The GOP currently has a 4 seat advantage in the New York State Senate. One of the Democrats biggest priorities is to take the majority in the State Senate. One of the heaviest targeted areas to take over the State Senate is Long Island. The Democrats have made major gains across Long Island over the past few years, and it has gone from mostly GOP control to mostly Dem control. However, one area the GOP has held onto, is the State Senate as the GOP holds 8 of the 9 State Senate Seats on LI, despite the Dem gains everywhere else. That margin actually was 9-0, until Craig Johnson won a special election to take over Mike Balboni's 7th district seat. The Dems have made LI a prime target in trying to take the majority and one of the districts they seem to have their eyes set is the 6th, Kemp hannon's seat which he has held since 1989.
Back in October Dave Mejias moved from North Massapequa (actually S. Farmingdale CDP, but considered N. Mass & with a N. Mass zipcode) to Farmingdale, the move left him in the same Nassau county Legisltive District (14th), but changed the Senate district he was in from the 8th (Fuschillo) to the 6th (Hannon) New York state law requires that anyone running for a State Senate district must reside in that district a year before the Election. The move raised speculation that Mejias would run for the State Senate seat against Hannon. Hannon is generally considered more vulnerable than Fuschillo. The enrollment figures in the two Senate districts are very similar, though the overall gap between the 6th and 8th are probably larger than the numbers suggest. Both are far more friendly than Mejias's LD which the GOP has about a 15 point GOP advantage.
6th 39.64% GOP, 35.54% Dem, 24.82% Ind/3rd. 4.10% GOP advantage
8th 39.38% GOP, 34.91% Dem,25.71% Ind/ 3rd 4.47% GOP advantage
So the rumors have been circulating for a while, but now the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee Finance Chairman is holding a fundraiser for Mejias on Tuesday.
Despite the fact that it was his very public effort on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates and public statements about his desire to end GOP control of the chamber that tanked his relationship with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Spitzer is showing no signs of backing down. He even has settled his score with his long-ago defeated primary challenger, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who is a close friend and ally of Mejias.
Mejias has no Senate campaign committee on file yet at the state Board of Elections. According to his 32-day pre-general filing, he had $49,597 in his county committee’s account. As of mid-January, Hannon, a veteran senator who was elected in 1989 after a stint in the Assembly and chairs the Health Committee, had $320,884 on hand.
Mejias, who mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Republican Rep. Peter King last fall, moved out of Sen. Charles Fuschillo’s district and into Hannon’s just shy of the deadline to make the relocation valid for the 2008 election.
Hannon is viewed by the Democrats are more vulnerable than Fuschillo. The 6th SD has a slight GOP enrollment edge of about 8,000 voters, but also has 41,533 blanks. The 8th SD, which Fuschillo represents, has 11,113 more enrolled Republicans than Democrats and 44,953 small-i independents.
Just a small correction on the article, the 8th has about 9100 more registered Republicans not 11,000
