A story on the Buffalo News’ web site this evening says George Maziarz is among the few who could replace Joe Bruno as Majority Leader of the State Senate.
Among the contenders is Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, who is holding a secret meeting tonight with the two other major contenders, senators Dean Skelos of Nassau County and Thomas Libous of Binghamton.
Skelos and Libous have long coveted the majority leader job, and they have worked for years lining up backers for the day that Bruno retired. Maziarz, however, is seen as a candidate who could emerge from a fight between Skelos and Libous in what is already shaping up as a downstate versus upstate battle between Republicans.
In Maziarz’s favor is that he comes from a safe political district and is among the top fundraisers among rank-and-file lawmakers.
Maziarz would not say if he is an active candidate for Bruno’s job.
“It’s clearly a leadership position and it’s something I clearly would love to see someone from Western New York be under active consideration,” he said tonight.
Obviously, this is a story we’ll continue to follow. Funny, we went from “is George even running for re-election” this morning to … “George Maziarz, majority leader?” this evening …
Let’s not forget he is also rumored to want the NYPA Position. He would make alot of money running NYPA and still have lots of power. No pun intended. He would also not have to answer to anyone in this position.
Rob,
I had heard the same … but then today I heard that CAN’T happen. He just doesn’t have the clout with Paterson to make it happen.
Of course, what if you combined the NYPA story with this one? I’ll work on that and blog it tomorrow.
It may be Dean Skelos taking Bruno’s role, but, as I said to Doug Young this AM: George Maziarz is the #2 choice in my book…maybe even #1 if they push the upstate issue. He’s far and away a better legislator than Tom Libous (the media’s presumptive upstate choice) and considerably more experienced.
This has been an interesting 6 months in NYS government. We’ve lost 2 of the 3 men in a room: a governor to a wench and a senator to the feds