Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is good at wielding power in back rooms. The Bronx Democrat is usually terse in public, has a keen memory for past slights and whips votes when he needs to.
But he’s got a big soft spot for a goldendoodle named Paisley.
“That dog is the love of my life,” Heastie said recently.
Legislators say the speaker has a stressful job, managing a conference with more than 100 members and synthesizing their 10-times-as-many opinions in negotiations with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Heastie's colleagues say the dog that he got in 2024 helps him relax.
“It gave him a little touch of reality that there are things other than all of this pressure and all of these competing needs,” said Assemblymember Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who is retiring after three decades in the chamber. “At the end of the day, you're taking the dog out for a walk, feeding it, and it's, you know, jumping up and licking your face.”
Paisley, with her flopping blonde ears and wagging tail, is now a fixture at the state Capitol when lawmakers are in session. The shin-high hound sits in Heastie's office and wanders the halls around the Assembly chamber.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and his doodle, Paisley.
The speaker has brushed off questions about how her presence flouts state regulations. The Office of General Services, which manages the Capitol, issued a bulletin to tenants in 2024 reminding them of rules stating only service animals, police and fire dogs are allowed in the building.
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, an Upper West Side Democrat, said everybody loves having Paisley around.
“I think all legislatures need to have support animals,” she said. “Paisley is rambunctious and energetic and fun and loving and just lightens any meeting.”
Rosenthal has sponsored numerous animal-rights bills in the chamber, including laws that banned the declawing of cats and prohibited the commercial sale of dogs, cats and rabbits. Heastie’s relationship with his dog has made it easier to push them through the sometimes byzantine legislative process, Rosenthal said.
Heastie opened up about his canine companion while touring the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society animal shelter earlier this month. He announced the state would contribute $1.2 million to help the facility expand.
Paisley is a familiar sight at events around Albany.
The speaker said he’s always been a dog lover, though he got his first animal in his 20s. It was a golden retriever with a wonderful personality — but lots of hair to clean up. He later got a pitbull-rottweiler mix, which he dubbed his “special child” with territorial aggression and behavioral issues.
Paisley entered Heastie's life in 2024, when he was campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in Arizona. He met a man with a goldendoodle — a cross-breed between a golden retriever and a poodle — and fell in love with the dog’s appearance and temperament.
He found Paisley shortly thereafter.
Heastie and his best friend, Paisley.
“She is great, and it's like even after a day of work, it's like knowing — now I'm going to go home and get like the greatest greeting in the world,” Heastie said. “I don't know if she's mellowed me. I just appreciate the joy that she brings to my life.”
State Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who has had both cats and dogs, repeated an old saying about politics:
“The speaker may be taking to heart the idea that, if you want a friend in politics,” he said, “get a dog.”
