Democrat Senator-elect Simcha Felder has announced that he will be counted as a member of the Republican caucus when he takes office in Albany next year.
“I represent a middle-class community with substantial concerns about the direction of our State," he said in a statement Thursday after meeting with the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Dean Skelos. " And I have been clear that I will work with any group of Senators who have real economic development and jobs-encouragement ideas, who plan to bring substantial tax relief to the people who elected me, who have compassion for the poor and respect for the middle class, who support the improvement of public education and a plan to ease the burden of tuition-paying parents across New York."
The move was expected since Skelos seemed to tacitly support Felder's candidacy while advocating for the "super Jewish district" encompassing a heavily Orthodox section of Brooklyn in the newly drawn Senate district map.
In a statement Skelos said: "Mr. Felder has shared with me the issues that are most important to his constituents, including economic development and job creation, reducing taxes and providing financial relief for hardworking families. Those have been our priorities in the past and will continue to be our priorities as we begin the next legislative session."
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