The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●NY State Senate: While Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo beat actress and activist Cynthia Nixon 65-35 in Thursday's primary, six of his eight allies at the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) lost their Democratic primaries. Republicans have controlled the New York state Senate since World War II aside from brief periods in 1965 and 2009-2010, but Thursday brings Democrats within striking range of forging a real and lasting majority.
Campaign ActionThe IDC's defeat was a long time coming. The group first voted with the GOP to give the minority party control of the New York state Senate in 2013 even though Democrats nominally had a majority, and they'd stuck with Team Red for years to keep them in charge and block progressive legislation. While the IDC announced earlier this year that they'd rejoin the mainstream Democratic caucus, their many detractors understandably were not appeased after years of dealing with the renegade senators and their pledges to reunify.
In the biggest upset of them all, attorney Alessandra Biaggi toppled IDC leader Jeff Klein lost 55-45; four years ago, Klein turned back a serious primary challenger 65-35. In another surprise, state Sen. David Valesky, a founding member of the IDC, lost to Syracuse University administrator Rachel May 52-48. Former New York City Comptroller John Liu also beat Tony Avella 53-47 four years after losing to him by the same margin.