ROUND: August 20, 2018
City & State New York
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The Empire State is the epicenter of the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party.
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EW YORK DEMOCRATS have an opportunity this year to finally wrest control of the state Senate from the Republican Party and wield power in the upper chamber. In three of the past five election cycles, Democratic candidates have won Senate majorities only to be thwarted, first by two rogue senators who would later be convicted of crimes and then by the Independent Democratic Conference and Democratic state Sen. Simcha Felder. After years of pressure from progressives, the IDC disbanded earlier this year, but Felder continues to caucus with Republicans, giving them a 32-31 advantage. All eight former IDC members face primary challengers this year, as does Felder, and Republicans must defend 10 of the 12 state Senate seats identified as “battleground” races by Ballotpedia. The stakes are high. If Democrats take the state Senate, New York could adopt a host of progressive policies – voting reform, expanded reproductive rights, gun control, higher taxes on the wealthy, stricter rent regulation – that currently are locked in a legislative stalemate. With redistricting coming up after the 2020 census, Democrats could even shut the GOP out of power entirely in New York for a decade or more. New York also has a raft of Republican congressional seats that could be vulnerable in a Democratic wave election. And yet the progressive challengers who have garnered the most enthusiastic activist energy and media attention this year have been those running against mainstream Democrats, including the governor. At a time when New York’s left might expect to be united in opposition to President Donald Trump, it’s inAlexandria Ocasiostead more divided than at any time in Cortez and recent memory. But from that discord, Cynthia Nixon are and even if the insurgent candidates leading a progressive insurgency mostly lose, the left may win a larger against estabvictory. To some extent, it already has. lished Democrats.
MARK HALLUM/SHUTTERSTOCK
BY JOSHUA HOLLAND