Joe Robach says he doesn't want to be a
member of the Republican majority in the state Senate so much as he wants to be
the "Commissioner of Getting Things Done." Given the paltry progress
he and his fellow state legislators made this year on a host of important
issues --- reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, a minimum-wage increase,
cleaning up Superfund sites --- that would be a novel post in more ways than
one.

Robach,
a state Assemblyman from Greece who's served since 1991, created a stir last
May when he announced he was abandoning the Democratic Party to run for the
state Senate seat in the newly created 56th District as a Republican. The new
district encompasses Greece, Hilton, Brighton, Parma, and much of the City of
Rochester, including the Charlotte and Maplewood neighborhoods that were
removed from his Assembly district after redistricting.

Although
the 56th district contains more registered Democrats than Republicans, Robach's
announcement effectively scared off would-be Democratic challenger Rick
Dollinger. Dollinger, a 10-year veteran of the state Senate, initially vowed he
would run in the new district, but dropped out of the race July 1.

In
a press release announcing his decision, Dollinger cited the prospect of
challenging Robach in an expensive campaign as a major reason for quitting the
race. Specifically, the Democratic senator was worried he'd have to raise as
much as a million dollars in campaign funds to match the support he assumes
Robach will receive from the state Senate Republican machine. "I would be
required to seek that money from the special interests, who have a
strangle-hold on Albany and our state government," Dollinger wrote.

The prospect of raising scads of
cash for a high-profile election doesn't bother Robach. "When it comes to
elections," he says, "for someone who's been in big elections to
criticize someone else in a big election, it's a little bit shallow and
false."

Robach says he only has $70,000 in
the bank for this campaign, so far. "I'll have additional fundraisers to
raise the money I need to deliver my message," he says, "just like he
[Dollinger] would have done or whoever runs against me will try to do
also."

Dollinger did not return calls
seeking comment.

In contrast to
Dollinger's discomfort with big-money and partisan politics, Robach unabashedly
embraces the benefits partisanship has to offer, while, in the next breath,
professing indifference to party lines.

His
switching parties is "not about party for me as much as it's about getting
things done," says Robach, who claims he's never been to a political
convention. "People want politicians to focus on the job, not partisan
rhetorical politics... While there are people in both camps who may not like that
in political headquarters, the people do, and I'm about the people... There's
nothing partisan or mean-spirited about it. It's all about pragmatics to
me."

As Robach sees it, the current
political power structure in Albany is "a reality, and it's not going to
change. Whether you like the system or not, when it comes to dishing out
capital improvement funds, member item initiatives --- which you guys call 'pork
barrel;' we like 'member item initiatives' better --- the pool of money in the
Senate is huge for the majority, almost nonexistent for the minority.

"I'm not saying it's the perfect way
to do it," he continues. "But that's the system we have. We [Greater Rochester]
need to get what we need and deserve." The list of local projects Robach hopes
to help secure includes a fast ferry, a soccer stadium, a downtown bus
terminal, and a performing arts center.

If he wins the
senate seat
on the Republican line, Robach says he's "not going to change one
position. I've always been, as people say, 'a raging moderate.'" Robach's
moderate --- many would call it "conservative" --- approach reportedly caused
some friction within his old party. His involvement two years ago in a failed
effort to oust Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver didn't improve his
popularity within the party, either.

Monroe County Democratic Party Chair
Ted O'Brien cites Robach's backing of Syracuse legislator Michael Bragman for
the Assembly speakership as a political wound that never healed. Unlike fellow
Assemblyman David Koon, who also backed Bragman, O'Brien says Robach "was never
willing or able to make his peace with Shelly Silver."

"While I'm sure I would've gotten
re-elected to the Assembly, I was not going to be heeded very well by Assembly
leadership," Robach says. "That would have curtailed my ability to
get things done for this area."

Of
course, membership in the majority doesn't guarantee anything, particularly in
the state Senate, where the Republican majority is slim compared to the
Democrats' domination of the lower house. To O'Brien, Robach's plan to deliver
more for his constituents as a member of the majority "sounds a little hollow.

"Joe
was in the Assembly majority before," O'Brien says. "Just being in the majority
isn't the whole story."