Last year, State Sen. Jeff Klein, representing the Bronx and Westchester, announced that he and three other Democrats would be breaking off from the party to form their own group. It caused a schism in the senate chambers, for sure, but with less malfeasance and dramatics than the notorious 2009 coup.

The move was met with criticism from some Democrats who deemed it political pandering, a way for Klein and his breakaway colleagues to win favor with the Republicans, who had just re-gained a slim 32-30 majority in the Senate.

“What’s the difference between what they’re doing and what the amigos did?” said Bronx Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., referring to the 2009 Senate coup, when former Bronx State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. (Diaz’s pal) and Queens Democrat Hiram Monserrate defected to the Republican party in exchange for leadership roles. “There’s nothing different. They are a copycat.”

But as the one-year anniversary of Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference approaches in January, the senator defends his caucus with pride, calling it a productive division from the Democrats’ dysfunctional leadership, and from the partisan gridlock that characterized the tumultuous two years the party was in power after spending more than 40 years in the minority.

“I fought harder than anybody to take the majority [in 2009], but unfortunately, it was a complete letdown,” Klein said in a recent interview. “All the things that we wanted to do, like ethics reform, we never seemed to be able to get the votes for.”

To be sure, the IDC had a productive year. The four-person caucus—its other members are Rockland County Senator David Carlucci, David Valesky of Syracuse, and Klein’s girlfriend, Diane Savino, of Staten Island—managed to, collectively, pass 68 bills during the 2010 session. The 26-member Senate Democrats passed 103.

IDC members introduced and passed legislation dealing with crackdowns on car insurance fraud, efforts to boost the state’s organ donor pool and banning caffeinated malt liquors like Four Loko from stores. The group also advocated for the successful passage of a number of high-profile bills, like marriage equality and the long-awaited ethics reform.

“I have a very simple rule: I wanted to accomplish things,” Klein said. “In election time, I want to elect Democrats, but when the dust settles, we want to get things done.”

Klein, a moderate Democrat, sits in the center of the political spectrum when compared to many of his more liberal Bronx colleagues. A lawyer by trade, he served in the State Assembly for 10 years, in the seat currently held by Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, before being elected to the Senate in 2004. Born and raised in the northeast Bronx, Klein lives in Morris Park, a traditionally wealthier Bronx neighborhood, and large parts of his district include the more suburban Westchester.

His political stance often reflects the interest of these areas, but not other parts of the Bronx. He’s a vocal supporter of increased protections for homeowners, for example, and made passing a statewide property tax cap one of his biggest priorities last session, despite concerns by some of his Bronx colleagues that such a cap would devastate schools in low-income areas, which rely on the taxes for funding revenues.

Last year, Klein and his IDC colleagues supported a controversial bill that would allow check cashers to issue short-term loans at an interest rate higher than New York State currently allows, legislation consumer advocates criticized as taking advantage of residents in poor neighborhoods, who are less likely to have good credit or use traditional banks.

Tenant advocates have also long-criticized Klein for his inaction on pro-renter legislation, specifically efforts to protect rent-regulated apartment buildings, of which he has 24,600 in his district. (Michael McKee, of the Tenants Political Action Committee, has called Klein “an operative of the real estate lobby.”) The senator ultimately voted in favor of a rent reform bill, but one that was significantly watered-down and dubbed a disappointment by advocates and other Democrats.

Klein insists that he and his IDC colleagues remain Democrats by principle, even if they no longer caucus with the party.

“I’m a Democrat, and I think I’ve proved my Democratic worth time and time again,” he said.

Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera, who says he was prompted to run against his predecessor, Pedro Espada, primarily because of his disgust over the 2009 coup, said he was disappointed by Klein’s break from the party.

“It weakens our hand,” he said. “We should stand as Democrats, not as individuals all over the place.”

IDC members did vote with Republicans on a few issues last year: Klein and Valesky were the only two Democrats to vote in favor of a bill that ended the practice of seniority-based layoffs for New York City teachers, the so-called “last in, first out” policy; all four voted with Republicans last spring to reform Senate rules stripping Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy of his role of tie-breaker should the vote in the chamber be deadlocked.

“They demonstrated the power of a small minority to affect a closely divided house,” said Douglas Muzzio, a political analyst and professor at CUNY Baruch. “It allowed them to leverage stuff they wouldn’t be able to leverage otherwise.”

All four IDC members were given committee chair positions by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, the only Democrats to get the posts, which come with a $12,500 pay bonus attached to them.

More importantly, Muzzio said, is the position of power that Klein is now in as leader of the IDC, holding more clout than he did when he was still with the Democrats — though he held the number two position in the party since 2009, he was consistently passed over for the leadership spot.

Now, he’s won the favor of Republicans and still seems to have the ear of fellow Democrats: a study released this summer by the New York Public Interest Group found that Democratic senators voted with Klein more often than they with John Sampson, the current party leader.

“Power is the currency of the realm,” Muzzio said. “We tend to focus on cash, but cachet, that’s worth a lot more.”