We Mark Our Ballot: For Senate

The race for New York State’s 1st Senate District, which includes the five East End towns plus parts of Brookhaven, is between an Republican incumbent seeking his second term in Albany and a young Democrat who hopes to be elected for the first time.

The incumbent, Anthony Palumbo, 52, boasts an additional seven years’ experience in Albany during his time as the state assemblyman representing the North Fork; before that, he was an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, assigned to the East End, narcotics and major crimes bureaus.

Challenger Skyler Johnson, 22, of Mount Sinai works to make up for his lack of experience with enthusiasm, but in his second campaign for this Senate seat — he competed in the 2020 Democratic primary but failed to clinch the nomination then — he hasn’t made a convincing case for why South Fork voters should replace Palumbo.

Johnson is a staunch progressive, which is appealing to the many South Fork voters who share those leanings but will be a bit too far to the left for many. Meanwhile, Palumbo is a conservative-leaning moderate — or perhaps a moderate-leaning conservative. Either way, he offers a track record of delivering legislation that the East End needs, such as the Community Housing Fund initiative that will be on ballots for a referendum this November, and a track record of working across the aisle to deliver for his constituents.

Palumbo is clear that he won’t vote for legislation that broadens access to late-term abortion, but he has also assured voters that, short of that, he’ll vote to protect abortion rights in the state. It’s also reassuring that he recognized that while the state’s bail reform needs to be revised and rolled back somewhat, he doesn’t want to repeal reform altogether — because he recognizes the reasons why reform was needed in the first place.

Returning Anthony Palumbo to Albany for two more years is the right move for the South Fork.