Names are same, but reform still possible
OUR THOUGHT ON THE MATTER
Tuesday, November 23, 2025

Is real reform possible with the same leadership?

That’s what state legislators are claiming, but we’re wary when it comes to promises out of Albany.

While most of the politicians who ran for state office earlier this month said they recognize the need for change, we have to wonder how committed they are when the same players get re-elected to leadership positions.

Two of the infamous “three men in a room” — Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — are back to their positions of power, as are Assembly and Senate minority leaders Charles Nesbitt of Albion and David Paterson, respectively.

The latter two men told the Associated Press that they want the majorities to let them get involved in bipartisan efforts to reform the Legislature’s rules.

We sincerely hope the legislators who promised a whole new Albany — if constituents gave them one more chance and returned them to office, that is — live up to their campaign promises and allow that to happen.

But when even those in power know that all this reform talk may be nothing more than hot air, we’re can’t help but be skeptical.

“There are so many reformers in the Capitol that I never knew about before that we should have all reform done by Jan. 10th,” Paterson told the AP.

His point is well-taken, but in the end, we can’t change the results of Nov. 2. What we can do is keep the pressure on our state leaders to fulfill their promises.

We’ve said it before (and sadly, we’ll probably say it dozens more times in upcoming months): Nothing will change unless we all press the issues. Just because the same folks are running the show doesn’t mean we can’t make them change the rules.

In other words, don’t let up just because Election Day is behind us. Keep the pressure on. They’ve heard the voices — if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have been promising reform — but if we allow the outcry to subside, things will slide back to business as usual in a hurry.

We can’t afford to let that happen.
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