New York Republicans will be working harder than ever in the coming months on the issues that matter most to Empire State residents. Common sense policies that create jobs, spur economic growth, limit the size and cost of state government, and reduce the tax burden on middle class New Yorkers remain the core vision of state Republicans.While our party’s narrow defeat in the 48th senate district special election is disappointing, it does not deter the Republican senate majority from fulfilling its most critical role in Albany’s prevailing political environment: providing a vigorous, fair, and thoughtful counterbalance to Democratic hegemony over state government.
Senate Republicans fully understand that their unified conference, guided by the steady and experienced hand of Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, is the only check and balance that exists today in a state government dominated by an executive best known for pledging to steamroll all opposition to his will.
The Governor and his allies should not read yesterday’s results as an affirmation of his policies or as public approbation of one-party rule dominated by an authoritarian executive.
To quote legendary Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, a great Democrat who understood the importance of finding bi-partisan consensus and building bridges across the legislative aisle, “All politics is local.”
The outcome in the 48th senate district was an isolated result determined by regional issues and local personalities. Our friends on the other side of the aisle would be ill advised to draw any statewide conclusions from yesterday’s vote tally.
With this special election passing into history, the Republican Party goes back to work today firm in its commitment to its core beliefs and ready to wage vigorous campaigns across the state that, this November, will carry New York for our party’s presidential nominee, add to our state’s assembly and congressional delegations, and, most importantly, expand the Republican senate majority and assure its continuing role as the guarantor of the critical checks and balances so necessary in any democratic form of government.
