Who

The Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Shelly Silver is one of the three most powerful players in Albany along with Senate majority leader Joe Bruno and newly-installed Governor David Paterson.

Backstory

Born to Russian immigrants on the Lower East Side, Silver attended Brooklyn Law before setting up his own legal practice. In 1976, at age 30, he was elected to the State Assembly representing the 64th District, which covers most of lower Manhattan. Silver rose through the ranks, and became speaker of the Assembly in 1994 after longtime Speaker Saul Weprin suffered a stroke. He quickly earned a reputation as a confrontational maverick, clashing with then-Governor Mario Cuomo on heated issues like the death penalty (Silver was pro, Cuomo was con). With Cuomo's defeat at the hands of George Pataki in 1994, Silver emerged as the most powerful Democrat in state politics. One of the so-called "three men in a room" throughout the 1990s and early '00s, Silver represented the Democrats in the acrimonious trilateral negotiations through which all decisions in Albany were made, along with the governor and Joe Bruno, the majority leader of the State Senate. Eliot Spitzer's election in 2006 was widely seen as signaling a decline in Silver's power and profile. But with David Paterson now in the governor's mansion, Shelly's clout appears to have been restored to its pre-Spitzer levels.

Of note

Silver is the most powerful member of the State Assembly: bills don't reach the Assembly floor unless he supports them. But he's gained a reputation for being consistently stubborn and frequently obstructionist. He's been criticized for killing plans for a West Side football stadium, continually blocking the construction of a Second Avenue subway (though the project is finally moving forward ahead of his objections), keeping a new train station (Moynihan Station) from being built in the Farley Post Office, and—the most recent victim of his obstinacy—quashing Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. Not that he causes less controversy when he actually approves of something: He recently ticked off a good number of Brooklynites when he signed off on the construction of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards development. Other initiatives he's championed since signing on as speaker: the reinstatement of the state's death penalty, repealing the city's commuter tax, and increasing spending for construction of new schools. He's also known for taking revenge on his enemies: When a group of Democrats tried to oust him from the speakership in 2000, Silver made sure the leader of the abortive putsch wasn't re-elected, and took away the legislative perks of those involved.

On the side

Silver still does part-time legal work for ambulance-chasing law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which primarily represents slip-and-fall victims. He keeps mum about his Weitz & Lux paycheck, but insiders peg it at $300,000 a year (he makes $121,000 annually for his Assembly job). His detractors have long accused him of opposing malpractice reform legislation because it conflicts with his interests as a Weitz & Lux lawyer.

Personal

The orthodox, kosher politico and his wife, Rosa (a public school teacher), have four children: Edward, Janine, Michelle and Esther. They live on the Lower East Side, just blocks from the site of the hardware store that his parents owned after they emigrated from Russia.