Senate Democrats seek veto-proof majority in Albany - but will they invoke it?
ALBANY — Two years after Republicans lost control of the state Senate, the Democrats across the aisle are positioned to do what many political observers say had once been unthinkable: seize a supermajority in their chamber that would enable them to override any vetoes by the governor.
Buoyed by some well-positioned candidates in key races next week, Democrats believe the wake of their "blue wave" of 2018 is still rolling. The potential strengthening of their control of state government comes after Republicans had held near-constant control of the state Senate from 1939 to 2009, and that was followed by another period of GOP control that relied on a group of breakaway Democrats who conferenced with them.
“I would have thought that upstate New York and Long Island had seceded from the state and started their own state. That’s what I would have thought,” said David Paterson, 66, a former state senator and governor, of what he would have once thought it would take for Democrats to take a supermajority.
For years, the dynamic of Democrats hoping to pick up state Senate seats was a cycle of optimism and ultimate disappointment, he said.
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