John J. Flanagan (R) resigned from the New York State Senate on June 28, ending more than 20 years of service in the New York state legislature. Flanagan represented District 9 in New York’s General Assembly beginning in 1987 and won election to the state Senate in 2002.
Flanagan had already announced that he would not run for re-election this year prior to submitting his resignation. He started a job as a vice president of regional and government affairs at New York healthcare provider Northwell Health on June 29.
Flanagan was serving as State Senate Minority Leader at the time of his resignation announcement, and his departure prompted leadership elections among the Senate Republicans. They selected Robert Ortt as the new minority leader on June 23.
Flanagan’s resignation leaves the second vacancy in the chamber, the first of which occurred when former Sen. Bob Antonacci (R) resigned at the end of 2019 to join the New York Supreme Court’s 5th Judicial District.
The partisan composition of the state Senate is 40 Democrats and 21 Republicans. All 63 seats are up for election this year. Republicans last held control of the chamber from 2010 up until 2018.
Additional reading:
https://ballotpedia.org/New_York_State_Senate
https://ballotpedia.org/Robert_Ortt
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