ALBANY, N.Y. – With the last Republican in the six-state New England congressional delegation faced with extinction this year and the New York GOP delegation expected to shrink again, the Northeast is rapidly becoming a one-party region.
Amy Kramer, chief lobbyist for the New York CU Association, said she expects the state’s delegation to lose as many as three more Republican seats next week, giving the GOP just three of 29 seats after the elections. "Since I’ve been here the Republican delegation has been steadily shrinking," Kramer told The Credit Union Journal yesterday.
Both U.S. senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, are Democrats.
Count among this year’s attrition the retirements of 10-term incumbent Jim Walsh of Syracuse and five-termer Tom Reynolds of Buffalo, the recent head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. In addition, Vito Vosella, the credit union-backed six-term incumbent from Staten Island, has been forced from the race because of an extramarital scandal, making it likely that seat goes Democrat, according to Kramer.
If so, that could leave just Peter King, John McHugh and Randy Kuhl, as the three surviving Republican members of the delegation. That’s down from 13 Republicans in 1998, the year Congress passed HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act.
In neighboring Connecticut, Chris Shays, the 11-term congressman from Stamford and the last Republican in the New England delegation, has been targeted by the national Democratic Party. Shays won with just 51% of the vote in this largely Democratic district in 2006.
The New York league and CUNA are supporting Democrat Dan Maffei, a staffer for Congressman Charles Rangel, for the Walsh seat; Republican businessman Rep. Chris Lee for the Reynolds seat; and Democratic state Rep. Paul Tonko for the seat around Albany, which has been vacated by retiring 10-term incumbent Democrat Mike McNulty.
The credit union league is also watching closely two state Senate races that could tip the control of the Senate to Democrats for the first time in almost 40 years. "That’s really going to determine our legislative agenda for next year," Kramer said.
