FEBRUARY 21, 2009
PARTISANSHIP IN ALBANY
Editorial Reply to “The Treasures of Joe Bruno” (editorial, Feb. 17)
To the Editor:
My first week as a New York State senator introduced me to the partisan inequalities that existed in the Senate.
In need of an official photo identification, I approached a photographer on staff. He indicated that he could not take my picture because he was the Republican Party’s photographer. The photographer assigned to the Democratic minority was unavailable that week.
To get the needed ID, a Democratic colleague took my picture, which became my official photo for the five terms that I was in the Senate. It served as a constant reminder of what it meant to be a minority member of the Senate.
Now that the Democrats have become the majority party, their focus must be on reform, not retribution.
Seymour P. Lachman
Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform, Wagner College