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Albany Democrats To Simcha Felder: We Don’t Need You, We Don’t Want You

New York State Democrats are ready to take over the majority — and one of their first moves is letting Brooklyn Senator Simcha Felder know he is not welcome back into their conference, the New York Daily News reported.

Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy told the Daily News that the group will not need Felder’s input when determining the chamber’s agenda.

“New Yorkers elected the largest Democratic Majority in memory consisting of candidates who ran on a robust progressive agenda and proudly sought election as members of our conference,” he said. “As such, we have decided to remain a 39-member majority.”

He added: “Of course, we will work with all senators, including Senator Felder, to advance legislation that will help New York state prosper.”

Felder, who represents the neighborhoods of Boro Park and Midwood, is a registered Democrat, but he acted as the chamber’s swing vote because he caucused with the Republicans. Now, his influence in New York’s ultra-Orthodox community may be in jeopardy.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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