Fallout From Republican Senate Loss
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- February
- 27
The theory from Republicans in the state Senate today is that last night’s loss in the northern New York special election to Democrat Darrel Aubertine came down to the fact that voters simply like Aubertine more.
His ad that painted GOP opponent as the wealthy son of former Sen. Doug Barclay who wouldn’t let people fish on the family’s land was simply too much to overcome, some Republicans said privately.
“They were able to define him as an elitist rich kid wouldn’t let people fish in their river,” one GOP strategist said of Barclay.
Republicans were never able to counter the attack, and Aubertine was viewed as a local farmer trying to do good for the district.
“It was about the things going on in that district, primarily the economy,” Aubertine said after being sworn in at the Capitol this afternoon.
But Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Republicans still hold a one-seat majority and may have “lost that battle, but we are going to win the war” in November.
Democratic Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, though, predicted more Democratic victories in November.
“November ‘08 is a little ways off,” Smith said. “My best guess is that we’ll have the same numbers that we have now and most likely we’ll have two or three more.”
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 3:59 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
