Midterm Flip: How The Hudson Valley Changes The State Senate

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Democratic candidates for state Senate scored a victory for their party on Tuesday by giving Democrats a comfortable majority in a chamber they haven't controlled for decades. The Hudson Valley had a role in the shift, flipping two districts that had long been Republican, and will play a big role going forward.

Westchester County's Andrea Stewart-Cousins will make history as the first woman and first African-American woman to lead the New York Senate.

Stewart-Cousins represents Bedford, North Castle, Harrison, part of the City of White Plains, Rye, Mamaroneck, Eastchester, part of New Rochelle and part of Yonkers. She was unopposed.

She's leading Democratic lawmakers who want to finally move forward with policies that have gotten through the deep-blue Assembly but stalled in the Senate, the GOP's last bastion of state power.

"We have an ambitious legislative agenda to pass in the first 30 days of 2019," said state Senator-elect Peter Harckham of the 40th District, which spans parts of Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties.

So did the shift happen? The Hudson Valley was a battleground and higher than usual voter turnout was key.

40th flips

In the 40th, Harckham took the seat away from two-term Sen. Terrence Murphy, who won it handily twice following conservative Republican Greg Ball.

Dems were stronger in Westchester than they were in Dutchess or in deep-red Putnam County.

That's a much bigger voter turnout than in 2014, when Murphy defeated challenger Justin Wagner with 46,884 votes to Wagner's 37,875.

39th goes blue after decades

Senate District 39 also flipped. In the fight to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bill Larkin, who held the seat for 28 years, Democrat James Skoufis of Orange County beat Republican Tom Basile of Rockland County in a race that has implications for Albany politics.

Basile was endorsed by United Citizens of Kiryas Joel, netting him the "bloc vote" from the large Hasidic community. That bloc vote, strong in Orange and Rockland counties and in Brooklyn, crosses party lines, having long relied on support from Senate Republican leaders as well as Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We overcame the Village of Kiryas Joel bloc vote,” said Skoufis during his victory speech Tuesday night. “While we’re at it, we were the only Democratic campaign in a competitive State Senate campaign anywhere in New York that the governor did not make a campaign contribution to. So guess what? When we go to the State Senate in January, we will not owe anything to any of them. Not the governor. Not KJ. Not any of the special interests that operate in Albany. The only, the only people I will happily be indebted to are all of you.”

Basile also represented a segment of New York's conservatives. He was a founder of and now consults for Reclaim New York, the nonprofit funded by the Mercer family, which also backs the alt-right Breitbart news site.

Turnout was key in the 39th as well. In 2018, the total number of votes was 93,630, according to unofficial results from the NY Board of Elections. In 2014, just 71,660 people cast votes in the 39th state senate district election.

Only Ulster County went for Basile.

And in a flip that was more about power politics than party, Alessandra Biaggi of Pelham cemented her defeat of Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein in the 34th Senate District, which represents parts of Westchester and the Bronx.

Klein was one of a group of six Democratic state senators who collaborated with Republicans as members of the now-defunct Independent Democratic Conference.

• Alessandra Biaggi, D WF 253,262
• Richard A. Ribustello, R 10,683
• Jeffrey D. Klein, IN (incumbent) 5,176
• Antonio Vitiello, C 1,266

What's next?

High on Democrats' priority list is the Reproductive Health Act, Child Victims Act and Red Flag Bill.

Other likely policy initiatives include implementing early voting, which 37 states currently offer, or making it easier to vote absentee or by mail.

It could also mean offering same-day or automatic voter registration, which would be a stark contrast to the current requirement that voters register at least 25 days in advance of an election. The New York Civil Liberties Union is challenging that cutoff in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Hudson Valley commuters will also be watching to see how the lawmakers will tackle New York City Transit President Andy Byford's $40 billion plan to resurrect the city's ailing public transportation system. The question has always been how to pay for it, and the millionaires' tax and congestion pricing are two of the possibilities.

Image via Shutterstock

Get Patch’s Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts
>> Check Out The Hudson Valley Patches' Facebook Pages