City Newspaper Archives - 2/2007
POLITICS: Spitzer hands a Senate vote to Dems
Published by Mary Anna Towler on Feb 07, 2007
It hasn't taken Eliot Spitzer long to flex his political muscle.
Long Island voters chose a new state senator yesterday. The reason for their special election: Spitzer snatched the former senator, Michael Balboni --- just by happenstance, a Republican --- out of the Senate and installed him as head of the state's homeland-security program. And in what the New York Times calls "the costliest battle for a state legislative seat in New York history," voters elected a Democrat, Craig Johnson. Johnson and his Republican opponent, Maureen O'Connell, spent an estimated $5 million dollars in the short race, the Times says.
That narrows the Republicans' control in the Senate to only four. And the Democrats might not have to wait until the next election to get control. If they can convince two of them to switch sides, the Senate membership would be tied.
And Lieutenant Governor David Patterson would be the person who would break any tie votes.
The Times is reporting that at least two Republicans might switch. And one of them is Rochester's Joe Robach, a former Democrat who turned Republican and is the son of a revered Democratic leader, the late Roger Robach.
Local politicians have long speculated that if Democrats ever took control of the Senate, Joe Robach would return to the fold. Instead, he may help bring about that control.
