Dear Doctor:
I heard you on the radio speaking about the possibility of the Democrats taking the State Senate. My political science teacher, who I think is a Republican and is much smarter than you are, says this is a very bad idea. He thinks one- party rule would be bad for the state and the Democrats would spend us out of house and home. My teacher says that balanced government is best and that the Democratic conference is not fit to rule. My father says that my mother says that my teacher is very smart. Is he?
Sign me,
Paul from Perplexedville
Dear Paul:
Let there be no question about it — this is going to be a very close election and members of the Republican majority under Joe Bruno are scared to death that they will lose their power. The only way they have perpetuated their majority party status is to use the gerrymander to draw districts where they can’t lose. To say the least, this distorts the whole concept of free and fair elections. The fact is that there are a lot more Democrats in New York than Republicans and that this day of reckoning has been a long time coming.
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith has been leading the way to impose a limit on how much New Yorkers can have their property taxes raised. That should provide some answer to those who think that the Democrats will be tax and spenders. In the meantime, it looks like a few races are providing some impetus to the Democrats. In Queens, a Democrat with a famous political name, Joseph Addabbo, Jr., is running against a Republican, Serphin Maltese. Maltese came very close to losing against a political unknown in his last election and Addabbo is the son of a famous congressman who served the district. There are also several other close state Senate races including one on Long Island, one in Rochester and another in Queens. Of course, no one is above dirty tricks. Look for a disappointed office seeker who will lose in a primary to Addabbo to run as a third party candidate and spoil the Democrats’ chance to take the Senate.
The Republicans, backed by the big money crowd and some of the labor unions, will try to outspend the Democrats. Eliot Spitzer was trying to raise a lot of money to help Democratic candidates but that doesn’t seem to be happening in the new administration. There are some very close races in some Senate districts and I predict some big surprises in this presidential year in blue state New York. I hope this answers your question. You can be sure that if the Republicans do lose, there will be a huge retirement party for a lot of other Republican senators who will quit en masse. They have no intention of sticking around in the minority.
