Heastie, Morelle, Wright moving quickly to be next speaker

With Assembly Democrats expected to continue to push for Speaker Sheldon Silver's ouster, the potential candidates to succeed him are beginning to emerge.

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle is the upstater trying to win enough support among New York City members to become speaker. With 61 members from the city, though, they hold the cards and the majority in the conference.

"The conference wants to put this beyond us, and I understand that. So we’ve got candidates now who are starting to emerge and there is going to be a discussion," said Assemblyman Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County. "But it’s up Silver to resign. I haven’t heard the process yet to force a speaker out."

All the jockeying is occurring as Assembly members head into closed-door conference at noon to decide what to do with Silver and potentially pick a new speaker.

But so far, Silver has yet to relent and step down -- leaving members to decide what to do with him procedurally if he doesn't and the steps needed to install a new speaker.

They can't hold session -- not scheduled until next week, anyway -- until they have a speaker, or keep Silver in the interim, which he still seems to be holding out hope for.

Morelle has the support of upstate members and a suburban caucus, but he would need about 20 votes in the city to win a majority in the conference. He could also try to bring the vote to the floor and form a bi-partisan coalition to win the speaker post with the 76 votes of the 150-member Assembly.

Morelle's Rochester colleague, Harry Bronson, spoke highly of him, saying he would be a strong leader for the conference.

"I think he is a very capable person. I think he is a person who would be able to balance the very diverse conference we have. He is a good strategist, he is a good negotiator," Bronson said.

But Bronson admitted, "It’s a democracy, right, and you have to get enough votes."

Ways and Means chairman Denny Farrell, D-Manhattan, said he backs Morelle as temporary speaker to get through the budget process and retain continuity.

"I’m supporting Morelle as a temporary. I’m not supporting anyone for permanent," Farrell said. "We have to function, and I want to make sure we continue to function because I can’t lose time doing budgets."

(AP Photo/Mike Groll)