Senator-to-be maneuvering

Pedro Espada Jr., essentially the state senator-elect for part of Fieldston, Kingsbridge and points eastwards, is maneuvering to cast the deciding vote in January's struggle for legislative leadership in the state Senate.

Mr. Espada says he has formed a voting bloc with Sens. Ruben Diaz Sr., Carl Kruger and Hiram Monserrate. He's the only non-incumbent, but running as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic area, he's still quite likely to win the 33rd state Senate seat next Tuesday.

With the state Senate's Democratic conference in flux — frantically trying to gain the last two seats it needs to overcome the Republican majority in that house of the Legislature for the first time in 30 years, with a group of young, ambitious legislators leading the charge — four votes in the fight to pick a majority leader is potentially game-changing. But that's no surprise; ever since Mr. Espada defeated Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. in the September primaries, his status as a potential kingmaker, whose vote might decide any number of legislative contests, has been thoroughly analyzed from here to Albany and back.

What is new is that the group of Democrats rumored to be fence-sitting as far as which party to caucus with next year has organized itself into a coalition.

"We’ve been talking about the whole leadership issue and what’s important to us in our districts … certainly it is my hope that we can formalize ourselves and our leverage to transcend politics as usual up in Albany," Mr. Espada told me earlier this afternoon.

Mr. Diaz, reached by cellphone in Santo Domingo, was more neutral.

"So far so good, it looks good," he said, but later added "that doesn’t mean that anything is written in stone."

Mr. Diaz unseated Mr. Espada years ago in the 34th state Senate district and the two have reportedly not been on good terms since. Meetings in the run-up to the formation of this voting bloc have come as a surprise to political observers at the Bronx News and elsewhere.