A week after Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.'s son landed a cushy, six-figure gig at the State House, the reviews are coming in and they are not good.
"He's lazy and not so smart, so I don't know why we need him in some kind of policy role in the state Senate," a Senate Democrat told the New York Post, when asked about Pedro G. Espada,
The younger Espada, a former City Councilman and state Assemblyman, was hired Aug. 6 to be the new "deputy director of intergovernmental relations" for the New York State Senate, a post that pays $120,000 annually.
Little Espada was originally set to work as his dad's chief of staff, according to the Post's source, an idea that was apparently scrapped for fear of accusations of nepotism.
Though the timing is bound to raise eyebrows, dad denied the job was a pot-sweetener in the negotiations that returned Espada, the "2009 Senator of the Year," to the Democratic fold, ending a month-long stalemate that paralyzed state government.
"This is not the result of a quid pro quo or a contingency to my ending the Senate stalemate," Espada said in a statement. "If my son did not qualify for this position, he would not have gotten the job."
