A squandered Democratic opportunity in the New York State Senate — updated.
This is just pathetic: the Republicans have only one edangered incumbent in the entire State Senate (Nicholas Spano, who trails challenger Andrea Stewart-Cousins by 1200 votes with 84 percent reporting). Update: Stewart-Cousins has declared victory. Updated update: knowledgeable sources tell me it may not be over yet.
That means that Republicans will keep their majority in the State Senate. So with all the hoopla about Spitzer, Clinton, and the Democratic “wave”, we’re no closer this morning to taking up issues like redistricting (check out the returns on the State Senate and Assembly races if you want to see the meaning of the phrase “safe district”) than we were last night. As a New York State Democrat, I’m embarrassed.
It’s not just Saint Joe Robach cruising to victory (he beat poorly funded Willa Powell by about a 2:1 margin and outspent her by a 200:1 margin) in a Democratic district, it’s also, well, guys like Republican State Senator Stephen Maltese beating a poorly funded (see a pattern here?) challenger in an even more heavily Democratic district in Queens. Given that the Republicans only have an 35-27 34-28 (after Spano’s loss) either 35-27 or 34-28 (depending on the Spano/Stewart-Cousins outcome) majority in the State Senate, you’d expect a little more motivation from the State Democratic Party on this front.
Here’s the conclusion of the Times article on the State Senate elections;
Neither house in the State Legislature has changed hands in three decades. The odds are stacked against change, because of district lines drawn to protect incumbents and the huge fundraising advantage they enjoy.
But in a year that some knew would be a rising Democratic tide, relatively few resources were thrown at lifting the smallest boats: the state’s Democratic Senate candidates.
Sad to say, I don’t think New York State Democrats really want to take control of the State Senate. I guess maybe that’s because if they did, voters would hold them responsible for all the dysfunction in Albany.
Thanks, Exile, for perfectly summarizing my frustration with the NYS and Monroe Democratic parties. The Republican party showed up with their game faces on and supported their candidates, dumping scads of money into the State Senate races.
The state Democratic party appears to have forfeited this (winnable) fight.
[...] Rochester Turning wonders why Spitzer didn’t get serious about taking the state Senate for the Democrats. [...]
[...] Wiser heads than mine have written about why the Dems did so poorly (picking up only one seat) in the State Senate last night. Here’s a commenter from MyDD (via Daily Politics): On a great day almost everywhere, the failure of the NYDems to make a real attempt at taking the State Senate is the one thing that is still pissing me off. [...]