And Democratic leaders must determine what to do about 45 workers toiling
away in a building close to the Capitol who appear to have been engaged in
quasi-political research for the Republicans.

"Every time we nail something down, we uncover another rock and there's
another 30 people there � it's all over the state," said Angelo J. Aponte,
who as the new secretary of the Senate is the top aide to Malcolm A. Smith,
the Queens Democrat who became majority leader last month.

But as Citizen Bruno was busy getting indicted on massive federal corruption
charges, the new majority was taking bold steps to fix the basic way that
New York works -- reforming the state's notorious Rockefeller drug laws,
seeking to limit outside pay for legislators, and -- perhaps most
impressively, from our perspective in the netroots -- introducing
unprecedented transparency via a new website streaming all Senate business
and providing novel opportunities for citizens to get involved in the
Se