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City Council Member Andrew Lanza won the seat of retiring Staten Island Republican John Marchi. As the newest member of the gang of four Republican state senators from the city, he will probably have more clout in Albany than the other new legislators from the city.
The four Republican senators from the city—Frank Padavan and Serphin R. Maltese from Queens, Martin Golden from Brooklyn, and Marchi—made the most of their privileged place in their chamber’s Republican majority in recent years.
Now that the State Senate is the last Republican stronghold in the state, and with Majority Leader Joe Bruno determined to protect his standing, they may have even more influence.
“The Senate majority increases the clout the four Republicans in the city have to bring back the bacon,” said Maltese, in an August interview.
Analyses of the so-called “member items” lists recently disclosed by the Legislature indicate how powerful the city’s Senate Republicans actually are. A Dec. 7 article in The New York Times lists all four in the top 10 for member items received in the last two budgets.
“A lot of that has to do with seniority,” said Jerry McLaughlin, press spokesman for Marchi. He pointed out that Marchi, Padavan and Maltese have been in office since he himself “was in shortpants.”
According to McLaughlin, Marchi’s 50 years of experience in Albany make him the longest serving legislator in America.
Lanza, who will move from being one of only three Republicans on the Council, plans to focus on delivering property tax relief.
Lanza said he will try to get funding for traffic projects, arguing that Staten Island suffers from a “colonial roads system and a complete lack of mass transportation.”
He said he supports releasing the list of member items because “transparency is important.” However, he does not believe that position will prevent him from “securing capital and expense funds” for his district.
“I’ll fight for every penny that I can bring back to my district,” Lanza said.