While a great deal of media attention was focused on the battle between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state Legislature over the appointment of Assembly Democrat Thomas DiNapoli as state comptroller, the bigger, long-term, story that week was a win by Democrat Craig Johnson of Nassau County for a state Senate seat. The victory further trims the GOP's control of the Senate to 33-29.
Slowly the state Democratic Party has been shaving away the once powerful lock that the GOP had on the sole house it controls in the Legislature. The win in 2004 by public broadcaster and now recently re-elected Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, who represents parts of Cayuga County, was possibly the most high-profile Democratic effort for control.
That same year Sen. Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers, was able to keep his seat by a mere 18 votes, only to lose it this past November in a rematch. The new Democratic governor soon after appointed Sen. Michael Balboni, R-Nassau, to become the state's chief of homeland security, thus creating the vacancy that Johnson now occupies.
From its heyday just 12 years ago when the GOP held the Governor's Mansion with a newly elected George E. Pataki, a solid grip on the Senate and 55 seats in the Assembly, enough to block an override of the governor's veto, the GOP has fallen on hard times. They not only lost the governorship in November, but couldn't win one statewide office (including comptroller, even when the Democratic incumbent, Alan Hevesi, was under investigation). Democrats chipped away in the Senate and have a secure 106 seats in the 150 member Assembly.
Making matters worse for the Senate's GOP, even their own leader, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Rensselaer, who is under federal investigation, had a suggestion from Sen. John Bonacic, R-Orange County, a member of his own conference, that he step aside in December.
While Bruno can make a brave face, especially having survived such recent setbacks, it looks as if matters are going to get worse for him and his conference. While they still have a majority, unlike governors Mario Cuomo and Pataki, who seemed to give lip service to legislative races (reserving the use of their political capital for themselves) it doesn't look as though Spitzer will do the same. He knows the importance of keeping the state's GOP on the defensive and raised money for then candidate Johnson and blessed him with his own reform mantra.
Compounding problems for the GOP is the fact that a number of members of their conference are over the age of 70, the party has not done a good job grooming a farm team of possible candidates to run for the Senate in the future, and new Lt. Gov. David Patterson, who was recently Democratic Senate minority leader, wants his party to take control and will work hard to recruit and fund such candidates.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com
That same year Sen. Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers, was able to keep his seat by a mere 18 votes, only to lose it this past November in a rematch. The new Democratic governor soon after appointed Sen. Michael Balboni, R-Nassau, to become the state's chief of homeland security, thus creating the vacancy that Johnson now occupies.
From its heyday just 12 years ago when the GOP held the Governor's Mansion with a newly elected George E. Pataki, a solid grip on the Senate and 55 seats in the Assembly, enough to block an override of the governor's veto, the GOP has fallen on hard times. They not only lost the governorship in November, but couldn't win one statewide office (including comptroller, even when the Democratic incumbent, Alan Hevesi, was under investigation). Democrats chipped away in the Senate and have a secure 106 seats in the 150 member Assembly.
Making matters worse for the Senate's GOP, even their own leader, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Rensselaer, who is under federal investigation, had a suggestion from Sen. John Bonacic, R-Orange County, a member of his own conference, that he step aside in December.
While Bruno can make a brave face, especially having survived such recent setbacks, it looks as if matters are going to get worse for him and his conference. While they still have a majority, unlike governors Mario Cuomo and Pataki, who seemed to give lip service to legislative races (reserving the use of their political capital for themselves) it doesn't look as though Spitzer will do the same. He knows the importance of keeping the state's GOP on the defensive and raised money for then candidate Johnson and blessed him with his own reform mantra.
Compounding problems for the GOP is the fact that a number of members of their conference are over the age of 70, the party has not done a good job grooming a farm team of possible candidates to run for the Senate in the future, and new Lt. Gov. David Patterson, who was recently Democratic Senate minority leader, wants his party to take control and will work hard to recruit and fund such candidates.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com
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