NY-22 Minute: Voting, committee and party privileges gone with Rep. Brindisi By Luke Perry
Rep. Anthony Brindisi leaves office at midnight on January 2. Either he or former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney will return to D.C. in the coming weeks to once again represent NY-22.
Brindisi "knew it was going to be a close race," though did not anticipate it to be this close, and would have thought it "crazy" if told on Election Day there would still be no winner.
Brindisi told Talk of the Town (WUTQ in Utica) he is ready for a resolution, but "the margin is too close and the stakes are too high to speculate on anything,"
"I think the most important thing is that the voices of the people are heard and that's what I'm focused on," Brindisi said.
Claudia Tenney and Anthony Brindisi (WKTV)
Brindisi anticipates changes to the electoral process in light of what happened. "New York state has to go back and reexamine some of the election laws here in New York so we can have more efficiently run elections," Brindisi explained. "There is no reason why we should be waiting till now to know the outcome of this race." Brindisi supports counting ballots earlier, for instance, rather than waiting until a week after Election Day.
Brindisi's staff will remain in place to provide constituent service, such as answering phone calls and individual casework. These procedures are managed by the Committee on House Administration.
NY-22 will not only lose its voting representative, but for the time being, seats on three House committees (Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, and Agriculture). NY-22 will also have no one advocating for the district in a party caucus, where many policy and strategy decisions are made.
Photo from Rep. Brindisi
COVID relief remains a predominant concern in NY-22 and around the country. Stimulus payments have been one major focus. "I applaud President Trump for saying he wants higher payments," Brindisi said, though "I wish he would have been more vocal during the actual debating of the bill."
Brindisi believes that "very conservative members" and "very progressive members" like direct stimulus payments. He voted in favor of increasing the payments to $2,000 per eligible person from $600. The bill passed in the House, but not the Senate. Brindisi thinks Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders are not happy with President Trump, and vice-versa.
The NY-22 election court case resumes on Monday. Judge DelConte is expected to rule on over a 1,000 challenged ballots. It is unclear when the case will end.
Luke Perry (@PolSciLukePerry) is Professor of Political Science at Utica College
Read the NY-22 Minute for timely and comprehensive analysis of the NY-22 campaign and politics
