W’chester victor could tip state Senate control
ALBANY — Control of the state Senate could hinge on a hotly contested special election in Westchester County on Tuesday.
Republican Julie Killian, a former Rye city councilwoman, is taking on Democrat Shelley Mayer, an assemblywoman from Yonkers, in a contest that has generated national attention and sparked millions of dollars of spending by the candidates and their allies on both sides of the aisle.
“It looks to be an awful lot of money spent,” said Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College in New Rochelle. “You almost can’t turn on the TV, open your mailbox or listen to the radio without getting an advertisement from one or both of them. It’s multiple mailers a day.”
Killian and Mayer are battling to fill the seat left vacant after Democrat George Latimer became county executive Jan. 1.
The race is one of two special elections for Senate seats taking place Tuesday. Democratic Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda of the Bronx is expected to cruise to victory in a contest to fill the seat left vacant after Ruben Diaz Sr. was elected to the New York City Council.
Victories by the Democrats in the two races would give the party a numerical majority in the chamber and increase pressure on Brooklyn Democratic Sen. Simcha Felder to end his alliance with the GOP.
Republicans hold only 31 of the Senate’s 63 seats, but maintain control of the chamber through their alliance with Felder, who has not said what he’ll do if the De mocrats claim a majority after the elections. Hoping to capitalize on Democratic anger over the election of President Trump, Mayer and other Democrats argue the Westchester contest is critical to their hopes of controlling the Senate and enacting legislation long sought by progressives, including new gun control measures, campaign finance and ethics reforms, and a bill to strengthen New York’s abortion laws. Killian and her allies have portrayed Mayer as a creature of Albany’s culture of corruption, noting that prior to serving in the Assembly, she was counsel to the Senate Democrats during their scandal-plagued tenure in charge of the Senate in 2009 and 2010. Mayer also came under fire after two women told the Daily News that she didn’t do enough to respond to their harassment complaints when she was the Senate Democrats’ counsel.
Mayer’s campaign insisted she followed proper Senate protocol and referred the matters to human resources or thenSecretary of the Senate Angelo Aponte, who took no action.
Killian, meanwhile, has stressed her willingness to break from Senate GOP leaders by supporting such measures as the Child Victims Act, which would extend the time frame for survivors of child sexual abuse to obtain justice in the courts, and a move to help keep guns away from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others.
“Certainly Mayer has the name recognition, she has widespread support and she is likely the candidate to beat,” Zaino said. “But I think some people have been surprised by Killian.”