City Newspaper Archives - 2/2007
POLITICS: Robach says he'll stay put
Published by Mary Anna Towler on Feb 13, 2007
New York Democrats have been trying to get Robach and several other Republican senators to switch sides or leave the Senate and join the Spitzer administration. Their goal: to fill those seats with Democrats and get control of the Senate.
That, says Robach, is a really bad idea. "Look at the numbers," he said in an interview on Monday. "Twenty-eight of our 33 Republican majority members are from Upstate," and 80 percent of the Assembly Democrats are from downstate districts.
"The New York City people are the ones in charge in the Assembly," Robach said. "All of the balance of power, and all of the resources, and all the policy go to New York City, and secondarily to Upstate New York."
And if the Democrats got control of the Senate, you could expect more of the same, he said. Only a minority of the Democrats in the Senate are from Upstate.
"You only are what you are," Robach said. "I think I'm the least partisan person in the legislature." Being in the Senate majority, he said, has enabled him to bring home funds that are important to the Rochester area. And, he said, divisions in the state legislature aren't about ideology, they're about geography.
"It's been the Senate that has been the most vocal about the issues of Upstate New York," he said.
