A Democratic Roosevelt Island Led Both City and State in Mid-Term Voting

» Mid-Term Election Voting on Roosevelt Island » RIRA Election 2006

Analysis by Dick Lutz

Roosevelt Islanders led a national trend against something Republican – or many things Republican – in last week’s midterm election.

Island voting gave Rep. Carolyn Maloney her greatest percentage margin – 89.5% – in this year’s re-election campaign, for example.

Across New York State, voters surged to the Democratic ticket and gave Eliot Spitzer 69 percent of the vote. In the City, he scored 83.4 percent. But on Roosevelt Island, voters gave him 87.7 percent of their votes.

But Assemblymember Pete Grannis led his Democratic colleagues on the Island, pulling 89.6 percent of the Island’s votes (82.1 percent district-wide). Grannis beat even Jessica Lappin’s score of 89.0% on the Island when she ran for City Council in 2005. Only State Senator Jose Serrano, who had no opposition, did better.

Whether the total effect was a reverse-coattail reflection of President George W. Bush’s plunging approval among voters or a reaction to Pataki administration policies, it didn’t matter to the Democrats. This was their year. Democrats even took control of both houses of Congress.

In New York State, neither the Assembly nor the State Senate changed hands, meaning the Governor-elect will operate, as Pataki did, with a split legislature, but Democrats appeared to gain in both the Assembly (three or four seats) and the Senate (one probable, as The WIRE goes to press).

Islanders’ unhappiness with the Pataki administration’s activities on Roosevelt Island also came out in voting on referendum questions put forward by the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (see separate story, page 1), notably in a 95.5 percent vote asking for an elected RIOC Board of Directors.

See page 6 for full results available at press time.