ALBANY
A FEW years ago Republicans were distributing bright bumper stickers at the Capitol urging Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to “Remember Ralph” – or risk being ousted from office.
The Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s operatives, were saying without much attempt at subtlety that Silver – who was then battling Gov. Pataki’s efforts to slash taxes and spending – might wind up like Ralph Marino, who Bruno had recently ousted as Senate leader for being insufficiently loyal to the governor.
What a difference a few years can make!
Now it is Bruno who is being cast in the role of Ralph Marino, siding with Silver against Pataki in an effort to dramatically hike state spending and taxes.
And now it is Bruno – and not Silver – who is being warned by Republicans to “Remember Ralph,” lest his own leadership be in danger.
Bruno’s metamorphosis from classic upstate Republican conservative (an anti-big-government, self-made millionaire-businessman, turned civic watchdog) to Silver-like big spender and pal of such left-of-center New York City labor leaders as Dennis Rivera, has been just this side of breathtaking, and it only became clear to the public in recent weeks.
Of course, Bruno’s radical transformation parallels, and is related to, Pataki’s own dramatic ideological makeover.
Pataki began moving from hard-core conservative to a Mario Cuomo-like big spender in 1997 – when he not insignificantly undermined Bruno’s efforts to reform New York City’s archaic rent-control laws.
Pataki’s makeover reached its peak last year, when the governor sought re-election as a virtual Democrat: showering Rivera and teachers union leader Randi Weingarten with favors, opposing U.S. Navy training on Vieques, favoring a gay-rights bill and stiffer environmental regulations and insisting that his then-new state budget – which set up the state for its current disaster – was prudently balanced.
Insiders say Bruno followed Pataki in changing his philosophical stripes in response to a string of Democratic electoral victories – Chuck Schumer, Eliot Spitzer, Hillary Clinton, the loss of GOP control of Westchester and Nassau counties.
These Democratic gains came at the very same time the Republicans’ traditional allies – the Business Council, regional chambers of commerce and the Conservative Party – were in sharp decline, no longer able to pull their load when it came to mobilizing opposition to Democratic-style spending measures.
Bruno also became convinced – insiders say – that Pataki had no true philosophical core and was making policy based on just one imperative: what was in it for him.
“Bruno decided at some point along the way that Pataki was simply using the job of governor to advance himself politically, so he said to himself, ‘What’s the point of making an alliance with someone like that?’ said a senior New York Republican.
Whether Bruno’s calculation is right or wrong remains to be seen – but either way there’s considerable danger to him in it.
That’s because Pataki has – for whatever reason – decided to return to his fiscally conservative roots, and therefore he’s gearing up to battle Bruno.
He can’t, after all, beat Silver in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
Pataki’s political aides have already begun plotting how best to “invade” Bruno’s Republican conference by winning away support from hard-core fiscal conservatives, such as Elizabeth Little of Glens Falls and Raymond Meier of Utica.
Pataki’s patronage aides are said to be scanning their long lists of jobs held by the spouses, children, family and friends of Senate Republicans – with an eye toward determining where pressure can be applied.
Senior aides to the governor are also in regular contact with three top Republican senators interested in Bruno’s job: Dean Skelos of Nassau County, Nicholas Spano of Westchester and Thomas Libous of Binghamton.
Should the governor give the word that he favors an anti-Bruno rebellion, at least one of those would-be Senate leaders could well fall in line and throw in with Pataki – in hopes of emerging as the new Senate leader.
If nothing else, Pataki’s own career – from minority assemblyman to freshman senator to governor in little more than two years – shows the potential rewards of such political risk-taking.
There’s also strong evidence that Pataki – who is known to prefer a good campaign battle to day-to-day governing – is heavily involved in the effort to take on Bruno, as his Friday meeting with national anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist makes clear.
Clearly, Bruno will have his hands full trying to hold his fellow Republicans to his new leftward direction, especially in the face of Pataki’s promised vetoes if taxes and spending are raised.
And clearly it’s a time when Bruno should, in the words of the old Republican bumper sticker, “Remember Ralph,” or else run the very real risk of sharing the same fate.
Fredric U. Dicker is The Post’s state editor.
