The State Senate is up for grabs The New York State Senate, which has historically been controlled by Republicans, is in play in November’s election, and races on Long Island are key. There are five factors giving Senate Republicans cause for concern. First, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who previously had a hands-off approach, is now actively promoting a Democratic Senate. Second, the independent block of senators that currently caucus with the Republicans say they will side with the Democrats next session. Third, the field of Democrats running this year is much stronger and more well-funded than usual. Fourth, the Republicans are distracted by recent indictments and retirements of key senators in battleground areas. Finally, everyone’s angry about their school taxes. Republicans have, for the most part, controlled all nine Senate seats here on Long Island for decades. Their key argument, that a Republican Senate keeps more school aid on Long Island, has been undermined by the fact that Long Islanders pay the highest school taxes in America, largely because of expensive mandates by the state and inadequate state aid to pay for them. If Democrats on Long Island want to win Senate seats in November, they will have to argue that they’ll do a better job of streamlining state mandates for schools and making sure Long Island gets its fair share of state school aid. The governor, who, if he runs for president, will need Democrats in a primary, has agreed to support the members of his party in November. That may seem like something obvious to most casual observers, but it only happened after a great deal of horse-trading and arm-twisting. An agreement by the independent block of senators to support the Senate Democrats was similarly achieved. Party unity, and fundraising by the Democrats, makes them stronger than usual. That strength, along with retirements and indictments of key senators, has attracted more quality Democratic candidates who believe that with Cuomo at the top of the ticket and the factors mentioned above, they have a good chance of succeeding. There are 11 seats up for grabs across the state, and a change in three of them would be dramatic. Four of them are here on Long Island. A popular Republican, Chuck Fuschillo, resigned from the Senate, and now Democrat Dave Denenberg, the hardest-working candidate I’ve ever met, has a good shot at capitalizing on the fact that he not only has a 7,000 vote-registration advantage, but has historically garnered many Republican votes. Lee Zeldin is leaving the Senate to run for Congress, and the Republican candidate designated to run for his seat has dropped out due to the dumping scandal in Islip. Adrienne Esposito, a noted environmentalist who has helped lead the charge in the Islip scandal, is running on the Democratic line. Longtime incumbent Republican Sen. Carl Marcellino, who has never faced a serious challenge, isn’t resigning, but he has a tough race against the popular Republican mayor of Sea Cliff, Bruce Kennedy, who is running as a Democrat, because conservatives attacked him for performing a gay wedding, and he felt that the Republican party had abandoned him. Jack Martins, a popular incumbent senator and a former mayor of Mineola, faces a tough race wth the well-funded Democrat Adam Haber, who fights hard. Haber is likely to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money in a Democratic-leaning district. People aren’t paying much attention to these races, but the State Legislature is more responsible for high property taxes on Long Island than any other elected body. State mandates cause costs to rise dramatically, and state aid is the only source of revenue for school districts other than property taxes. More state aid, less property taxes. Less state aid, more school taxes. Democrats would be smart to argue, “If Republicans have done such a good job of attracting school aid, why are our school taxes so high? Elect a Democratic State Senate and we’ll streamline mandates — and thereby reduce costs — and fight to get more state aid. And if the State Senate goes Democratic but we don’t have Democratic senators from Long Island, we won’t have people in the chamber fighting for us. Vote for me.” This is an important year for the State Senate, an important year regarding property taxes and an important year for Long Island homeowners. Please play close attention, so you’ll be prepared to vote in November. Tom Suozzi, an attorney with the law firm Harris Beach, was Nassau County executive from 2002 to 2009 and mayor of Glen Cove from 1994 to 2001. Comments about this column? TSuozzi@liherald.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:48:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015