Heh.

So Joe Bruno resigns, causing a flurry of well-manicured despair among his upstate colleagues. Predictably, there was a minor flood of commentary about a power shift to downstate. Some of Bruno's elderly caucus-mates raised the subject in the perennial bash-that-part-of-the-state-you're-not-in efforts that they seem to need like a junkie needs crack.

Well, so much for that. Here's Skelos' first big push of the election season - against Craig Johnson, on Long Island.

So much for keeping the interests of upstate foremost on the electoral agenda.

From Craig Johnson's web site:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you so much for all of your help. This was a tremendous victory for the residents of the 7th Senate District, Nassau County and all of New York State.

This seems like the right place for Liz and I to offer special thanks to the bloggers and the netroots community who energized this race from near and far. I don’t want to leave anyone out, but let me mention The Albany Project, The WFP Blog, Daily Gotham, Nassau GOP Watch and, of course, Daily Kos, which hosted our blograiser.

Together, we’re going to move New York forward.

Best wishes,

Craig M. Johnson

With Craig Johnson’s victory, speculation will heat up over Democrats’ apparent plans to try to persuade a pair of Republican Senators to flip across the aisle. The two most commonly mentioned candidates are Joseph Robach of Rochester and John Bonacic of Orange Country.

Robach is a former Assembly Democrat, who, as Rochester Turning has described, was lured into the Republican camp at least in part by Joe Bruno’s promises of member-item money. He knocked out Democratic Senate incumbent Richard Dollinger, in a challenge he claimed was motivated by a dispute with Shelly Silver over redistricting in his Assembly District. But the prospect of $5 million a year in discretionary funds probably didn’t hurt either.

Bonacic, of course, was a very lonely Republican voice calling for Joe Bruno to step down as majority leader, considering all those FBI investigations and so on. Credit where due: Bonacic went out on a limb, and now there’s no guarantee that Bruno won’t try to saw it off.

So let the debate begin. Let’s be clear: we want the Senate. We’re not pie-in-the-sky idealists in the NY netroots; we know how important it is for the well-being of New Yorkers to have a Democratic Senate at last, and we know how tough it is to take out incumbents. We’ve been there.  read more »

There was a political earthquake last night. The election of Craig Johnson to a seat that hasn't been occupied by a Democrat in a century puts the future of the state Senate into play, and strengthens the mandate of Eliot Spitzer for a full-throttle reform push.

That raises several questions.

First, will Shelly Silver insist on ignoring the procedure he agreed to and choose a Member of the Assembly for the post of Comptroller?

Second, if he does so, what will governor Steamroller do?

Third, if Democrats now manage to flip the Senate, will the new leader, Malcolm Smith, continue to embrace reform, including the full implementation of the Brennan Center reforms? Or will it be business as usual under new management?

Stay tuned. This fight isn't over quite as yet.