Why Republicans lost the state Senate
By denying Republicans a majority in the state Senate on Tuesday, voters put the last nail in the coffin of New York's GOP.
Sadly, the GOP's loss, which guarantees New York will be deeper blue than super-liberal Massachusetts, was self-inflicted.
During George Pataki's 12 years as governor, GOP senators sat by silently as the governor and his henchmen systematically destroyed their party and blackballed prospective legislative candidates who exhibited an independent streak.
This complacency left the Republican Party nearly broke and clearly ineffective.
Remember, when Pataki took control of the GOP in 1994, the party controlled one U.S. Senate seat, 14 congressional seats and the state attorney general's office. Republicans had clear control of the state Senate and the Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester county governments, along with hundreds of other elected and appointed positions.
Today, both U.S. Senate positions, 26 of 29 congressional seats, all the statewide posts and control of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester county governments are in the hands of Democrats.
And for the first time since 1965, control of the Senate is passing to the Democrats, leaving the entire state government in their hands.
Why these electoral disasters? In the GOP's desperate desire to be all things to all people, Republicans abandoned their conservative fiscal and social principles; they betrayed the coalition of upstate and suburban conservatives and urban blue-collar ethnics who elected them.
Other voters were disgusted with Republicans' ethical lapses. Many believed that greedy GOP consultants and lobbyists at the state, county, and town levels were out of control. The stench of political corruption and scandal, particularly in Nassau and Suffolk counties, drove voters to punish the GOP.
To maintain power for the sake of power, Senate Republicans went along with Pataki's spend-a-thon that increased state spending by tens of billions, left our children on the hook for tens of billions more in state debt; and slashed job-creation levels to way below the national average.
The Senate Republicans permitted the state budget to grow 2.12 times the inflation rate; Medicaid to grow by 95 percent; public health expenditures by 412 percent; and state-funded debt to double — from $28 billion to $51 billion.
They also supported the Pataki administration's liberal hate-crime legislation, gay-rights bill, and went along with legislation that repealed a "conscience clause" on state abortion services, thus forcing religious medical institutions to violate their commitment to sanctity of human life.
And after Pataki left office, instead of championing conservative fiscal principles, they continued to lavishly spend taxpayers' money to reward cronies, placate lobbyists and contractors, and neutralize municipal, health care and teachers' labor unions.
As a result, the GOP Senate lost two special elections during the past two years in longtime Republican districts. Their candidates lost because they ran as Democratic "lite." They failed to realize that no matter how hard Republicans try to imitate Democrats, they can never outspend or out-promise liberal Democrats.
In the aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown and with the state's accumulated four-year budget deficit projected at an astounding $47 billion, instead of warning New Yorkers that fiscal restraint was required because the days of wine and roses were over, Senate Republicans bought the teachers unions' endorsement by denouncing any attempts to cut state education expenditures.
Because GOP senators chose short-term advantages over principles, they leave behind not only a hamstrung, impotent, enfeebled Republican Party, but a state on the verge of fiscal bankruptcy.
George Pataki, Joe Bruno, Dean Skelos — thanks for the memories.
George J. Marlin's latest book is "Squandered Opportunities: New York's Pataki Years."
