Voters in New York’s Hudson Valley region are deciding several close Congressional races.
Public polls show toss-up elections in New York’s 19th, 18th, and 17th House districts after redistricting scrambled the map and the candidates earlier this year.
In the new 17th district in the lower Hudson Valley, Democratic Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is hoping to hold off a challenge from Republican state Assemblyman Mike Lawler, in his first term representing the 97th district. Maloney has been in office for a decade and led the House Democrats’ midterm strategy.
“I’ve passed 40 bills through the House in a bipartisan way,” Maloney said. “I work with Republicans all the time. Supervisors, mayors, county executives. Sometimes take heat for it from my own Democrats. But I’ll tell ya, you gotta work with people to get things done. And there are a lot of good, responsible Republicans out there, but in Washington, you got a bunch of sheep. And the people in charge? Well, I don’t want them running the place.”
Millions of dollars from both sides have poured into the district, which includes southern Dutchess County, Putnam, Westchester and Rockland.
Lawler, from Rockland County, says the region is ready for a change.
“There’s a lot of people who are registered Democrat who don’t vote that way anymore. And that’s why I won a 2-to-1 Democratic district in 2020 for the state Assembly,” Lawler said. “There are 22,000 more Democrats in my Assembly district than Republicans. But I appealed to voters on the issues that mattered and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this campaign and why I feel positive about it.”
As in most other Empire State races this fall, the candidates have clashed over crime, abortion and inflation.
In the 18th district, covering Orange, Ulster and Dutchess counties, Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan faces Republican state Assemblyman Colin Schmitt of the 99th district. Ryan won August’s special election over Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro to serve the rest of now-Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado’s term in the 19th district.
Schmitt was elected to the Assembly in 2018.
“We’re the No. 1 contested race in the entire state at the Congressional level,” Schmitt said. “We are very proud of the over 140,000 voter contacts that we made. There is major momentum behind us.”
Ryan has again focused on abortion rights.
“This just isn’t who we are as a country and it transcends party,” Ryan said. “And that’s what I think we saw in our special election, and we saw it in Kansas with the referendum and we saw it in Alaska, with their special election, and I think it’s going to continue. And it’s actually really hopeful to me that people understand, even if they’re not directly affected by someone else’s rights being taken away, that sort of means that all of our rights are under threat.”
The new 19th district stretches from the Binghamton area along the Southern Tier to Sullivan County and Greene and Columbia in the east. It features Democrat Josh Riley, a first-time candidate, and Molinaro — whose political career began as a teenage mayor, came through the statehouse and included a 2018 run for governor.
“Voters and residents want change, they want relief,” Molinaro said. “They want their government to pay attention to their needs, drive down costs, confront crime and really create opportunities. And the response has been tremendous. I will say, I don’t see my opponent anywhere. I mean, truthfully. We have been to every corner multiple times.”
Riley is an attorney from Ithaca.
“Our message is resonating across this entire district,” Riley said. “We are running a campaign about both justice and jobs. Justice because what we’re seeing is unprecedented threats to our democracy, unprecedented threats to freedom and liberty and constitutional rights including women’s reproductive freedom.”
In the Capital Region’s 20th district, Democrat Paul Tonko saw his hometown of Amsterdam shifted into Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s 21st district during redistricting, as she faces Democrat Matt Castelli.
The 20th still includes the Albany-Schenectady-Troy tri-cities. In office since 2009, Tonko faces a rematch against Republican Liz Joy.
They faced off in one debate co-hosted by WAMC.
“I’m an engineer by training,” Tonko said. “That instructs my role as a legislator. Fighting for working families, protecting our rights, saving our democracy and building an even stronger economy in our greater Capital Region is what my campaign is all about. It’s what my work in Washington is about.”
Joy lost their first contest by about 22 points two years ago.
“You’re concerned about your grocery prices, your heat, your energy, your oil, and I am too,” Joy said. “And also like you, I’m concerned about the violent crime that’s sweeping across America and especially here in New York state.”
Polls are open until 9 p.m. Tuesday.
