Veteran state Sen. DeFrancisco says only GOP can check Democratic hegemony. Challenger Joy urges greater cooperation.
Senate candidates Kathleen Joy and John DeFrancisco.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Nine-term Republican state Sen. John DeFrancisco is running for re-election — and not just against his Democratic challenger, Kathleen Joy. DeFrancisco is taking on the entire Democratic Party.
In interviews and debates, he criticizes incumbent Democratic senators like David Valesky and Darrel Aubertine far more than he attacks Joy. Last week, DeFrancisco transferred $60,000 of his campaign funds to a statewide GOP committee to help Republicans elsewhere.
His campaign is focused on one message: Return Republicans to control of the Senate. “In order to have regional balance (in Albany), we have to get back a Republican majority,” he said.
Joy, a two-term city councilor in her first bid for statewide office, faces daunting odds to win the 50th District, which DeFrancisco has represented since 1993. As of late September, she had raised just $29,264 compared with DeFrancisco’s war chest of more than $728,000. Joy said she cannot run a single TV ad.
But Joy, who does most of her campaigning door-to-door, says she likes her chances because voters are dissatisfied with Albany leadership. “It’s time for a change,” she said.
Joy has focused her campaign less on specific issues than on a promise to work in a spirit of collaboration. She said voters are tired of the partisan battles in Albany. She said party politics reached a low point during the 2009 Senate “coup,” which paralyzed the Senate for five weeks while Republicans and Democrats jockeyed for the allegiance of two members.
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“We need somebody that’s going to focus on the issues of the day, and not worry about the politics of it, and whether or not it’s Democrat or Republican, or Upstate or Downstate,” she said.
DeFrancisco, who supported the failed Republican effort to gain control, dismissed Joy’s perspective as naive. “That’s wonderful, that we should all hug and sing ‘Kumbayah,’ but when you’re in a philosophical fight for the survival of New York state, I think you need someone who’s in a position to gather the votes and make things change,” he said.
Democratic control is synonymous with Downstate control, DeFrancisco said. Twenty-three of the 32 Democratic senators are from New York City, a weighting that has tangible consequences when the Assembly and governor’s mansion also are dominated by Downstate politicians, he said.
Example: This year, the Legislature suspended for three years various business tax credits that are chiefly used by Upstate companies, saving the state about $1 billion. At the same time, lawmakers added $420 million a year in film industry credits, 93 percent of which are expected to benefit New York City, DeFrancisco said.
Joy agreed with DeFrancisco’s criticism. “Maybe if I was in Albany at the time, that may have been one place where I broke with the rank-and-file and said ‘No,’” she said.
DeFrancisco also complains that the Legislature last year funded a five-year, $23.8 billion capital improvement plan for Downstate mass transit without comparable funding for Upstate roads and bridges.
Joy, who serves as majority leader on the Syracuse Common Council, said city lawmakers frequently work together regardless of party affiliation, and she believes senators can do the same.
Active Republican voters slightly outnumber Democrats in the 50th District, 61,981 to 60,339. A large number of voters — 44,551 — are not enrolled in a party.
Joy was a Republican but switched parties in the late 1980s when she settled in Syracuse. Her grandfather served 27 years as the Republican mayor of Fredonia, where Joy grew up on a farm.
She was appointed in 2005 to fill a vacancy on the Common Council. She has won re-election twice. Like DeFrancisco, Joy is a lawyer. She was an assistant corporation counsel for the city during Mayor Tom Young’s administration, and now works as a real estate attorney at Homestead Financial Services, a mortgage company.
Prior to winning election to the Senate, DeFrancisco served 11 years on the Syracuse Common Council. Before that, he was a member and president of the city school board. DeFrancisco has had a private law practice since 1977.