Sen. Hiram Monserrate tells News he'll return to Dems - without Sen. Pedro Espada
Monday, June 15th 2009, 4:00 AM


"I'm coming home," the Queens Democrat told the Daily News in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

Monserrate stunned the state's political establishment and paralyzed the Legislature a week ago when he rebelled against his own party and voted with fellow Democrat Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx to hand control of the Senate to the Republican minority.

The mercurial Monserrate is set to announce at a morning press conference on Monday that he is returning to the Democratic caucus - without Espada.

His decision creates an astonishing 31-31 deadlock in the Senate and further muddles the question of which party controls that body.

"I said I wouldn't return to the caucus without a leadership change among the Democrats, and that has happened," Monserrate told The News.

On Friday, Senate Democrats settled on Brooklyn's John Sampson to replace Malcolm Smith as leader of their conference, but to keep Smith as the majority leader.

The Republicans also are claiming that post after last Monday's vote, and the matter is now in the courts.

Monserrate told me he made the decision to switch back after a string of meetings he held all day Sunday with key Democrats, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Gov. Paterson, Sampson and Brooklyn state Sen. Eric Adams.

"I've received assurances from my fellow Democrats that several pieces of progressive legislation I support will be brought to the floor for a vote," Monserrate said.

The No. 1 issue for him, he said, was a bill to end vacancy decontrol and reestablish rent regulations over thousands of apartments in the city.

During a breakfast meeting with Sharpton at the Georgia Diner in Queens, both men told me that another bill they expect will now come to the Senate floor for a vote is one that was sparked by the police killing of Sean Bell.

Under that bill, any police officer who shoots a civilian would be required to submit to drug and alcohol testing immediately after the incident.

"Under Malcolm's leadership, they wouldn't allow that bill to come to the floor," Monserrate said. "Now we'll have an up and down vote on that bill."

Sharpton has been working feverishly behind the scenes all week to convince Monserrate to return to the Democratic caucus.

"I'm not here for Malcolm or for an alternative to Malcolm," Sharpton said. "My advice to the Democrats is we shouldn't be divided, and we shouldn't let these differences be portrayed as some kind of a black-Latino split."

Why shouldn't people consider him a flip-flopper and loose cannon, I asked Monserrate, the ex-cop and former city councilman who is in his first year as a senator.

"When other Democrats like Malcolm supported a Republican, Bloomberg, for mayor in 2005, no one accused them of flip-flopping," he said.

"I made an affirmative step to change Albany from the old ways of doing things, to get Democrats and Republicans working together more, and some of that change will now happen," he said.

Monserrate also must realize that by throwing state politics into a convulsion and switching sides twice in the same week, he is committing political suicide.

But according to those close to him, the immense pressure he received in the past few days from his closest supporters in organized labor and among tenant advocates has taken a toll on him.

In addition, he is facing an upcoming trial on charges that he slashed his girlfriend's face with a broken glass.

In the end, despite his calls for a new governing coalition of Republicans and Democrats, Monserrate did not want to be seen as the guy who killed the first Democratic majority in the Senate in 40 years.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06 ... IUejxEIA&C