Curious Idea

Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. says he's "deadly serious'' about making New York City the 51st state.

Vallone reintroduced legislation last week that calls for secession from the Empire State. He first proposed it in 2003.

It's not likely to happen anytime soon -- making secession a reality would require the approval of voters, the Legislature, the governor, Congress and even the president.

This isn't the first time someone has suggested that New York City secede and become the 51st State. I'm not even sure that the folks who propose this have thought through the idea though.

New York State is often thought to be a blue state, but in reality has a split personality. New York City votes strongly Democratic, while the rest of the state is largely Republican. The creation of New York City as another state might add two Democrats to the Senate, but it might also mean a Republican would come to represent the rest of the state (Schumer lives within NYC and Clinton lives in Westchester). Initially, it might be a net gain of two seats, but over time, the GOP could come to control those other seats.

The situation in the House is a bit more murky. The old New York will become more Republican, while New York City remains heavily democratic. The net change in the house is 0 since the allocation of seats is based on population.

At the state political level, things get a whole lot more interesting.

The Assembly is 150 seats, apportioned by population, and the Speaker, Shelly Silver, hails from New York City. If New York City goes, the Assembly becomes dominated by the upstate communities, which is far more Republican. The Senate is already under control of the GOP, and it would become even more entrenched.

New York City's local political situation would come to reflect what already goes on at the City Council - heavily Democratic with a few pockets of Republican control.

Of course, all of this is nothing more than idle speculation designed to get Vallone's name into the papers.