Hinchey in, Metzger out as State Senate Dems clinch supermajority

Michelle Hinchey and Mike Martucci.

Two closely watched State Senate seats in the mid-Hudson have flipped, one from blue to red and the other from red to blue, as votes too close to call on Election Night 2020 continue to be tallied.

On Tuesday, November 24, Jen Metzger of Rosendale, first-term Democratic senator representing the 42^nd District, conceded to schoolbus entrepreneur and political neophyte Mike Martucci of New Hampton. Martucci had already claimed victory by the morning after the election, when he led Metzger by more than 10,000 votes. The incumbent decided to hang in for the count of some 30,000 absentee and affidavit ballots. Although the mail-in votes trended heavily Democratic, they were not able to overturn Martucci’s lead. A press release from the Metzger campaign stated, “The final margin will be less than one percentage point.” The 42^nd District includes all of Sullivan County and parts of Delaware, Orange and Ulster.

On Friday, November 20, Democrat Michelle Hinchey of Saugerties declared victory in the close battle for the 46^th State Senate District seat vacated by Republican incumbent George Amadore. The district includes all of Montgomery and Greene Counties and parts of Albany, Schenectady and Ulster. Republican challenger Richard Amedure of Rensselaerville had led the race by more than 8,000 votes on Election Night, but Hinchey more than overtook him in the absentee ballot count.

On Saturday, the 22^nd, the daughter of the late congressman Maurice Hinchey tweeted a photo of herself at her father’s gravesite with the caption, “It was three years ago that we lost my dad, but today was a good day. Today I was able to tell him, ‘We did it.’”

While final numbers in all races had not been posted by the New York State Board of Elections as of presstime, a strong trend for the majority of absentee ballots to go Democratic statewide meant that by Monday, November 21, majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was able to declare that the Dems would wield a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature.

Pete Harckham of Mount Pleasant, a freshman whose 40^th District includes parts of Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester Counties, was the sixth State Senate Democrat to overcome an apparent vote deficit, pushing his party to the magic two-thirds threshold. He defeated Rob Astorino, a former Westchester County executive and the 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate, who had led by more than 8,000 votes as of Election Night.