The results of a four-way primary for a New York Senate seat may help Republicans keep control of that house in the long run.
Marisol Alcantara won Tuesday’s primary for the Upper Manhattan seat held by Adriano Espaillat, who is running for Congress. Alcantara is a Democrat, but she has said if elected to the Senate in November, she will likely ally with the breakaway Democratic faction known as the Independent Democratic Conference.
The breakaway Democrats have in the past formed a coalition government with the Republicans, and they have not ruled out doing that again in 2017.
Bob Bellafiore with the group New Yorkers for Independent Action said it’s a win for maintaining the current balance of power in Albany.
“For the regular Democrats to take control of the state Senate, it would have to be a massive, wholesale Watergate-like sweep away of the Republicans,” Bellafiore said. “Which I don’t think anybody expects in 2016.”
The independent expenditure group supports school choice for low-income children by offering them scholarships to leave their designated school district for private or parochial schools. The Independent Democrats have backed that idea in the past, and have received campaign money from pro-school choice donors.