In our ongoing quest to track the downfall of New York State’s douchiest public servant,* this story brings a smile to us:
The State Senate on Tuesday expelled a senator convicted of domestic assault, the first time in nearly a century that the Legislature has forced a member from office.
The Senate voted 53-to-8 to immediately oust the senator, Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat convicted last fall of a misdemeanor for dragging his companion down the hallway of his apartment building.
Monserrate has vowed to fight the expulsion, and his lawyers are expected to file a restraining order today, if they can make it through the snow. Sadly, one of them is Norman Siegel, past head of the New York Civil Liberties Union and candidate for Public Advocate; a guy, in fact, that I voted for. Not so happy to see his name there.
Still, the Senate voting to expel somebody for a misdemeanor–normally in Albany, you get a mulligan on your first five or six of those–is a welcome change, and the fact that it was mainly because of the specific crime he was convicted for–battering a woman–is an even more welcome change. This being Albany, however, who knows how this will end. Probably with the Monster Rat as majority leader.
*At the state level. There’s a lot of competition above and below him.