He's not exactly a swing vote, but it will nevertheless be interesting to see whether Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, who served in the Assembly as a Democrat between 1993 and earlier this year, when he declared himself an independent, will caucus with the Republicans in the upcoming session.
I always assumed he would join the Republicans, much in the same way Jeff Wood caucused with the Democrats after he left the GOP a couple years ago. Not only is Ziegelbauer very conservative, on both social and fiscal matters, but he was aggressively opposed by the Democratic Party organization, whose union ally, AFSCME, even put a fake Republican candidate on the ballot in an attempt to draw conservative votes away from Ziegelbauer.
Last, but not least, why not be a member of the majority? He could chair a committee and have the ear of the leadership. That's more than he could say in the past year about Democrats, who stripped him of his position as chair of the Ways and Means Committee, allegedly over an abortion vote.
To my surprise, however, one Democratic source has indicated that Ziegelbauer will likely not caucus with any party. According to the source, he would negotiate committee assignments with the Speaker independently, and vote as he pleases.
Odd.