Senator Diaz Goes Both Ways

Senator Plans Run as Democrat — and Republican

A Democratic state senator who is infuriated by his party's views on gay marriage and abortion rights is running for re-election on the Republican Party line, and says he is considering switching his allegiance to the Republican majority leader, Dean Skelos.

Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a Pentecostal minister who represents the 32nd district in the south-central Bronx, said he isn't loyal to either party but is seeking to advance his conservative policy positions by taking advantage of the Republicans' slim margin of control in the chamber and running as both a Democrat and a Republican.

"People can't take me for granted," Mr. Diaz said in a telephone interview.
Republicans have a 32- to 30-seat lead in the Senate and are girding for tight contests in at least three of their districts, leaving the possibility that Mr. Diaz will be able to position himself as a swing vote next year.

Democrats need two seats to take the majority, which has been in Republican hands since 1938, with the exception of one year in the 1960s.
Mr. Diaz said he plans to speak with the majority leader, Mr. Skelos, and the Democratic conference leader, Malcolm Smith, who represents a district in Queens, before deciding whom to support.

"When the time comes, I will decide how I'm going to vote," he said. "I'm loyal to my community, the people who send me to Albany."
A candidate running on two major party lines is not unheard of in Albany — Mr. Smith did just that in 2002 to maximize his votes — but Democratic gains in the Senate have stigmatized the practice.

Although Mr. Diaz, 65, has often clashed with his colleagues, the debate over gay marriage has deepened the divisions. Mr. Diaz says he fears that Democrats in the Senate would join the Democrat-led Assembly in voting to legalize gay marriage if they seize the majority this year. In June, when Mr. Skelos was elected majority leader, Mr. Diaz refused to join his Democratic colleagues in a symbolic vote for Mr. Smith.

Mr. Diaz's colleagues say his threat is merely a bid for attention, while political observers said such a move by the senator could create political problems for his son, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., who is running to become the Bronx president in 2009. Democratic Party leaders, the observers said, might withhold their support for the younger Diaz should his father abandon the party.

"He's always blustering about this, but I don't think there's any probability that he will do anything that will affect our ability to take the majority," a Democratic senator of Manhattan, Eric Schneiderman, said.
The Bronx Republican leader, Jay Savino, said his party organization offered Mr. Diaz a spot on the Republican line after the senator was interviewed by its executive committee. Candidates that seek cross-endorsement must receive what is known as a Wilson-Pakula by party leaders.
"We were honored that he came in for a candidate screening and were happy to cross-endorse him," Mr. Savino said.

Since being elected in 2002, Mr. Diaz, a Puerto Rican who is an ordained minister of the Tennessee-based Church of God and the pastor of Christian Community Neighborhood Church in the Bronx, has been a magnet of discomfiting tension for a Democratic conference with a proudly liberal bent.

While sharing their views on issues such as rent control and public education policy, Mr. Diaz's traditional evangelical positions on the death penalty, abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage are anathema to many of his colleagues.
Mr. Diaz has endorsed Republican candidates for office, including Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki, and a 2000 Senate candidate, Rick Lazio.

In speeches, Mr. Diaz has called abortion the "American Holocaust," comparing abortion rights activists to Nazis. "Hitler believed that Jews were not human beings. In America, abortionist believe that a fetus and an embryo are not a life," he wrote in a position paper.
"Hitler used the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap. In America, we are selling fetal tissue to be used in: the manufacture of cosmetics as well as for medical research. What is the difference? Do not point your finger at Hitler, we are worse," he wrote.
"He's more conservative on some social issues than members of my executive committee," Mr. Savino said.
Mr. Diaz's placement on the Republican line was first reported by the New York Times.