New York LCV Won Nearly 90% of their Pro-Environment Endorsed Candidates

With the 2006 election results officially in, we are thrilled to report that nearly 90 percent of the pro-environment candidates endorsed by NYLCV won their races!

We spent tens of thousands of dollars reaching out to 25,000 voters in statewide, congressional, and legislative races. This support helped to give pro-environment candidates the edge in critical contests.

The most significant NYLCV wins include:

• Victories by all four statewide candidates (U.S. senate, governor, attorney general, state comptroller)
• A major upset by  Kirsten Gillibrand over incumbent John Sweeney for the congressional house seat in the 20th district
• A huge win by  Michael Arcuri in the open congressional house seat in the 24th district
• Victories in all four open seats in the state legislature ( Ellen Jaffee ,  Marcus Molinaro , and Brian Kavanagh for the state assembly;  Bill Perkins for the state senate)

[Click here to see the full list of NYLCV-endorsed candidates and their election results ]

A handful of NYLCV-endorsed challengers who did not win gave incumbents the toughest fights of their careers, each losing by a single digit margin. We thank  Daniel Maffei  (CD-25), David Mejias (CD-3), and Susan Zimet (SD-42) for their fine efforts and appreciate their help in making the environment a top priority in these races. These historically close races suggest that these incumbents are not as impervious to losing their seats as once predicted. We are grateful that our candidates helped to put the establishment on notice.

We plan to build on these significant wins at the state level and play a role in triggering the sea change in Albany that will give the environmental agenda traction after years of stagnation.  In just a few weeks, we'll have our policy program ready to go for the 2007 legislative session. I look forward to sharing it with you at that time.