NEW YORK, NY November 02, 2000 — State Senator Roy Goodman is used to being an anomaly. Democrats outnumber Republicans in his district, which encompases the East Side and Upper East Side. As he runs for what he hopes will be a seventeenth term, Mr. Goodman is counting on help from some of his Democratic friends

Female Announcer: "Here's Mayor Ed Koch uring you to re-elect State Senator Roy Goodman."Koch: "I'm a Democrat. But sometimes, as President John F. Kennedy once said, party loyalty demands too much. I know Senator Roy Goodman?"

That reference to JFK highlights the reason why Roy Goodman, the second most powerful man in the Senate, has been in office since 1968?but also why his re-election bid is so difficult this year. Mr. Goodman is a Rockefeller Republican, a fiscal conservative who holds moderate, even liberal, views on issues like abortion, gay rights, gun control, and rent control. For years, Democrats in his district, such as Florence Soloman, have joined Ed Koch and crossed party lines to suppport him.

Florence Soloman: "I'm voting for the individual and I feel that he relates well to his community. He's not an isolationist, he's a part of the mainstream, and I'm very pleased with him."

But Mr. Goodman faces a serious challenge in Liz Krueger, who is well-funded and well-liked. She says she entered the race out of frustration with the state legislature.

Krueger: "They tinker, they don't pay attention, by having been doing nothing for planning for affordable housing in the state of New York for the last 25 years. They are not paying attention by not addressing the fact that in good economic times we have three million New Yorkers who do not have health care insurance."

Ms. Krueger works as an adovocate for the homeless and the hungry, and her platform focusses on affordable housing, campaign finance reform, health care for the uninsured, and more equitable funding formulas for city schools. She says Mr. Goodman's time has passed.

Krueger: "Senator Goodman has been there for 32 years. During that time, both the district has changed, and the party has changed. This is no longer the party of Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller. This is the party of Joe Bruno, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Trent Lott and Tom Delay."

Roy Goodman has supported Senate Majority Leader Bruno, but has also frequently defied him, most notably when he refused to support an end to rent regulations. He says he tempers his colleagues' more conservative points of view in ways Ms. Krueger fails to grasp.

Goodman: "She's never served in public office, to my knowledge. Actually, I know she hasn't. And yet she comes in and takes the view that the whole system is rotten to the core and has been heavily critical of the entire way that the legislature works."

Mr. Goodman says this past legislative session is an example of his success in serving New Yorkers, adding $800 million dollars to the budget for city schools, strengthening gun control, and expanding health insurance coverage. And, after years of effort, Mr. Goodman finally got fellow Republicans to approve his reproductive health clinic access bill, and add sexual orientation to the hate crimes law.

Goodman: "Well, you can take anything I've ever done, and say, what took so long. The fact is, I've accomplished it, and I've accomplished it against tremendous odds, like a salmon swimming upstream."

But Ms. Krueger says Roy Goodman celebrated all these victories in part because State Republicans are worried. They hold a slim, six-seat majority in the Senate?and Mr. Goodman's position is vulnerable. In 1998, he had the weakest showing of any incumbent Senator. This year, according to the group, Citizen Action, Mr. Goodman has spent a millon dollars. That's more than he spent in his 1996 and 1998 campaigns combined. Liz Krueger says the heavily-Democratic district would be better served by her party.

Krueger: "Senator Goodman has been majority leadership in the State Senate for his entire career. What are we actually getting out of that that we wouldn't get a better shot at with a greater percentage of Democrats fighting for these issues, or a majority?"

But Ms. Krueger's scenario requires two elements: first, she must beat the incumbent. That's extremely hard to do. In November of 1998, all the incumbents were re-elected. Second, even if Liz Krueger wins, to be effective, her party must gain control of the State Senate. Albany watchers say there's very little chance that will happen. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.

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