By Samuel Rubenfeld
Democrats scored key victories beyond the presidency both nationally and locally, including, for the first time in 43 years, control of the New York State Senate. The victory gives Democrats control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time since the New Deal.
The losses came amid huge turnout for the presidential election, giving state Democrats long coattails to ride into the majority. Two longtime Republican incumbents lost their seats, while one race is still too close to call. All of the incumbent Democrats held their seats.
On Long Island, Sen. Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood), who had served the 3rd state senate district for more than 30 years, lost to Brookhaven Town Supervisor Brian X. Foley by 17 points. In Queens, Joseph Addabbo, a Democratic city councilman from Ozone Park beat Republican incumbent Serphin Maltese by 14 points.
Even incumbents thought to be safe found their seats in extremely close races: Sen. Kemp Hannon, the GOP state senator serving the district that includes the University, only won by 3,300 votes, with all precincts reporting. Sen. Frank Padavan, a Republican who serves northern Queens, leads his opponent by about 700 votes, and with all precincts reporting, paper absentee ballots are being counted.
Holding a majority in the state senate has huge financial consequences, said Lawrence Levy, the executive director of the University’s National Center for Suburban Studies. Including all the money from member items, legislative grants, capital funds and money groups of members influence, state Democrats now control a pot as large as $25 million, he added.
The shift in party majority also means a change in political power centers in the state, in large part because all of the Democratic leadership comes from the five boroughs: Gov. David Paterson is from Harlem in Manhattan, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver represents Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Sen. Malcolm Smith, who currently is the state senate’s top Democrat, is from Queens. Sen. Dean Skelos, the senate’s GOP leader, is from Nassau County.
But four state senate Democrats, all from New York City, may not back Smith for senate majority leader, according to reports from the New York Times. The four state senators refused to meet with the senate Democratic caucus on Wednesday, and they have not indicated whom they support for the majority leader’s spot.
This power center change could have a huge impact on the state’s budget allocations. “If the Democrats aren’t stupid, they’ll realize the seats they won came from suburban districts,” Levy said.
Education makes up a significant portion of the state budget, and where the money goes now hangs in the balance. “Long Island may not have as much clout in preventing cuts in school aid that will happen inevitably because of $47 billion in red ink,” Levy said, referring to the state’s ballooning budget deficit. The Long Island delegation to the state senate was key in preventing cuts in education money to suburban districts, but now the money could likely be shifted to underfunded schools in major cities, especially New York City.
However, other issues stymied by partisan gridlock might make it to the floor of the state senate, Levy said. State Democrats might take on campaign finance reform, an issue Gov. Eliot Spitzer wanted to resolve before he fell from power amid scandal. “If you believe in a bigger better bottle bill, you’re more likely to see that go through withtout resistance from the senate Republicans,” Levy said. The bigger better bottle bill would allow people to recycle non-carbonated beverage bottles for a return on a five-cent deposit.
Levy said the state senate Democrats will take care of suburban districts on Long Island, or their slim majority will quickly disappear, like it did in 1965. “If they don’t take care of these guys [the new senators], they’ll be voted out.”