New York City politics have long clashed with Albany, but the 2018 midterm election results may change that since Democrats have won control of the state senate for the first time in a decade.
The city spends more in resources to Albany than it gets back, said Patrick Egan, a politics professor at New York University who focuses on public opinions, campaigns and elections.
That’s in part because urban centers have been driving the state’s economic growth, he noted, and also because one legislative chamber has been consistently controlled by Republicans, whose base of power are the rural parts of New York.
In the wake of the 2018 midterm election, which is sending six new state Senators representing parts of the five boroughs to Albany, this could change.
“This shift could, in theory, lead to a shift in resources for the city,” Egan said. “Think in particular about things like schools, think about the MTA and other transportation resources — those are two big ones that a newly empowered New York City delegation in Albany might be advocating with more force.”
Having so many newcomer to could be concerning to some — lack of experience is often said as a criticism in political campaigns. But in term so the state Senate, Egan isn’t worried.
“If look at New York state politics, it’s so rife with corruption, indictments and other scandals, it’s hard to say that new faces are anything but good,” he said. “That might be true in a place only like New York state, but politics in Albany are so disappointing to anyone — Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives — that anyone should welcome new faces arriving at the state level.”
2018 midterm election: Congress and New York
Outside of winning Democratic control in the state legislature, New York played a role in the blue wave that crashed over the country in wake of the midterm election.
New York voters flipped three U.S. House seats in the midterms, helping Democrats take control: District 22 in which Anthony Brindisi beat incumbent Claudia Tenney; District 19 in which Antonio Delgado beat incumbent John Faso and District 11 in which Max Rose beat incumbent Dan Donovan, which Egan called one of the biggest surprises of the night.
District 11, which covers Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, has long been a Republican bastion.
With that win, “every square mile of New York City is now represented by Democrats in Congress, and that’s really important,” said Egan — an example of a national trend in which big cities become more and more Democratic.
It could end up hurting New York City a bit, though, since there’s less competition for votes here, and thus less incentive for officials to send federal resources toward the city.
“We’ve already seen that a lot in first two years of Trump’s presidency,” though, Egan noted. “The question becomes, with no Republicans in the New York City delegation, do we lose any juice with the president? A lot of people would say whatever we lose there, we’re gaining because of the Democrats’ takeover of the House.”
