| Here's a roundup of coverage of the SD-48 special election.
New York Daily News:
Fishing may lure Dems into power
Democrat's chances of wresting the state Senate away from GOP boss Joe Bruno this year may hinge on whether a bunch of upstate fishing enthusiasts think they are getting fleeced.
The anglers are being charged $30 for the privilege of wading in a privately controlled stretch of the Salmon River by the family of Will Barclay, the Republican candidate in the 48th District.
And that's one reason Democrats think they have a chance to take the seat away in a special election Tuesday in the Oswego County district, which hugs Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway. If they do, they would need to gain just one more in November to take the Senate.
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"This could be the beginning of the end," a Republican working for Barclay acknowledged. If big donors smell a looming GOP loss of the Senate, "All the money we're used to getting over the years starts to go the other way," the operative said.
New York Times:
Upstate Race Transformed by Interest From Albany
"The Republicans have come on lean times in New York in terms of statewide offices and are very worried about the statewide majority," said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. "The margins are very slim and can only get slightly slimmer. And looking ahead to November, it starts to become, in what will be a presidential election year and a good Democratic turnout in New York, somewhat worrisome for the Republicans, independent of Spitzer's low standing at the moment."
Albany Times-Union:
Local race, statewide implications
Fight for control of state Senate begins with North Country contest
"The race in the 48th is part of a political earthquake that could shake up control of a body that Republicans have held for more than a generation," said Douglas Muzzio, political science professor at Baruch College in Manhattan.
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"If the Democrats win this it clearly indicates that the era of Republican hegemony is coming to a close," said Manhattan-based Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
Enrolled Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a ratio of five to three. Bruno, who represents a stronghold of upstate power, could see an erosion of his support even before the next election, analysts say.
"It scares the Republicans silly and it scares Joe Bruno silly," Muzzio said.
If the Republicans lose the 48th, "he's just one seat away from being the minority leader."
Syracuse Post-Standard:
Absentee voter interest is high in state Senate race between Darrel Aubertine and Will Barclay
Absentee ballots could make the difference in Tuesday's special election for the state Senate. Election officials in Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties said more than 3,800 absentee ballots have been distributed.
That's more than the margin of victory in the 2007 special election to fill a state Senate seat on Long Island. That race, which both parties contested with millions of dollars in advertising, was won by the Democratic Party candidate by 3,637 votes out of 51,627 cast.
Newsday:
LI Republicans driven to keep hold of State Senate
Republican activist Rose Marie Walker is spending the second weekend in a row handing out campaign brochures -- more than 300 miles from her Hicksville home -- in a special election for State Senate that could determine whether her party holds on to its last power base in state government.
Walker is among a group of volunteers who traveled six hours by bus from Long Island to canvass for votes in the state's northwest corner. This time of year, frigid temperatures and piles of snow are a certainty here.
But Walker is undeterred, seeing a GOP victory in Tuesday's election as shoring up the dwindling Republican majority in the Senate -- which has championed the interests of Nassau and Suffolk counties over New York City. A poll last week showed the race as a dead heat, which is surprising given the district has never been held by a Democrat. |
