One does not have to go back that far to recall the Republican domination of New York City’s suburbs.
These were chamber of commerce Republicans, Rockefeller voters who elected people like Andrew O’Rourke Westchester County executive and helped fuel George Pataki’s rise to the governor’s office in 1994.
But in the last decade, Republicans have steadily lost more and more ground in the New York City suburban counties, once considered a key firewall between Republicans in upstate New York and Democratic-dominated New York City.
Republican enrollment in the last three years overall has fallen by more than 18,000 enrolled active voters statewide while Democratic enrollment has surged, according to the latest Board of Elections data.
An even more dramatic story is played out in New York City’s suburban counties to the north and east over a longer time period, between November 2010, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was first elected and Nov. 1 of this year. The story of New York’s increasingly Democratic suburban counties is not unlike what’s being seen nationwide in the shadow of heavily Democratic cities like Washington.
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