Independent Democratic Conference

Independent Democratic Conference
Conference Leader	Jeffrey D. Klein
Deputy Conference Leader	David Valesky
Conference Whip	David Carlucci
Conference Liaison to the Executive Branch	Diane Savino
Assistant Conference Leader for Policy and Administration	Tony Avella
Founded	January 5, 2011 (2011-01-05)
Dissolved	April 16, 2018 (2018-04-16)
Split from	Democratic Party of New York
Merged into	Democratic Party of New York
Ideology	Modern liberalism Conservative liberalism
Seats in the State Senate (at dissolution)	8 / 63
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

The Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) was a group of several Democratic members of the New York State Senate that was formed to caucus with the Republican Party and protect its status as the majority party. At the time of its dissolution, the IDC included eight members: Jeffrey D. Klein, Marisol Alcantara, Tony Avella, David Carlucci, Jesse Hamilton, Jose Peralta, Diane Savino, and David Valesky.

Klein, Savino, Valesky, and Carlucci formed the IDC in 2011 due to disagreements with John L. Sampson, the Democratic leader in the New York State Senate. The IDC allied itself with Senate Republicans throughout its existence. During the 2013–14 legislative session, the IDC and the Senate Republican Conference controlled the Senate jointly, as the Senate Republicans did not have sufficient numbers to form a governing majority on their own.

After negotiations with Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had previously supported it, the IDC dissolved, its members rejoined the Senate Democratic Conference, and Klein would become the Deputy Democratic Conference Leader in April 2018. In the subsequent Democratic primaries in September, six of the eight former IDC members were defeated; only Carlucci and Savino won their respective primary contests. In 2020, Carlucci opted not to seek re-election to the senate and instead ran to succeed the retiring Nita Lowey as the U.S. representative for New York's 17th congressional district; he finished fourth in the Democratic primary.

Savino chose not to seek re-election in 2022. She left office in 2023, leaving no former IDC members in the New York State Senate.^[1]