Simcha Felder Will Caucus with Republicans, GOP Now Within 1 Vote of Controlling State Senate

Simcha Felder, the Democratic state Senator-elect of the newly created District 17, will caucus with the Republican Party in Albany when the new Senate meets in 2013, reports Capital Tonight. It’s not clear what deal was struck between Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Felder, who said he “must choose to caucus with those Senators who will best serve the communities I represent.”

This is not exactly a surprise. Although it officially remained a question, the jump was rumored to have been set in stone at least by last week. In any event, Felder was never going to be a liberal Senator. His constituency is largely conservative and he ran on the Conservative Party line. One of the issues in his recent race versus David Storobin was who opposed gay marriage more.

Felder brings the state Senate Republicans numbers to 31 and brings Democrats down to 30. Just 32 votes are needed to control the 63-seat chamber. There are still two unresolved races to go before the control of the state Senate is decided.