State Senate

Sen. Martin Golden

State Sen. Marty Golden is not sure what his position will be on expanding congestion pricing to better fund mass transit. He is keeping his options open when it comes to toughening rent regulations. And he believes the jury is out on climate change, which is, to him, primarily a federal issue.

What Golden does know is that the legalization of marijuana is a bad idea, that aversion to Donald Trump is not a motivating factor for voters in his district, and that he faces no real threat of losing his 22nd district seat, which he has held since 2003, to Democratic nominee Andrew Gounardes in the November 6 general election. At least that is what he told BRIC-TV’s 112BK at a Wednesday afternoon taping.

Golden, a highly decorated police officer who then served in the City Council before being elected to Albany in 2002, is a member of an endangered species: an elected Republican from New York City. Only three people on the 51-member City Council, two of the 64 Assembly seats based in New York, two of the city’s State Senate delegation, one of the 12 members of Congress whose districts include parts of the city and one of the five borough presidents are Republicans—and of those nine elected officials, seven hail from Staten Island. Only Eric Ulrich, the Queens Councilmember, and Golden carry the GOP banner in other districts. Golden has survived as other five-borough Republican senators like Guy Velella, Frank Padavan and Serphin Maltese fell from power.

Below, he makes his case for another two years in Albany. Video is embedded first, and the podcast version follows. Part of his case is precisely the fact that Democrats control so much of the local and state government machinery. Golden was unwilling to contemplate, at least on camera, what it would mean for voters in his district if he were re-elected but relegated to the minority because other races shifted the Senate to the Democrats. He’s certain he and his caucus will prevail come November.