Political newsletter: Democratic wave trickled down to state legislative races

Newsday had pegged the Syracuse area as a good barometer of the race for New York governor. After all, Onondaga County’s numbers in 2022 closely mirrored the statewide result.

Looks like it happened again this year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Republican Bruce Blakeman, 60% to 40%, in Onondaga, according to unofficial results posted by the New York State Board of Elections. That matches the overall statewide totals as of about noon Wednesday.

Hochul’s landslide win was part of a national Democratic wave and a backlash against President Donald Trump. Those trends even trickled down into races for state Senate and Assembly in New York, where Democrats say they’ve reached historic majorities.

They will hold at least 47 of the 63 seats in the Senate, with one contest likely headed for a recount. A nearly three-fourths majority is something the Democrats haven’t approach since they were battling the Whig Party in 1846, according to Politico.

Dems will hold 111 of 150 Assembly seats, which Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) says is a record.

Five Long Island seats flipped from Republican to Democrat. Ask around and some will tell you the biggest surprise arguably was Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) losing to attorney E. Christopher Murray at the eastern end of Suffolk County.

The outcome gives the Legislature better than the two-thirds majority it would need to override a governor’s veto, though override scenarios hardly ever happen. What might be more practical is the numbers strengthen the hands of Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) because their conferences are so big and spread out ideologically from moderate to socialist, no one bloc will have controlling interest, one Democratic insider said. 

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy