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Calls to Investigate State Senator Persist. But Will It Happen?
ALBANY — For the two dozen activists who rallied in the rain at New York’s City Hall on Friday, the case against Jeffrey D. Klein — the powerful state senator accused of forcibly kissing a staff member outside an Albany bar in 2015 — was seemingly straightforward.
“Jeff Klein,” some of their signs read. “Resign.”
But that outcome, wished for by advocates who despise Mr. Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference and its seven-year collaboration with Republicans in the Senate, was far from a certainty, even in the highly charged #MeToo atmosphere.
Indeed, in many ways, the allegations surrounding Mr. Klein have laid bare Albany’s cumbersome mechanisms for self-policing and the seeming ability of some here to shrug off scandal. The Republican leader of the Senate, John J. Flanagan, announced on Thursday that Mr. Klein would face no investigation there, saying his chamber had “no jurisdiction,” noting no formal complaint was ever made. (The Senate’s own ethics committee is famously somnolent, having met for the first time in eight years in June.)
Mr. Klein, unsurprisingly, has rebuffed any suggestions he should resign, and vehemently denies he ever kissed the former staff member, Erica Vladimer. Nonetheless, he has asked for the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or Jcope, to begin an investigation, and on Monday, his lawyer said that the senator had, in fact, been approached by a lawyer from Jcope and was cooperating.
In a statement to The Times, Ms. Vladimer also issued a call for Jcope to investigate.
“I would gladly cooperate,” she said. “Because I am telling the truth.”
Ms. Vladimer has said Mr. Klein forcibly kissed her outside Justin’s bar in 2015. “All of a sudden there was a hand on the back of my head and he shoved his tongue down my throat,” Ms. Vladimer, 30, told HuffPost. “In my head it lasted forever, I don’t think it lasted even three seconds.”
Mr. Klein has conceded that he and Ms. Vladimer had briefly conversed, while outside smoking on the street that night in spring 2015, and even that he’d heard a rumor about himself and her the next day, but insists nothing untoward happened.
“My immediate reaction then, as now, was to say this did not occur,” Mr. Klein said in a conference call on Wednesday.
Mr. Klein, a lifelong Bronx resident known for his political pugnacity and personal flair, has responded aggressively to the accusations, issuing a pair of letters on Friday testifying to his good character. The letters were signed by nearly three dozen women, both former and current employees and female constituents of Mr. Klein’s district.
The senator’s pushback began even before Ms. Vladimer’s story was published, with a pre-emptive conference call with reporters last week alongside his girlfriend, Senator Diane J. Savino of Staten Island. Mr. Klein’s lawyer then offered an investigative memo, accusing Ms. Vladimer of acting unusually and drinking heavily the night of the incident, during a post-budget celebration in Albany. (In her statement, Ms. Vladimer characterized Mr. Klein’s campaign against her claims as “all-too-familiar gaslighting methods,” which help to compel “victims of abuse to remain silent, particularly when abuse comes from men in positions of high authority.”)
Asked about the motivation for the letters of support, a spokeswoman for the I.D.C., Barbara Brancaccio, said, “Individuals who currently and have formerly worked with, and for, Jeff Klein throughout his 30 years in public service have every right to stand up for his character, just as Senator Klein has the right to defend himself.”
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has worked closely with the Independent Democratic Conference, and has been accused of facilitating the group’s partnership with Mr. Flanagan, has twice called for an investigation, but has offered no details on who would handle it.
That has not satisfied some activists and protesters who feel that the governor should be more outspoken, particularly considering the national reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace — something Mr. Cuomo has promised will be a major part of his 2018 agenda.
“He has said the bare minimum to slip away from any responsibility,” said Heather Stewart, of the group Empire State Indivisible, calling Mr. Cuomo a “poor champion for justice.”
The governor’s office flatly rejects that assertion, noting the governor’s call for an independent probe into Mr. Klein’s actions, and saying on Monday that Mr. Cuomo will include a raft of measures aimed at fighting sexual harassment in his budget presentation on Tuesday, effectively forcing the issue into immediate negotiations. Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to the governor, said that the issue would be Mr. Cuomo’s highest priority. “He recognizes it’s a moment for change,” she said on Monday. “And he wants to seize upon it.”
Ms. Vladimer said in an interview on Sunday that she appreciated the governor’s call for an investigation, though “what that means to him remains to be seen.” She also said she understood that Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Klein had a working relationship. “You cannot overlook that the I.D.C. has, in some ways, been helpful to him,” she said, of the governor.
Ms. DeRosa counters that Mr. Cuomo works “with legislators from all conferences — that’s his job.”
The Klein imbroglio erupted as the State Legislature had just begun its six-month session in Albany, a period that was already figuring to hold some significant drama. The continuing defection of the I.D.C.’s eight members has been the source of great consternation for a 23-member bloc of mainstream Democrats in the Senate led by Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Westchester County. (Another Democrat, Senator Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, also votes with the Republicans, citing loyalty to his district’s constituents.)
Both sides have indicated something of a willingness to unite, potentially taking back the chamber from Mr. Flanagan’s control sometime this year. Ms. Stewart-Cousins has also called for an investigation into the “extremely disturbing” allegations, but has not called for Mr. Klein to step down.
Many of the women who spoke at the City Hall rally on Friday made no secret of their distaste not only for Mr. Klein’s alleged conduct, but also for his politics; they suggested the two were inextricably linked. Jessica Ramos, a former City Hall aide who is running to unseat Senator Jose Peralta, another I.D.C. member, called Senator Klein’s denials “straight out of the Republican playbook.” Two of Mr. Klein’s primary challengers — Alessandra Biaggi, a former aide to Mr. Cuomo, and Lewis Kaminski, a lawyer — also seized upon the allegations, writing on social media that they believed Ms. Vladimer.
Ms. Savino noted on Friday that many of the rally’s backers were opponents of the I.D.C., like the New York Working Families Party, which has called for Mr. Klein to temporarily step aside pending an investigation. “So it’s pretty clear that calls for resignation have more to do with politics than anything else,” Ms. Savino said.
Mr. Klein is expected back in Albany on Tuesday for the first time since the allegations arose, as budget talks begin for the coming fiscal year, which begins April 1. That date is also the third anniversary of the incident that Ms. Vladimer says changed her life. She says she had been bothered by Mr. Klein’s attempts since her allegation “to disparage me and manipulate public perception,” but stopped short of asking him to step down.
“He has a chance if he wants to step up: He can accept responsibility and be a leader,” she said. “But, based on the way he’s chosen to immediately deny it and then try and attack my credibility, I doubt we’re going to see him do that. And that’s disappointing.”
She added: “If he’s not going to, then it is up to his constituents: If they call for him to resign, then so be it.”
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