The day after
by: Henry Meier
The biggest news from last night’s elections for New York credit unions isn’t the Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate. Rather, it is the fact that Senate Republicans appear to have gained a slim but decisive majority in the State Senate. If the preliminary results hold up, it appears that Senator Dean Skelos of Long Island won’t even need the five member Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC) to exercise control over New York’s Senate Chamber.
On a practical level, this means that the lines of power in Albany are clearer than they have been in years. For decades, Republicans ruled the State Senate and acted as a counterbalance to the overwhelmingly Democratic Assembly and the occasional Democratic Governor. In recent years, the model appeared to be changing. Republicans only kept control by entering into a coalition with the IDC. In addition, it appeared that Republican strong holds in Long Island and the mid-Hudson were fading away.
These long term trends may continue, but they’ve been arrested, at least for this election cycle. Republicans cruised to victory on Long Island, picked up an open seat in the Hudson Valley (Terrence Murphy), flipped a seat in Hudson Valley (Susan Serino beat Terry Gipson), won a hotly contested capital region race (George Amedore defeated Cecilia Tkacyzk) and flipped a seat in the Rochester area (Richard Funke beat Ted O’Brien). To me, the remarkable thing is not only that the Republicans reclaimed the Senate majority, but that it was so decisive. In recent years, no election cycle has been complete without a drawn out legal battle. But this year heading into a new legislative session, we have a re-elected Governor and, in all likelihood, a single majority leader. Here is a great site recapping election results.
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