NPR notes that the New York state senate voted 53–8 last night to expel Hiram Monserrate, the fourth state lawmaker ever expelled, and the first since 1861.
Why? This didn’t help:
Indicted [and later convicted] for allegedly slashing his girlfriend in the face with a broken glass. … [He] was charged with six counts of assaulting his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo. She needed 20 stitches over her left eye. Security cameras in his apartment complex show Monserrate dragging her out of the building on Dec. 19. The same cameras show her desperately banging on a neighbor’s door seeking help during the incident, just a month after his election to the Senate. The lawmaker pleaded not guilty and insisted the blows to his girlfriend were an accident. He is awaiting trial.
Nor did Monserrate make many friends with his ill-fated excursion into the Republican party. The expulsion brings down the Democratic majority in the senate to 31–30. Gov. David Paterson is calling for a March 16 special election to fill the seat.
For his part, Monserrate has vowed to fight the expulsion:
“I know that my behavior has brought unwelcome discredit to this chamber, and for that, I am deeply sorry. But, as Rev. Jesse Jackson once said, ‘God isn’t through with me yet.’”