Talk-show host and racial agitator Al Sharpton’s “stupid’’ involvement in efforts to put the narrowly divided state Senate back into Democratic hands makes it more likely that four independent Democrats will back the GOP, The Post has learned.
What’s more, gloating by United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew that union-financed Senate Democratic victories were a setback for Gov. Cuomo’s reform agenda makes it more likely Cuomo will push independent Dems to keep the GOP in power, sources said.
And there was a third and unexpected development over the weekend adding further uncertainty to the Democrats’ hoped-for return to power in January.
Sources said state Sen. Malcolm Smith of Queens, who served as the Democratic Senate majority leader in 2009 until he was ousted and then replaced during a bitter “coup’’ mounted by Republicans and two renegade Democrats, was “open’’ to helping the GOP keep control of the Senate.
Smith, who has talked with Republican leaders about running as the GOP candidate for mayor next year, “is open and willing to listen to what the Republicans have to say,’’ said a source close to the situation.
Sharpton, the controversial minister — associated with racially inflammatory and sometimes anti-Semitic rhetoric — and MSNBC personality, said late last week he was arranging a meeting in Harlem to encourage the Senate’s long-divided Democrats to unite around one leader to take advantage of several victories in last Tuesday’s voting that could return them to majority control.
Sharpton’s efforts and the announcement of a planned Harlem meeting intensified a long-existing racial divide among Senate Democrats, a dozen of whom are African-American, sources said.
“How stupid was that? It was unbelievable,’’ said a senior Democratic official close to the Senate’s four-member Independent Democratic Conference led by Sen. Jeff Klein of The Bronx.
“The last time I checked, Al Sharpton was a paid member of the media, and he’s trying to determine who the next Senate leader is going to be? That suggests that most of the Senate Democrats are ready to once again be beholden to outside influence peddlers like Al Sharpton,’’ the official continued.
Sharpton’s efforts to play power broker also increased the likelihood that Sen.-elect Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, a conservative Democrat and Orthodox Jew who has indicated he could back the Republicans, will align himself with the GOP, a second official said.
“Do you think Simcha wants to be anywhere near a group that owes its leadership to Sharpton and all he represents?’’ the official continued.
Meanwhile, Mulgrew’s concession that the teachers union spent some $3 million opposing Senate Republicans because of their support for education reforms and a less-generous Tier 6 pension plan for new employees was widely seen as an attack on Cuomo, who sponsored both efforts.
“Mulgrew’s agenda is a direct challenge to the governor, so how can Cuomo sit by and let a UFT-controlled Senate Democratic majority take over? He can’t,’’ said a source close to the Cuomo administration.
The IDC, whose members also include Sens. Diane Savino of Staten Island, David Carlucci of Rockland County and David Valesky of Syracuse, was formed early last year to protest what its members said was the dysfunctional and incompetent leadership of the Senate during the previous two years of Democratic control.
IDC members have worked closely with the Senate’s GOP leadership since then and have been rewarded with the chairmanships of several committees.
The exact number of Senate seats lost by the Republicans in last week’s balloting remains uncertain, but at best, they’ll likely have 31 members — not counting the four IDC members, Felder and possibly Smith — in the 63-member body, where 32 votes are needed for a majority.
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Bitter state Republicans are blaming longtime Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long for their possible loss of Senate control and for imposing on their party hapless US Senate candidate Wendy Long, who lost to incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand by a record margin.
“It’s time to face the fact of what a disaster Mike Long and the Conservative Party are to the Republicans and to New York,’’ said one of the state’s best-known Republicans. “And it’s time to consider getting rid of cross-endorsements in this state.’’
Long played a key role in defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Steven Saland of Poughkeepsie because of Saland’s vote to legalize same-sex marriage, and his early endorsement of Wendy Long (no relation) helped her defeat incumbent US Rep. Bob Turner of Queens in the Republican primary.
New York is one of the few states that allow minor parties — like the Conservatives, Working Families and Independence — to give their ballot “lines’’ to major-party candidates and, in the process, gain widespread influence over their policies.