Electoral battlegrounds eerily quiet on LI
Lee Zeldin in this file photo. Credit: Jessica Rotkiewicz
An eerie quiet pervades two Long Island electoral battlegrounds that twice in four years proved crucial to switching party control of the State Senate.
With nominations for these races due to begin as early as this month, it remains unclear whether partisan fighting will resume there with its earlier fury.
In Suffolk's 3rd Senate District, a Democratic challenger has yet to announce against rookie Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), whose ouster of Democrat Brian Foley in 2010 helped Republicans reach their current, minimal, 32-vote majority of the upper house under leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).
In 2008, Foley unseated 36-year incumbent Caesar Trunzo, one of a pair of losses by senior GOP incumbents that helped turn the Senate Democratic for a term, for the first time since the mid-1960s.
In Nassau's 7th Senate District, buzz surrounds several known Democratic names having passed on the chance to challenge Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), whose victory over Democrat Craig Johnson in 2010 was also key to the GOP's recapturing the majority. Johnson's win in an especially expensive special election in early 2007 served as a prelude to his party's briefly held majority.
Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), who leads the Democrats' State Senate campaign effort, indicates the party has good prospects in both districts.
He cites New York's traditionally strong Democratic turnout in presidential years, and a host of "targeted" districts now served by GOP incumbents despite strong Democratic registrations, even as he acknowledges Republicans are expected to raise and spend more on the races.
While this year's redistricting has yet to be completed, insiders expect Long Island's nine new districts to look similar to those now in place.
GOP SCRAMBLE:The Republican State Committee convenes in Rochester on March 16, giving two recently announced candidates for U.S. Senate, Rye Town Supervisor Joseph Carvin and Manhattan attorney Wendy Long, a short window to line up committee members' support. Candidates with 25 percent of the weighted convention vote need not file petitions to make the primary ballot. Nassau Comptroller George Maragos, who was first in the fray to face Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, has the Nassau and Suffolk chairmen behind him. These counties have a combined 18.58 percent of the weighted vote. Maragos is soon expected to roll out support from Albany, Orange and Delaware counties.
