Post by Nick Riesman implies (and almost says straight out) that the NYS Senate power sharing deal between thirty (30) GOP members and five (5) independent Democrats was largely enabled by Governor Cuomo

New York's Democratic Governor wanted to continue the good working relationship in the state senate from 2010 through 2012 when Republicans ran the show

The grist of Nick Reisman’s mill is that Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo refused to call for and  declined to endorse a full Democratic takeover of the New York State Senate in the 2012 election. Instead, the Governor supported a mixed bag of candidates to the state senate; for example, he endorsed the following: IDC’s David Carlucci; mainline Queens Democrat Joe Addabbo; and Hudson Valley Republican Steve Saland. In a strange maneuver, many of the  Republican candidates for state senate, incorporated  the image of the popular Democratic governor in their television advertising and mailed flyers. That particular GOP  tactic was neither condemned nor even objected to by Cuomo, who was content to stand aside doing nothing to encourage or discourage such Republican election efforts in state senate races (See “Cuomo: Senate Coalition Working.” by Nick Reisman, 3/14/13, YNN Capital Tonight [http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/]).

According to the Nick Reisman report, Governor Cuomo is still quite content with the governing coalition in the state senate.  Reisman quotes the Governor about the coalition, as follows : “I think at this point — again, whatever point we’re at … I think it’s all working.... I think the coalition is working. I think the relationship among the parties is working....”

As for whether life would be easier if a mainstream Senate Democratic Caucus were to have been in charge of the State Senate, Cuomo said there could be no guarantee that would have been the case; according to the Democrat Governor, “...you could never predict what they could do.”