This year’s race for the New York State Senate seat representing the East End is heating up between Anthony Palumbo, a Republican and Conservative candidate running to retain his position, and Sarah Anker, a Democratic and Common Sense Suffolk candidate who previously served more than 12 years in the Suffolk County Legislature.
Both candidates have spent considerable time and effort putting out messages of bipartisan appeal.
Mr. Palumbo, an attorney and resident of New Suffolk, was first elected to the State Senate in 2020, and before that served a term in the State Assembly representing the North Fork. In the last two years alone, Mr. Palumbo said in an interview, he worked to get 37 bills passed and signed into law in New York State — most of them with considerable bipartisan support.
“I work together across the aisle,” he said by phone on Sept. 5. “We work hard — we try to get results” for New Yorkers.
Ms. Anker, who was term-limited as a county legislator, is a resident of Mount Sinai, in the Brookhaven Town portion of the district. She has emphasized her previous bipartisan support, winning close elections as a Democrat in what she described as a heavily Republican community — including a 19-vote advantage in 2015 and a 63-vote margin in 2019.
“I work with people. It’s people over parties,” she said in an Aug. 19 interview. “I feel that there is more to do, and I have the resources, I know who the people are, and I have the government resource network.”
As a top priority, both candidates have pledged to tackle affordability — or rather the lack thereof — in the cost of living here, as well as institute sound fiscal management.
Mr. Palumbo, as an Assembly member some years ago, sponsored a bill to increase first-time homebuyer exceptions to transfer taxes, and more recently supported increases in the school-tax benefit for homeowners known as STAR. He was also a supporter of the community housing fund legislation.
“We’re going in the right direction,” he said, noting that there’s still “more to do.”
Ms. Anker said she draws her experience in affordability and financial management from her membership on the Suffolk Legislature’s Budget and Finance Committee. When she entered office in 2011, the county was facing a $500 million deficit, from which it recovered by the time she left office.
“I’m fairly conservative when it comes to finances. I like to make sure we have the money before we spend it,” she said. “I’m not a liberal Democrat — I’m moderate to conservative.”
Both candidates are focused on public safety, Mr. Palumbo from the legal system side of things, while Ms. Anker is interested in mitigating traffic and drug overdoses.
In the County Legislature, Ms. Anker worked with the motorcycle advocacy group ABATE to install a new traffic light, and helped establish the North Shore Rail Trail, a 10-mile bike path from Wading River to Mount Sinai. “I worked with the community. A lot of folks weren’t sure they wanted a bike path right by their house. That was challenging, but I knew I had to do it, after the fatalities of two boys on their bikes riding along Route 25A.”
She said that for five years she led a panel of 30 people from health professions, law enforcement, schools, and other areas to address the opioid crisis, something she wants to continue doing at the state level. “You try to do as much as you can. You keep fighting. The current is strong, but we’re stronger.”
Mr. Palumbo has been an outspoken critic of bail reform and its direct impact on public safety when judges are prohibited from setting bail for most defendants.
“All 49 other states and the federal system allow judges to consider the dangerousness of the accused individual when it comes to setting bail, and we have not re-implemented that,” he said. “We are on the fifth iteration of the bail statute and it’s still not right. Clearly, there are still problems. I was a very experienced criminal lawyer on both sides of the aisle. This is right in my wheelhouse.”
Mr. Palumbo also hopes to reform the “absolutely outdated” system of how state money for public school districts is allocated. “The formula needs to be revamped, without question. It’s critical. We’re not only constitutionally mandated to fully fund schools, but it’s a moral obligation as well,” he said, adding that he “fought like heck” to restore $23 million for the East End after Gov. Kathy Hochul had proposed cutbacks.
Ms. Anker said she is making renewable energy and water quality priorities as well, along with supporting the tourism and agriculture industries. Before she was a county legislator, she directed energy and sustainability for the Town of Brookhaven, helping residents understand money-saving programs and resources. And in the Legislature, she voted to preserve more than 2,000 acres of open space.
She has been endorsed by a range of local and regional elected Democratic officials, including East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and County Legislators Ann Welker and Steve Englebright, by 1199 S.E.I.U. East, a health care workers union, and by Eleanor’s Legacy and Planned Parenthood’s Empire State Votes committee.
“I feel that I have so much institutional knowledge about government and how we can connect to our communities,” she said. “I want to take it to the next level, and that’s the state.”
Mr. Palumbo has been endorsed by several East End police unions, by Suffolk’s Communication Workers of America union, the New York State and Long Island A.F.L.-C.I.O. groups, the Humane Society Legislative Fund, and others.
“I think that is a testament to how labor feels about the job I’ve been doing. I’m happy to continue fighting for those folks,” he said. “It’s exciting and an honor to represent this district. It’s so dynamic.”
