Tennessee and New York Senates Have Most Stable Leadership

by Karl Kurtz

The trivia question of the day is, what legislative chamber has had the least turnover in its top leadership position since 1965?

When New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (left in photo) announced a couple of weeks ago that he was stepping down as leader and was succeeded by Sen. Dean Skelos (right), it struck us that the New York Senate has had remarkable stability in its top leadership position. This has been made possible in part because the Republican party has controlled the chamber since 1965.  Outside the South, that's one of the longest spans of party control in any legislative chamber.

In the 43 year period from 1965 to 2008, the New York Senate has had only four majority leaders: Earl Brydges (1965-72), Warren Anderson (1973-88), Ralph Marino (1989-94) and Joseph Bruno (1994-2008).  So this inspired a question in our office as to whether any other legislative chamber can top this record.

The only other chamber we can think of that has had only four top leaders since 1965 is the Tennessee Senate where John Wilder served as lieutenant governor (by virtue of being elected speaker of the Senate, not statewide) for 36 of those years (1971-2007).  None of the three other Tennessee lieutenant governors during this--Jared Maddox (1965-67), Frank Gorrell (1967-71), and Ron Ramsey (2007-)--served more than four years, but Wilder's longevity enables them to match New York.

Of course, now that Sen. Skelos is the majority leader, New York has had five majority leaders since 1965, leaving Tennessee in the lead in this category of greatest stability in top leadership positions.  There are some other chambers that have had only five top leaders since 1965--the Georgia House and the Maryland Senate--but we can't come up with any others with only four or less.

This is not exhaustive, authority research--only what the old guys at NCSL can remember.  If any readers can refute our obscure factoid that the Tennessee and New York Senates lead the pack in this category, please let us know.

Photo credit: http://www.senatordeanskelos.org/9/MediaCenter.aspx

Comments

[Gerry Cohen]

North Carolina four Senate President Pro Tempore since 1979, ten since 1965
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Pro_Tempore_of_the_North_Carolina_Senate
Robert B. Morgan 1965-66
Herman A. Moore 1967
Neill H. McGeachy 1969
Frank N. Patterson, Jr. 1971
Gordon Allen 1971-74
John T. Henley 1975-78
W. Craig Lawing 1979-84
J. J. Harrington 1985-88
Henson P. Barnes 1989-91
Marc Basnight 1992-Present

[Jeff Wice]

The GOP has maintained control of the NY Senate for the large part of the last century. Democrats held brief control after the 1910, 1932, and 1964 elections (and are now within a seat or two of retaking the majority for the first time since 1965).

While there has been continuous GOP Senate control for decades, readers should know that newly elected Governor George Pataki (a former legislator) helped engineer a Senate GOP leadership coup when former Majority Leader Ralph Marino was knocked out by Senator Joe Bruno, who just stepped down as leader a few weeks ago.

Numbers tell one story, but politics certainly can tell another.

[Jeff Wice]

Just to clarify my earlier comment- the GOP Senate coup I referred to took place in November, 1994, just after Pataki's election.

[ned schneier]

In the same period, it is worth noting, the senate's minority leadership was also quite stable: Joseph Zaretski, 1966-74; Manny Ohrenstein, 75-94; Marty Conner, 1995-2002; and Basel Patterson from then until was elected Lieutenant Governor and replaced by the current M.L., Malcomlm Smith.