IT’S SUPER DEMS!
Senators turbo-charge with two-thirds majority
ALBANY — Democrats have clinched a supermajority in the state Senate, they announced Monday after gaining enough seats to give them veto-proof control of the Legislature.
The victory, which comes two years after Democrats wrestled control of the chamber away from Republicans, gives more leverage to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) as she and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) negotiate bills and the state budget with fellow Democrat Gov. Cuomo.
“By sending a supermajority of Senate Democrats to Albany, New Yorkers have made it clear that they want government to keep working for them and standing up for New York values and for the hardworking men and women of this state,” Stewart-Cousins said during a press conference in Albany.
Senate Dems entered Election Day with a 40-seat conference and only needed to add two more members to their ranks for a twothirds supermajority in the 63-seat chamber.
Election Day results strong-favored Republicans, who campaigned hard against bail and criminal justice reforms enacted in recent years, giving the GOP a glimmer of hope that they could hold off the Democrats’ dreams.
But as absentee ballots, in huge numbers due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, were counted over the past three weeks it became clear that Dems would easily add seats.
The first sign of things breaking Democrats’ way came last week when freshmen senators in Brooklyn and on Long Island defeated GOP challengers who had appeared to have large Election Day leads.
On Friday, Democrat Michelle Hinchey declared victory in the 46th Senate District race, replacing retiring Republican Sen. George Amedore. The Hudson Valley district stretches from Canajoharie to Kingston.
Over the past two years, after the blue wave washed over the Senate in 2018, there has been a rash of Republican retirements and resignations, including former Republican majority leader John Flanagan.
The open seats, especially those in competitive upstate districts, proved to be the opportunity Democrats needed to expand their power.
Several races have yet to be called, including a competitive Westchester battle between Sen. Pete Harckham and former GOP County Executive Rob Astorino.
Harckham trailed his Republican challenger by more than 8,000 votes on Election night but has gained ground since as mail-in votes were tallied in Putnam and Dutchess counties.
The race will be decided by the estimated 25,000 outstanding votes remaining in Westchester, which will likely favor Harckham.
Gov. Cuomo shrugged off the newly empowered Legislature, saying he doesn’t see an issue in which he and Dem lawmakers would differ enough that a veto override would be needed and noted that the budget process won’t change all that much.
“The way it is, state government really works through the budget. All the main things are done in the budget and supermajority or not, it doesn’t really make a difference,” he said during a press briefing in Manhattan. “I don’t think there’s ever been a situation where I disagree with every Senate Democrat.”
Top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa noted that the governor helped raise funds for several Dems.
“We were thrilled that a bunch of the members that looked like, on Election night, they weren’t going to make have now pulled through,” she said.
Despite the machinations of Albany and the governor’s outsized role in the budget process, a supermajority will have wide-ranging impacts, particularly during the 2022 redistricting process.
The once-a-decade overhaul will see all state legislative and congressional districts redrawn.
Under current rules, a supermajority vote is needed in the Senate to approve a redistricting plan and avoid the issue being handed off to the courts to figure out.
Democrats have controlled the Assembly for years, but struggled over the past couple of decades to gain ground in the Senate as a breakaway caucus handed power to Republicans.
That changed in 2018 when Dems’ won enough seats to take over the chamber and have gone on to pass several pieces of long-stalled legislation including the Child Victims Act as well as criminal justice, housing and voter reforms.
Now, the solidly blue Legislature will reconvene in January with even more members.
“No majority has ever done better in an election in this state’s history,” said Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), who heads the Senate Dems campaign arm.
“This was a mandate by the voters, a mandate ... to keep doing things for the people of the state that they want done, they expect done and they have been waiting for decades to get done.”
Gianaris also knocked Republicans for their premature celebrations and took a dig at Cuomo during his victory lap remarks.
“A message was sent by the voters, let’s be clear about that,” he said.
“Let’s be clear about something else — the Republicans did not beat the Democrats on the messaging as some have said.”
The comment was a reference to Cuomo’s claim in the wake of the election that Republicans “beat Democrats on the messaging.”
Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Lockport) offered no congratulations to his colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
“If New Yorkers thought one-party control was bad, more Democrats in the New York state Senate will usher in a new era of radical, increasingly socialist policies, unlike anything before seen in this state,” he said in a statement.