Heastie Is Elected Speaker of New York Assembly

By The New York Times

ALBANY — Culminating a rapid rise from a Bronx back-bencher to holder of one of the most powerful offices in New York state politics, Carl E. Heastie was elected speaker of the New York State Assembly on Tuesday.

Mr. Heastie, a 47-year-old Democrat, made history by becoming the state’s first African-American speaker, succeeding Sheldon Silver, the longtime Albany power broker who was forced to step aside after his arrest on federal charges of accepting millions of dollars in payoffs.

In his first moments as speaker, Mr. Heastie delivered a wide-ranging speech promising to fight for a raft of progressive ideals: raising the minimum wage, improving education, creating jobs and reforming the criminal justice system. He promised, too, to try to raise the salary of Assembly members, a contentious point in Albany; the suggestion earned a roar of approval from his colleagues.

But he also repeatedly promised to reform the Assembly, pledging to restore the institution as a “place of pride” after the scandal that enveloped Mr. Silver.

“We do not own this house,” Mr. Heastie said. “We are simply tenants here.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Silver was one of more than 100 Democrats in the liberal-minded lower chamber who voted to elect Mr. Heastie, who had easily dispatched a roster of other candidates over the last weekin a fast-moving campaign. Reformers in the Assembly had initially hoped for a longer process to pick Mr. Silver’s successor, and a vote was tentatively scheduled for Feb. 10. But with Mr. Heastie’s support coalescing quickly, the timetable was cut short.

Mr. Heastie, a media-shy moderate, is also the first speaker in the modern era elected from the Bronx, a multiethnic political caldron known for its often brutal turf wars. Mr. Heastie, just elected to his eighth term in November, took over the Bronx Democratic organization in a messy fight in 2008, and emerged as a prohibitive favorite for the speaker’s post despite news reports in recent daysabout his campaign spending and travel expenses.

Mr. Silver formally stepped down late Monday night. On Tuesday, his nameplate at the front of the Assembly chamber was gone; his new desk, its green surface contrasting with the bronze desktops of his colleagues, had been affixed to the end of a back row.