New York Democrats posted the biggest legislative majority in New York state history.
It presents one major problem for them — where to find a room in the state Capitol big enough to fit all the Democratic lawmakers.
“One state senator said to me on election night — channeling the movie ‘Jaws’ when Quint says, ‘We’re gonna need a bigger boat’ — they’re going to need a bigger conference room,” said Evan Stavisky, president of The Parkside Group, which worked with the State Senate Democrats this election.
Stavisky said there’s more to managing this majority than just physical accommodations.
“It’s a lot of mouths to feed for the leaders. It’s a very diverse set of ideological and demographic members, geographically spread out,” he said.
Across both chambers, Democrats flipped at least nine districts. So far, State Senate Democrats won 45 seats, while the Republicans won 13. The State Assembly expects 111 Democrats to win. They’re veto-proof super majorities.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told NY1 from the Somos conference in Puerto Rico the expanded ranks won’t change the relationship with Governor Hochul
“It’s not meaningful with regard to fighting,” she said. “Obviously, when you have a veto-proof majority, that is a wonderful power to have, but certainly that’s not the goal. The goal is to continue to work together,” she said.
The democratic socialists grew their ranks to 14 lawmakers.
Of the flipped seats in New York City, four were in southern Brooklyn, where voters kicked out Republicans in Russian and Chinese-American neighborhoods there.
“There are local issues or local dynamics I want to say that really helped the Democrats,” Yiatin Chu, president of the Asian Wave Alliance, said.
Chu’s group endorsed two losing Chinese-American Republicans — Assemblyman Lester Chang and State Sen. Steven Chan.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s performance helped the Democratic candidates there, Chu said, as did support from Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, a Democrat who delivers funding.
“She’s able to provide that funding to local organizations, and they see that and unfortunately serving on the Republican minority in the state and also as part of the state, they just don’t get that kind of funding,” Chu said.
Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist, said Hochul and legislative leaders will be negotiating the budget stronger than ever, particularly on tough issues of affordability, like housing development and insurance reforms.
“We’re going to start to see, as we get closer to the budget, where they’re going to have to work through how to compromise on some of those things but they’re all compromising from a position of strength, having had this big night,” he said.
Source: ny1.com
