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NYS GOP Party Chair Says Republicans Need to Restore Balance in State Legislature

Scott Willis
/
WAER News

The Chair of the State Republican Party says Central New York’s Congressional seats, as well as several state races are in play as voters continue to cast their ballots.  Nick Langworthy is confident Congressmember John Katko will defeat Dana Balter and keep his seat in the 24th district, and that Claudia Tenney will upset incumbent democrat Anthony Brindisi in the 22nd

"Right in this marketplace, you have two of the hottest contested congressional races in the country.  There are seats all over the State of New York for Congress that are in play.  We may not be a swing state for the Electoral College, [but] there's an awful lot of federal action here this year."

Langworthy is also optimistic about gaining seats in the state senate and assembly, which are controlled by democrats.  He says strong candidates like Angi Renna, Sam Rodgers, Mark Venesky, and others have what it takes to challenge one party rule in Albany.

"Let's restore balance.  I'm the state Republican Chair.  I'm not out there fighting to bring some right-wing experiment or some right-wing agenda to New York.  This is about restoring common sense."

Langworthy says balance in the legislature takes on more importance as the state prepares to redraw district lines using new census data.  He says if the GOP has more than one third of one of the houses, they’ll have veto authority over the maps.

"The best case scenario for us is to kick those maps into federal court and have a judge cut more fair maps.  The Congressional maps we live under today was done by a federal judge.  We've had as many as nine republicans represents New York this decade.  There are some that are quite skewed either way, but we're in a state with three million more democrats, so there's going to be more heavy democrat seats."

Langworthy says the process will be more evenhanded if both parties have a say at the table.  Early voting continues through Sunday at six sites across Onondaga County.  The last chance to vote is at your regular polling place on Election Day November 3rd.

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.