Tuesday’s Daily News had a story about Thursday’s Bronx Democratic County Committee Dinner.
One line in the story got me thinking –
The party has also been criticized for creating so many political dynasties, with a number of incumbents’ sons and daughters in office.
I have heard this criticism many times. But is this unique to the Bronx? To New York City? To Democrats?
To answer those questions, I decided to look at all the present members of the NY State Legislature and the NY Congressional Delegation to see how many were related to other elected public officials.
Here’s what I found.
Of the 62 State Senators, at least 16 have either a parent, spouse, sibling, uncle, nephew or niece who are either now or were in elected public office.
11 of the 16 are not representing New York City and 9 are Republicans.
By the way, I say at least because while I know who the members of the New York City Council are related to and I did find Upstate County Legislators & City Councilmembers related to Republican Senators, I may have missed a few.
Of the 150 Members of the Assembly, at least 24 have a parent, sibling, uncle, nephew or niece who are either now or were in elected public office.
10 of the 24 are not representing New York City and 6 are Republicans.
From our Congressional delegation, at least 7 have relatives and 2 are from Upstate New York and 2 are Republicans. I included Senator Clinton among the 7.
It sure looks to me like the Bronx Democrats are getting an unfair rap among all this dynasty talk.