And here I thought that opportunities to report on the NY Senate’s shenanigans had passed, once Espada flip-flopped back to being a Democrat.  I was wrong:

Elite get fat pay hikes amid Senate stalemate
Democrats reward key staff with up to $32,000 while hitting GOP

ALBANY — Eleven of the state Senate’s highest-paid staffers received raises of up to $32,000 when it appeared likely Democrats would lose control of the chamber during the five-week leadership fight.

The combined increases will cost taxpayers $200,000 annually.

[snip]

Because many of the raises were backdated, staffers are paid the additional cash in a lump sum, said Jennifer Freeman, spokeswoman to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. As a result, staffers expected fat paychecks of thousands of dollars in backdated raises at the exact time that Sampson was accusing Senate Republicans of stalling legislation in an attempt to seize the spoils of majority leadership.

I’d like to note two things about this:

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Take this one with all the usual caveats - the election is far away, who knows if this is a good sample, Gillibrand has months to improve her name ID, etc. Still, Carolyn Maloney has the ability to raise lots of money and there is no doubt that her views are more in line with the extreme leftist views of New York Democrat primary voters. Given those facts, Gillibrand ought to be extremely concerned that she already trails Maloney in a trial heat for the 2010 Senate nomination:

The 2010 Democratic primary for U.S. Senator remains in play as 27 percent back U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney and 23 percent back U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, with 4 percent for Jonathan Tasini and 44 percent undecided…

Voters know little about the possible Senate candidates: 63 percent don’t know enough about Gillibrand to form an opinion; 67 percent don’t know enough about Maloney and 66 percent don’t know enough about King.

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