This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

After an extra week of waiting, Democrats Devin Lander and Ryan Taughrin appear to have flipped legislative seats in Rensselaer County and in the Buffalo suburbs, respectively. Lander declared victory with a very narrow lead over Republican state Sen. Jake Ashby, with Taughrin ousting Republican Assembly Member Patrick Chludzinski. As Lander looks to make the state Senate’s “super duper majority” one member larger, though, Ashby is refusing to concede.

The trio of Republicans sponsored a package of veterans bills with bipartisan backing that passed the City Council just after Veterans Day – with Council Member Frank Morano calling it his “proudest day” as chair of the Committee on Veterans. He sponsored a bill exempting disabled veterans’ primary residences from all property taxes, which should impact about 2,000 veterans in the city.

While New York City Council Member Chi Ossé’s colleagues were hobnobbing in Puerto Rico, he attended a convention in Washington, D.C. hosted by his soon-to-be employer, Crooked Media. Come spring of next year, Ossé will have his own podcast called “World War Chi,” and a whole new audience to help boost his profile. But he’ll also have a minefield of ethics concerns to navigate, since council members cannot generate outside income off of “city matters.”

How heartless can you be to ignore a little kid’s heart-wretching plea that “our house is dangerous and no one will save us”? Four-year-old Emmitt McKiernan and his Niagara Falls family wants the state to relocate them after toxic waste was found in the yard of their Love Canal adjacent home, which led to home care providers for Emmitt’s older brother refusing to come to the property. But the heads of the state Department of Environment Conservation and Health Department have rejected their requests and instead demanded additional tests.

After weeks of Assembly Member Nikki Lucas holding herself out as the new leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, a judge ruled that no,  she is not in fact the party chair. Shockingly, it appears the leadership vote that came out of a late-night Sunday Zoom call flouting a temporary restraining order was not legitimate. And as the judge also threw out the controversial rules that party leadership attempted to push through, it’s back to square one for Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and her quest to hold on to power.

Rep. Laura Gillen was one of 11 Democrats who missed the vote to impeach U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth because she was … stuck in traffic. She claimed that she missed it because she was stuck behind a police escort that was blocking the Capitol, which apparently happened to multiple Congress members. If only the police knew that Gillen’s a member of the House transportation committee – maybe things would have been different.