The Young Turks
How the reformers are changing Albany — and how Albany is changing the reformers
The new, fresh-faced legislators burrow into their coats in the early morning cold and hurry to the train north to Albany.
Lobbyists, well-wishers and other attention-seekers stop by their seats—some resting their hands on the well-worn red Amtrak upholstery, some dipping in for a few minutes to the open spots.
Everyone in the train car, nearly, has business in Albany. Every one of them knows about Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) and the reformer ideology he has been trumpeting around the state, and about the public pressure to change the way business is done in the state capital.
When the hangers-on are not talking to the new legislators, they are talking to their more experienced colleagues, or dealing connections and cracking jokes with each other.
“I’m going to straighten out Albany,” one says to another with a laugh on a recent Tuesday, before the first train pulls out of Penn Station.
The other snickers.
“I’ll follow you,” he says, pivoting and heading to his seat a few rows back.
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Adolfo Carrión, Jr. 
Helen Marshall 
Marty Markowitz
Scott Stringer