A win by a candidate in a four-way primary for a state Senate seat Tuesday n
A win by a candidate in a four-way primary for a state Senate seat Tuesday night may help Republicans keep control of the New York state Senate in the long run.
Marisol Alacantara won the Upper Manhattan seat held by Adrian Espaillat, who is running for Congress. Alacantara is a Democrat, but she has said if elected to the Senate in November, she won’t join the regular Democrats but will likely ally with the breakaway Democratic faction known as the Independent Democratic Conference. The breakaway Democrats have in the past formed a coalition government with the Republicans, and they have not ruled out doing that again in 2017.
Bob Bellafiore, with the group New Yorkers for Independent Action, says it’s a win for maintaining the current balance of power in Albany.
“For the regular Democrats to take control of the state Senate, it would have to be a massive, wholesale Watergate-like sweep away of the Republicans,” Bellafiore said. “Which I don’t think anybody expects in 2016.”
The independent expenditure group supports school choice for low-income children by offering them scholarships to leave their designated school district for private or parochial schools. The Independent Democrats have backed that idea in the past, and have received campaign money from pro-school choice donors.
