The Views Of New York’s State Chairmen
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- November
- 4
The state’s Democratic and Republican chairman offered, as expected, different takes on Tuesday’s election results.
State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said: “If you’re a Republican this morning, you’re feeling emboldened. If you’re a Democrat this morning, you’re a bit more cautious.”
But Jacobs warned that despite the party’s losses in the suburbs and upstate, Democrats have a year to regroup and refocus their message, particularly on curbing the state’s high property taxes.
“The lesson in all of of this is that where we have Democratic majorities, where we have the ability to deliver for voters, we have to redouble our efforts to focus on the issues, like property taxes in the suburbs,” said Jacobs, who in his home county of Nassau saw Republicans win the Legislature for the first time in a decade and County Executive Thomas Suozzi hanging on to a narrow lead.
Asked he still expects Gov. David Paterson to run for election next year, Jacobs said he does.
“I believe Governor Paterson is going to run and I believe that the Democrats can make the argument that we deserve to win, but that’s what we have to work hard at this year,” he said. “We are in a tough position and the governor has the responsibility to balance the budget and pay the bills in New York state. He doesn’t have the luxury of just complaining about cuts and other things, he actually has to do them.”
As for Republicans, state GOP chairman Ed Cox said that he thinks the races were a turning point in revitalizing the GOP in New York.
These are the kind of “wins, with encouragement from the local party and the state party, you could see people come forward and say I’m ready to run,” Cox said.
Asked if that means Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki, Cox said, “I think it would encourage not only them but other very good candidates to come out for other statewide or local races.”
Cox was also encouraged that Republicans can regroup after losing the 23rd Congressional District race and win next year.
“We will win it with a candidate who has good fiscally conservative views,” Cox said.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 3:52 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. 
