11 minute read
FIRST READ
Republican Nick LaLota defeated Democrat Bridget Fleming in the 1st Congressional District. He is taking over the seat from Rep. Lee Zeldin, who ran for governor.
LONG ISLAND’S RED WAVE
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Republicans picked up four congressional seats on Long Island – a clean sweep of a borough that’s long been regarded as a key battleground in the contest for control of the House. Its unique political landscape made it one of the most watched areas in both the state and country – three of the four incumbents had declined to run for reelection. Heading into the election, the seats had been split down the middle – Democrats and Republicans each held two. With control of Congress hanging in the balance, Democrats hoped that the Long Island region could play a vital role in their ability to beat back forecasts. Then the results started rolling in. Despite The Cook Political Report’s analysis rating the area as
A MILLION LITTLE PIECES
A day after declaring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as “DeFuture” on its cover, the New York Post seems to have fully turned on former President Donald Trump. At least 14 of Trump’s candidates were projected to lose after he spent a rocky election night for the GOP “fuming,” according to reports. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said he even blamed his wife Melania for the losing decision to back Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. That’s the way the crudité crumbles.
– Gov Kathy Hochul, in her election night victory speech
– Rep. Nydia Velázquez, on disappointing election results for Democrats up and down the ballot, via The City leaning Democrat, Republican Anthony D’Esposito beat Laura Gillen in Nassau County’s 4th District, flipping the seat red in the wake of Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice’s retirement. George Santos flipped the other seat previously held by Democrats in Long Island, beating Robert Zimmerman in the 3rd Congressional District held by Rep. Tom Suozzi, who ran for governor. Republican Nick LaLota declared victory in the 1st Congressional District against Bridget Fleming. The lone race with an incumbent on the ballot also concluded in a similar vein with Rep. Andrew Garbarino easily soaring to victory over Democratic challenger Jackie Gordon in the 2nd Congressional District.
BATTLE IN THE HUDSON VALLEY
Republicans also made big gains in New York’s other battleground region, the Hudson Valley. While Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s loss to Republican Mike Lawler was perhaps the biggest upset of the night, the GOP triumphed in another key Hudson Valley district. Just a few months after he lost a special election in August to Democratic candidate Pat Ryan, Republican Marc Molinaro’s fortunes reversed in the 19th Congressional District. Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive and former Republican gubernatorial candidate, defeated his opponent Josh Riley with about 51% of the
vote. Thanks to a complicated redistricting process, the 19th Congressional District now stretches beyond Hudson Valley into the Southern Tier. Ryan, who beat Molinaro during August’s special election by emphasizing the fight to protect abortion rights, declared a slim victory over Colin Schmitt in the 18th Congressional District, meaning the party secured at least one of the nation’s top toss-up races.
STATEWIDE STATUS QUO
Unsurprisingly, New York’s well-known statewide incumbents secured reelection. State Attorney General Letitia James easily secured a second term in the top position she has used to pursue a slew of powerful targets, including former President Donald Trump. James never appeared to consider her Republican opponent to be a threat. In the weeks leading up to the election, she repeatedly declined to debate Michael Henry, a lawyer who had never served in an elected office, and on election night, James declared victory for herself shortly after the polls closed. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli also won a fourth full term against former Wall Street investor Paul Rodriguez, as did U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer against his own Republican challenger. But while New York’s senior senator comfortably secured a fifth term against Joe Pinion, a conservative news commentator, his position as U.S. Senate majority leader was less certain with several key races still hanging in the balance. High-profile politicians weren’t the only ones to have emerged victorious. Nearly 70% of New York voters opted to approve the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Energy, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.
State Attorney General Letitia James cruised to victory over her Republican opponent Michael Henry. Other statewide candidates like Tom DiNapoli and Chuck Schumer also won.
A subdued mood at the beginning of Somos
Fresh off the 8 a.m. plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico, a Democratic elected official was thinking about the night before while they waited at the baggage claim. “It was embarrassing hearing on CNN last night that New York screwed up,” they said.
There’s a bit of a cloud hanging over the annual Somos Puerto Rico conference, which kicked off on Wednesday – and it wasn’t just the haze over Isla Verde Beach. Democrats held off a red wave nationally, but New York didn’t stay dry. Republicans seem like they’ll gain four congressional seats and hold on to seven others. That could be the difference in controlling the House.
Republicans swept all four congressional seats on Long Island and made impressive gains up and down the ballot in the Lower Hudson Valley. The GOP is set to gain seats in the state Senate and Assembly – even in New York City – and Gov. Kathy Hochul underperformed for a statewide Democrat. In the race for governor, this year was the closest election since Republican George Pataki won by about 3 points in 1994.
Now, hundreds of Democratic candidates, consultants and hangers-on are heading to the beach. “It’s crazy that we’re going to be here with the people that fucked up the hardest,” said one party operative. “This is the shittiest Democratic Party in the United States, and we’re going to be hanging out with them.”
Yes, many Democrats are eager to point fingers after Tuesday night, and state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who led the redistricting process that got favorable maps rejected by the courts, was just one of many targets named so far, as well as state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – due to the judges he apppointed to the state Court of Appeals.
“We definitely underperformed the rest of the country,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said, while waiting to check in at the Royal Sonesta. There are many reasons for that, he said, citing some House Democrats like Rep. Tom Suozzi not seeking reelection, and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s choice to run in the 17th Congressional District, rather than the 18th District. “There’s a lot of important soul-searching for folks to do.” Is this the place to do it? “That’s a great question,” Lander said, laughing. “I don’t know the answer.” – Jeff Coltin
THE WEEK AHEAD
WEDNESDAY 11/16
The New York City Council Education Committee holds an oversight hearing at 1 p.m. on the Department of Education’s spending of federal COVID-19 relief funds. THURSDAY 11/17
City & State hosts a Transportation Summit featuring state Department Of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. TUESDAY 11/22
The Association for a Better New York hosts a Power Breakfast with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer at 8:30 a.m. at Cipriani Wall Street. INSIDE DOPE
Schumer’s victory over Republican candidate Joe Pinion was the first race called on election night – right after the polls closed.
WOMEN AT THE HELM
Katharine Bement Davis
Penologist, social worker and sex researcher Katharine Bement Davis was appointed the first female correction commissioner in New York City in 1914, and in doing so became the first woman to head any major New York
City agency.
Here are some of the women who broke barriers to lead New York City agencies.
By Annie McDonough
Before he took office in January, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made a slew of promises on the campaign trail, including a commitment to appoint a woman to head the New York City Police Department for the first time. That was a promise Adams followed through on, choosing Keechant Sewell to lead the department of some 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.
Two of New York City’s other uniformed agencies – the Department of Sanitation and the Department of Correction – had already had female commissioners, with the latter seeing a woman at its helm before women even had the right to vote. The only remaining outlier has been the New York City Fire Department – until last month, when Adams appointed Laura Kavanagh to be the city’s first female fire commissioner.
Take a look back at the road to female leadership of the city’s major uniformed agencies.
Emily Lloyd
Emily Lloyd was named the first female commissioner of the Department of Sanitation by Mayor David Dinkins in 1992. Lloyd stepped down in mid-1994, after Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office. Lloyd created a citywide recycling program, and she later led the city Department of Environmental Protection.
Keechant Sewell
Keechant Sewell was plucked from the Nassau County Police Department to become the first female police commissioner in New York City, also becoming the first Black woman to lead the department. Sewell has faced intensifying fears about crime, including in the city’s subway system.
Laura Kavanagh
Laura Kavanagh has served as acting fire commissioner since February but it was only last month that Adams made it official, appointing the former de Blasio administration staffer as the first female commissioner of the department.
A Q&A with state Sen.-elect
JACK MARTINS
Republicans had a lot of success on Long Island during the midterm elections. How do you feel this happened? Long Island is influenced by everything that happens in New York state, and given its relationship with New York City, there are a lot of synergies there. A lot of the issues that resonated on Long Island like cashless bail reform and criminal justice reforms did so because people got to see their effects firsthand, whether it was in their own communities or in the city or on the news. (These issues) became part of the dialogue that led up to the election, and I think you saw that as part of the results. People often forget how intertwined New York City and Long Island are. There are hundreds of thousands of people who go into the city every day to work. What they see in the city and those impacts do affect their lives and obviously their electoral decisions.
How do you foresee the results of this election shifting Long Island’s political power in the Legislature? I think it’s reflective of the electorate and frankly, their sentiment that the Legislature went a bit too far. When it comes to criminal justice reforms, for the first time in my life I saw crime become a central issue on Long Island. We have always lived in an area that is safe, where we have wonderful law enforcement, and we have a priority on law and order. When voters saw that under attack – home invasions, people breaking into homes and stealing cars and catalytic converters, and worse in news reports – I think it touched home.
What was your strategy? What motivated you to run again? I felt that there was a need for change. That’s why I decided to go back. I’m returning to an Albany very different from the one I left. When I left in 2016, we had a state spending cap that we imposed on ourselves of 2%, but they’ve since blown through that. Six years ago, we had a way of working on policy without necessarily shutting the other side out of any discussion and considerations.
How have you evolved as an elected official since your last time as a state senator? My children are older for one. I think having adult children and children who are still in high school allowed me to have different perspectives as did returning to the private sector and focusing on building a business. Also understanding there’s a life outside of politics, which is great, but at the same time, we all have to remain politically and intellectually engaged.
Seeing my girls grow up has been very impactful. I can say that after Dobbs, having adult daughters was very interesting. I have had the opportunity to have those conversations not only with friends and strangers, but with my children who have very strong feelings. I really do believe that I’ve benefited from having this context. Talking to them was very helpful in terms of understanding their perspective. – Sahalie Donaldson
