12 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • DECEMBER 2018
IN THE NEWS
ELECTION RECAP
FIRSTS AMONG UPSETS
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
When Democrats surfed a blue
wave to wash Republicans from New
York State Senate control for the first
time a decade — and a century before
that — the sea change brought some
unprecedented developments.
New York State Sen. Andrea Stewart
Cousins (D-Yonkers) will be the
first woman to lead a state legislative
conference when she takes the
gavel from Senate Majority Leader
John Flanagan (R-East Northport),
who will lead the chamber’s GOP
minority come January. Also, among
four stunning upsets on Long Island,
Nassau County voters elected New
York’s first Indian-American state
senator and first Iranian-American
state lawmaker while Suffolk County
voters elected their first female state
senator.
“This is years in the making,” says
Nassau County Democratic Chairman
Jay Jacobs, crediting increased
voter turnout to “the political environment,
the anger, the upset over
Donald Trump and what’s going on
in Washington.”
The state Senate power change
came as Democrats also flipped the
U.S. House of Representatives by the
biggest midterm election margin
in 44 years, although LI’s five congressional
representatives were all
re-elected.
Twenty-nine-year-incumbent
state Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden
City) was unseated by Democratic
challenger Kevin Thomas, an Indian
American attorney, in the Sixth
Senate District. Democratic Town
of North Hempstead Councilwoman
Anna Kaplan, a Jewish refugee from
Iran, ousted freshman state Sen.
Elaine Phillips (R-Flower Hill) in
the Seventh Senate District. And in
a rematch of a razor-thin 2016 race,
Democratic Suffolk County Water
Authority Chairman James Gaughran
unseated 23-year incumbent state
Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset)
in the Fifth Senate District, which
straddles the county line.
To the east, Suffolk Legis. Monica
Martinez (D-Brentwood) beat
state Assemb. Dean Murray (R-East
CAPTION: State Sen.-elect Kevin Thomas, at podium, speaks at a news conference after Election Day. L to R
are James Gaughran, Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, state Sen. John Brooks (D-Massapequa) and
Anna Kaplan. (Long Island Press photo)
Patchogue) in the race to replace
retired state Sen. Tom Croci (R-Bohemia)
in the Third Senate District.
All nine LI state Senate seats were
solidly Republican not long ago. They
were dubbed The Long Island Nine.
Now, the GOP holds just three of those
seats. Jacobs dubbed the new Democratic
group “The Long Island Six.”
It’s the first time in recent memory
that more than two Democrats
were among the nine state Senators
representing the Island. The Republican
led state Senate has long been
the lone check on Democratic power
in state government. For the past nine
years, senators from LI have led the
Senate. Disgraced ex-state Sen. Dean
Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), recently
re-sentenced for a repeat federal corruption
conviction he’s appealing for
a second time, preceded Flanagan as
senate leader.
Flanagan had warned that if
the Democrats were successful in
taking over, they would raise taxes,
worsening the already high cost of
living in New York State. Democrats
insist they learned their lesson from
their passage of the unpopular MTA
Payroll Tax that ended their short
tenure in control 10 years ago.
“Last thing we want a year or two
years from now is for voters to have
buyers’ remorse,” Jacobs says.
Despite the warning, Flanagan was
complimentary of Stewart-Cousins as
she prepared to take his job, calling
her a “class and and truly an extraordinary
person.”
“It is my sincere hope that she and I
can work together to ease the burden
on hardworking taxpayers, partner
with job seekers and job creators to
grow our economy, ensure every
region of the state gets it fair share
and adopt bold reforms,” Flanagan
said in a statement.
Hot-button issues likely to be
debated in next year’s legislative
session include proposals to legalize
recreational marijuana, create
single-payer health care, and codify
abortion rights — especially given
Democratic fears that Trump’s recent
appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court
could help conservatives overturn
Roe v. Wade.
“Change is coming to New York,”
says Gaughran.
As for the state Assembly, which
remains solidly in a Democratic majority,
the blue wave also swept away
that chamber’s third-most powerful
leader when Democrat Taylor Raynor,
a community activist, unseated
Deputy Assembly Speaker Earlene
Hooper (D-Hempstead), a 30-year
incumbent.
The rest of LI’s 22-member Assembly
delegation remained effectively
unchanged despite two upsets. Republicans
retained two seats being
vacated by GOP lawmakers. And
while Democrat Judy Griffin unseated
eight-year state Assemb. Brian
Curran (R-Lynbrook, Republican
Mike LiPetri unseated state Assemb.
Christine Pellegrino (D-West Islip),
leaving the local party breakdown
unchanged.
The state legislature reconvenes
for the 2019 session on Jan. 9.
“Change is coming to New York,”
says state Sen.-elect James Gaughran.