1st Senate Dist.: late challenge to incumbent

The race for the State Senate's 1st District seat pits a veteran Republican senator against a late-arriving challenger who did not enter the race until August.

Republican incumbent Kenneth LaValle, 71, was elected to the State Senate in 1976 on the day the challenger, 34-year-old Democrat Jennifer Maertz was born.

A critical election

Maertz, a lawyer and vice chairwoman of the Brookhaven Democratic Committee, entered the race after former Democratic challenger Regina Calcaterra dropped her candidacy.

A State Supreme Court judge ruled that Calcaterra - for whom Maertz had been campaigning - was ineligible to run because of failure to comply with state residency laws.

Maertz said she believed Calcaterra was unfairly forced off the ballot and she expects support from Calcaterra's followers. She added that the election is critical for state Democrats because of their slim 32-29 majority in the State Senate.

"The Democrats have only had two years," she said. "It's impossible to give the Democrats time to fix 40 years of the mess Republicans have created."

LaValle, who declined to comment on the late-occurring switch in challenger, said Republicans need to regain control of the Senate to restore "fiscal sanity" to Albany and end the stranglehold New York City Democrats have on state offices.

He added: "Critically important to this election is this - if you look at the number of Democrats from New York City, they control the majority parties in both houses, the Senate, the Assembly, the attorney general, the governor and lieutenant governor."

On the issues

LaValle trumpeted his work to cap property tax growth and secure tax rebates for homeowners.

He promised that a Republican-controlled Senate would eliminate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax, which charges employers in Suffolk and Nassau counties a tax based on the size of their payrolls.

"It has been a huge job killer for our region," said LaValle, who also is on the Independence, Conservative, and School Tax Relief lines.

Maertz agreed with LaValle that the MTA tax should be repealed and that providing property tax relief is a key issue for the Senate. She added that the state needs to pass a new ethics reform bill and make public officials disclose all of their sources of income.

Maertz, who also is on the Working Families line, said Gov. David A. Paterson's call for 2,000 layoffs by year's end is "a scary indicator of where the state is headed."

She added: "Where we have to start is eliminating waste without eliminating services."

Both Touro law grads

LaValle, of Port Jefferson, is an attorney and former teacher and administrator in Middle Country schools.

He spent four years in Albany as the executive director of the Senate Education Committee before winning his Senate seat.

LaValle is originally from Brooklyn and holds a bachelor's degree from Adelphi University, a master's degree in education from SUNY-New Paltz and a law degree from Touro Law School.

Maertz, of Rocky Point, has lived in the Senate district her entire life. She has never held public office, and her only prior experience as a candidate came in 2009 when she began a bid for a Brookhaven Town council seat before dropping out.

Maertz holds a bachelor's degree from St. John's University, a law degree from Touro and an MBA from New York Institute of Technology.

She said she is running against LaValle in part because Democrats "worked hard not to let him run unopposed."

Anti-incumbent sentiment could help Maertz win the seat, said Jon Schneider, chairman of the Brookhaven Town Democrats.

Suffolk Democrats are hopeful voters will see Maertz as "new blood and a fresh perspective," he said.

But Jesse Garcia, Brookhaven's Republican party chairman, said he expects voters to send LaValle back to Albany "with overwhelming support."

Garcia added that LaValle has pushed to protect "education and our rural quality of life" while Maertz's candidacy is "more about politics than people."

Difference in funding

LaValle was running a much better funded campaign than Maertz through the state's most recent financial disclosure deadline.

As of the state's most recent state report - which details spending and contributions through early October - LaValle had raised $250,622.94 since Aug. 10, 2009, and had a war chest of $287,420.58.

Maertz had raised $16,477.77 and had a war chest of $4,732.66.

The district includes the East End and eastern Brookhaven Town.

The district has 215,526 voters, including 76,426 Republicans, 65,402 Democrats and 55,579 voters who claim no party affiliation.