The struggle for the Republican-controlled state Senate took a dramatic turn yesterday, as a poll suggested that the Democrats were on the verge of winning a slim majority.
Most striking, the Siena Research Institute survey found that Democrat Brian Foley had opened a 22-point lead (56 to 34 percent) over Caesar Trunzo in the Suffolk County district that Trunzo’s held for 35 years.
A similar poll last month had found the Brookhaven supervisor trailing Trunzo by 40 to 46 percent.
And Sen. Bill Stachowski (D-Buffalo) has recovered from a 13-point October deficit to lead Republican Dennis Delano by 47 to 43 percent.
But those reversals of fortune were countered in the western part of the state, with the poll hinting that one of the Democrats’ great hopes, ex-boxing champ Joe Mesi, had fallen behind Michael Ranzenhofer in their battle for an open seat.
The Erie County lawmaker led Mesi by 47 to 42 percent after trailing by 40 to 38 percent in September.
The Democrats need to win two seats to seize the Senate for the first time since 1965. The chamber remains the GOP’s last toehold to power in Albany, where the Dems control all three statewide offices and a veto-proof majority in the Assembly.
The Siena survey of six battleground districts and a similar poll released last week suggest that the two parties have pulled even.
If the results hold, the Senate’s fate could be decided tomorrow in southern Queens, where Democratic City Councilman Joseph Addabbo led veteran Sen. Serphin Maltese by 45 to 43 percent.