The Speaker of the New York State Assembly is the highest official in the New York State Assembly, customarily elected from the ranks of the majority party.
As in most countries with a British heritage, the speaker presides over the lower house of the legislature. (The position exists in every U.S. state and in the United States House of Representatives, the lower house of the Congress. New York's Assembly Speaker is very powerful. Effectively, the Speaker of the New York Assembly has the power to control much of the business in the Assembly and, in fact, throughout all of state government. Through almost single-handed control of the chamber, the Assembly Speaker is able to dictate what legislation makes it to the floor and what does not, and will punish the members of his caucus that do not vote in his favor (e.g. former assembly majority leader Michael Bragman losing his leadership post after running against current speaker Sheldon Silver). Through this and heavy gerrymandering that has given him a near-permanent supermajority, the Assembly Speaker rarely faces any challenge to his post.
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“After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions
To keep mine honor from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Gimme the Plaza, the jet and $150 million, too.”
—Headline, New York Post (Feb. 13, 1990)
“What thou art is mine;
Our state cannot be severed, we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Our assembly being now formed not by ourselves but by the goodwill and sprightly imagination of our readers, we have nothing to do but to draw up the curtain ... and to discover our chief personage on the stage.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)