For more than seven hours that ended after 1 a.m. Thursday, Albany’s secretive “three men in a room” policy negotiation process became “three men and a rapper in a room.”
The Buffalo News reports Russell Simmons, the rap icon, was invited to the table with New York Gov. George Pataki and the two leaders of the State Legislature negotiating major changes in criminal justice policy.
Lawmakers and lobbyists alike were flummoxed at the idea of Simmons, Pataki, the senate major leader and the assembly speaker holed up for seven hours debating whether to reform the state’s tough Rockefeller-era drug laws.