The State Senate is up for grabs

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There are 11 seats up for grabs across the state, and a change in three of them would be dramatic. Four of them are here on Long Island. A popular Republican, Chuck Fuschillo, resigned from the Senate, and now Democrat Dave Denenberg, the hardest-working candidate I’ve ever met, has a good shot at capitalizing on the fact that he not only has a 7,000 vote-registration advantage, but has historically garnered many Republican votes.

Lee Zeldin is leaving the Senate to run for Congress, and the Republican candidate designated to run for his seat has dropped out due to the dumping scandal in Islip. Adrienne Esposito, a noted environmentalist who has helped lead the charge in the Islip scandal, is running on the Democratic line.

Longtime incumbent Republican Sen. Carl Marcellino, who has never faced a serious challenge, isn’t resigning, but he has a tough race against the popular Republican mayor of Sea Cliff, Bruce Kennedy, who is running as a Democrat, because conservatives attacked him for performing a gay wedding, and he felt that the Republican party had abandoned him.

Jack Martins, a popular incumbent senator and a former mayor of Mineola, faces a tough race wth the well-funded Democrat Adam Haber, who fights hard. Haber is likely to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money in a Democratic-leaning district.

People aren’t paying much attention to these races, but the State Legislature is more responsible for high property taxes on Long Island than any other elected body. State mandates cause costs to rise dramatically, and state aid is the only source of revenue for school districts other than property taxes. More state aid, less property taxes. Less state aid, more school taxes.

Democrats would be smart to argue, “If Republicans have done such a good job of attracting school aid, why are our school taxes so high? Elect a Democratic State Senate and we’ll streamline mandates — and thereby reduce costs — and fight to get more state aid. And if the State Senate goes Democratic but we don’t have Democratic senators from Long Island, we won’t have people in the chamber fighting for us. Vote for me.”
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