figure out what to make of their new confederates. Senator Martin J. Golden, a Brooklyn Republican who only weeks ago was calling for Mr. Monserrate’s resignation, acknowledged uneasiness about the alliance.... Russ Buettner and Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting. |
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