Put Charles in charge
The U.S. Senate, under GOP control for two years, could well shift back to a Democratic majority as Donald Trump torpedoes down-ballot Republicans. Which would be welcome, because it would mark the ascension of New York’s Chuck Schumer, whom the Daily News happily endorses for reelection, to Senate majority leader.
Even should the Senate remain in Republican hands, Schumer, in line to replace Harry Reid as leader of the body’s Democrats, will be an able legislative partner of a President Clinton — or an able combatant of a President Trump.
In either case, he’ll become the first Senate party leader from New York since the modern system began about a century ago.
Couldn’t happen to a better legislator. In Schumer’s three terms in the Senate, following nine terms in the House, he’s been a standout with uncommon grit, attention to detail and a penchant for cutting pragmatic deals rather than endlessly playing partisan politics.
Which is not to say Schumer’s ideologically unmoored, or spotlight-shy. He’s a liberal, more or less, and he gets the game. But he knows it’s in the long-term interests of New York State and the nation to pass meaningful legislation, and the only way to do that is in cooperation with people from across the country, and the spectrum.
It is Schumer who is obsessed more than anything with lifting middle-class wages, and who will reach for any legislative tool that might help accomplish that end.
It is Schumer who has long been the main proponent of necessary immigration reform, gathering like-minded colleagues from both sides of the aisle to tighten border controls while creating an eventual path to citizenship for millions of hard working people living in the shadows.
It is Schumer who led the fight against President Obama’s terrible Iran nuclear deal — taking belowthe-belt hits from the White House in the process. Standing up to a President of one’s own party on his highest foreign-policy priority is no small achievement, but Schumer understood the stakes.
It is Schumer who has a smart plan to bring home trillions in multinationals’ overseas profits now being sheltered offshore, tax it, and plow that new revenue into infrastructure investment in America’s crumbling roads and rails and bridges.
And it is Schumer who takes pains never to neglect New York, from pioneering development of the Far West Side to marching in town parades.
A Brooklyn boy (graduate of James Madison High School, just like Bernie Sanders and Ruth Bader Ginsburg), Schumer has lived in the same Park Slope apartment since 1982, keeping his family here instead of moving them to D.C.
That’s not just for show: The man bleeds Brooklyn, and Buffalo, and Binghamton and Bethpage.
Can you name all 62 New York counties? Schumer can — and he has visited each and every one, every year, for 18 years running.
Call it a gimmick. We call it a sign of uncommon, near-obsessive dedication.
Vote Chuck Schumer, and do it with pride.