Republicans are set to take a big step this week toward creating a new Senate district in the Capital Region—a move aimed at keeping themselves in power.
The new district is primed for a Republican such as Rotterdam resident George Amedore Jr., who is executive vice president at Amedore Homes Inc. , one of the region’s largest home builders.
Amedore, currently a state assemblyman, formed a campaign committee last month to explore a potential Senate run.
The Legislature is now set to vote on the new district lines, after weeks of hearings and closed-door map-drawing sessions following the latest U.S. Census.
“You’ll see everything break this week. We could vote as early as Wednesday,” Assemblyman Jack McEneny (D-Albany) told The Business Review. McEneny co-chairs the committee that draws the new districts every decade.
The new district (seen here and in a great side-by-side view here) covers much of Albany and Schenectady counties, along with Montgomery and Greene counties. It leaves key urban and suburban areas such as Albany, Colonie, Troy and Clifton Park to others.
Republicans have a 32-30 majority in the Senate. The GOP has controlled the Senate since the mid-1960s, except in 2009 and 2010, when Democrats held a slight edge.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo had initially pledged to veto the new legislative districts, complaining that the process was overly political.
Cuomo has since sent signals he might compromise if the Legislature also agrees to create a different, more nonpartisan approach to redrawing districts going forward. Legislation to that effect has been introduced in the Senate and Assembly.
The 11 counties in the Capital Region are currently represented in the Senate by five Republicans and one Democrat, Neil Breslin, of Delmar.
