ALBANY, NY (WSKG) - Democrats who lead the state Senate announced Monday that they have won enough seats to hold a super majority. That means they can override vetoes by the governor and potentially change the balance of power at the State Capitol.
After wading through an unprecedented number of absentee ballots cast in the November 3rd elections, several Democratic candidates in the State Senate have pulled ahead of their republican opponents and have declared victory.
Forty-one races have been decided for the Democrats. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says she’s confident of a 42nd win in Westchester, where Democrat Peter Harckham was challenged by Republican Rob Astorino. That gives Democrats a supermajority, she says, for the first time in the state’s history.
“New Yorkers have not only chosen to return to a Democratic Majority,” Stewart-Cousins said. “But they’ve chosen to return a super majority.”
In addition to defending seats on Long Island, Democrats flipped several upstate seats, including one in the Buffalo region and two in the Rochester area.
The victory generated praise from progressive groups, who have long asked the legislature to approve measures opposed by Governor Cuomo, including imposing new taxes on the wealthy, and giving more money to public schools.
Assembly Democrats already have a supermajority, and now both houses of the legislature potentially have the power to enact policies without the agreement of the governor, by overriding any of his vetoes.
Senator Stewart-Cousins hinted at that new balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government, saying the wins show that New Yorkers support the Democrats’ agenda, and want to see it carried out.
“And we will assert ourselves accordingly,” she said.
But Stewart-Cousins is quick to downplay any differences with Cuomo, saying they worked together to achieve many changes, including making it easier to vote and strengthening the right to choose an abortion.
“It’s a lot easier, frankly, when you are all rowing towards the same shore,” she said.
Cuomo, asked about the Senate supermajority in an unrelated news conference, says he envisions working with the legislature on common goals in the New Year, including battling the ongoing pandemic and dealing with the state’s $15 billion dollar budget deficit.
“The way that state government really works is through the budget, all the main things are done in the budget,” Cuomo said. “Supermajority or not, it doesn’t really make a difference.”
Governors in New York have the authority to make broad policy changes in budget bill language, but the legislature has limited ability to alter those changes. Lawmakers can only approve or reject spending items in the budget.
Cuomo, who says he supported the Democratic candidates and worked hard to elect them, says he can’t envision a situation where all 42 Democrats would vote to oppose him on an issue.
The Senate Democrats were not hesitant to point out disagreements, though, with their republican colleagues, who ruled the Senate for much of the past century.
Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy and Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt claimed victory in several Senate races on November 4th, the day after Election Day, before absentee ballots, largely cast by Democrats, were counted. At the time, Ortt called it a “repudiation” of one party control, as well as a rejection of some of the Democrats’ policies, that included bail reform and other criminal justice changes.
“The people of New York, of all political stripes, did not like what they saw the last two years. And they want to see something different,” Ortt said on November 4th.
But with some of those seats ultimately going to Democrats, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, who ran the Senate campaigns, says the Republicans spoke too soon. He called their earlier remarks “one of the greatest self owns of all time”.
Gianaris says the GOP strategy in 9 key races made an issue of the Democrats’ criminal justice changes. But Democrats won 7 of those seats, 6 of them by higher numbers than in 2018.
“The opponents of bail reform took their best shot and they failed, miserably,” Gianaris said.
In a statement, Senator Ortt did not acknowledge the losses, saying that he still expected Republicans to flip some blue seats to red in the remaining uncalled Senate races, and that the GOP won all seats held by “returning incumbent members”.
And he promised to push back against the Democrats’ agenda that he predicts will “usher in a new era of radical, increasingly socialist policies, unlike anything before seen in this state."