Aubertine staying out of verbal fray

While some of Darrel J. Aubertine's Democratic colleagues hit the airwaves Tuesday to condemn those who orchestrated a Senate coup, the Cape Vincent senator tried to keep the charge out of his comments.

"It's just a continuation of the political food fight that seems to go on ad nauseam down here in Albany," he said. "What we're trying to do is make difficult decisions — and many of them in a deliberate way — without politics driving everything. Unfortunately, the events that took place yesterday do just that."

Thirty Republican senators, aided by two sympathetic Democrats, called for a vote Monday to change leadership. The 30 shocked Democrats, who now found themselves as a voting minority, called for an immediate adjournment.

The coalition, however, charged that the adjournment was not proper and continued conducting business. One of the group's first orders of business was to strip chairmanships, including Mr. Aubertine's leadership role over the Agriculture and Energy committees. It might take court action to resolve who is in charge.

Mr. Aubertine had planned to introduce a bill Tuesday that would have extended Power for Jobs, an incentive-based program that trades low-cost power for job retention and growth among private businesses, into 2010. The program is due to expire June 30.

"There's a lot of things that need to get done with just eight scheduled session days left" before summer recess, he said. "Unfortunately, the politics for some people eclipsed the business of the people. My commitment is to get those priorities done."

Mr. Aubertine said his other priorities included continued reform of the Empire Zone program and blocking the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.

The latter is a bill that provides farmworkers protection under workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, state disability and wage laws.

"It's got bipartisan support as far as sponsorship goes," Mr. Aubertine said of the act. "But since the bill was first drafted and introduced, I and others have really made the case that, as well intended as it might be, it is a bad bill. If something like this was passed, it would be devastating to farmers, consumers and everyone else."

The Democrat added: "In all honesty, I don't think there's enough support to pass it."

Just as Mr. Aubertine has his priority legislation, his colleagues are lobbying for their own bills to be acted upon when the Senate returns to session. Sen. Thomas K. Duane, D-Manhattan, has told many that he has enough votes to pass a same-sex marriage bill.

The bill, if enacted, would allow couples of the same sex to wed and provide to them the same rights and protections as married couples.

Sen. Malcolm A. Smith, the Democratic majority leader, has said previously he would not bring the bill to a vote unless he believed there were enough votes to pass it. Republicans declined to bring the bill to a floor vote when they were in the majority. But Democrat Pedro Espada Jr., the new coalition's Senate president, said Tuesday that he wanted a vote on the bill.

Mr. Aubertine said he will vote no if the bill is brought to the floor.

"Fundamentally, I view marriage as a union between a man and a woman," he said. "I think I'm not alone in having a good deal of difficulty getting by that."

When asked if there was any legislation that addressed same-sex marriage in a way that he found more palatable, Mr. Aubertine replied: "No, there isn't, at this point, that I'm aware of."