THOUGH MOST EXPECT the Senate committees' current ranking members to assume the chairmanships if the Democrats take the majority, that decision is ultimately up to the majority leader.

Regardless, some stakeholders are already anticipating broad changes in the legislative agendas of the Senate committees under Democratic leadership.

For example, if Sen. Antoine Thompson (D-Niagara Falls/Buffalo) takes over the chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee from Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Oyster Bay/Huntington), it would be the first time in decades that the committee would be led by a legislator not from Long Island.

"I would be curious to see if there would be any regional differences," said Joshua Klainberg, deputy director of the New York League of Conservation Voters. "For example, Western New York has a lot of brownfields."

Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the New York League of Women Voters, took a broader view of the potential switch in leadership. Under Republican control, Bartoletti said, the committees have a pro forma role, where only the presence of the chair and the ranking member are required for a vote. Under Democrats, that could change, she said.

"Certainly we would hold the Democrats to the standard that they have talked about before, opening up these committees and allowing some debate on issues that come before them," Bartoletti said.

Bartoletti also predicted that the Health Committee under Ranking Member John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) would be more likely to take up universal health care legislation, the reproductive choice bill and the Healthy Teen Act, all of which have languished under Sen. Kemp Hannon's (R-Nassau) chairmanship.

Certainly, more attention will need to be paid to bills that go to the Assembly if Democrats take over the Senate, said Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizen's Budget Commission. And greater coordination between both houses in the passage of bills will be needed to successfully forward the Democratic agenda, she said.

"Instead of passing bills for symbolic effect, they actually have to govern," Kellermann said, "and it might cause both houses to think a little bit more before they do things."
  
-with additional reporting by Sal Gentile

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HOW THINGS STAND

Banks Committee
Current chair: Sen. Hugh Farley (R-Schenectady/Saratoga)
Ranking member: Sen. Martin Connor (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn) [lost primary; George Onorato (D-Queens) next in line]

Codes Committee
Current chair: Sen. Dale Volker (R-Erie)
Ranking member: Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx)

Education Committee
Current chair: Sen. Stephen Saland (R-Columbia/Dutchess)
Ranking member: Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Westchester)

Environmental Conservation Committee
Current chair: Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Oyster Bay/Huntington)
Ranking member: Sen. Antoine Thompson (D-Niagara Falls/Buffalo)
Finance Committee
Current chair: Sen. Owen Johnson (R-Babylon/Islip)
Ranking member: Sen. William Stachowski (D-Erie)
Health Committee
Current chair: Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau)
Ranking member: Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn)

Housing, Construction and
Community Development Committee
Current chair: Sen. John Bonacic (R-Delaware/Ulster)
Ranking member: Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan)

Judiciary Committee
Current chair: Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse)
Ranking member: Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson
(D-Brooklyn)

Labor Committee
Current chair: Sen. Joseph Robach (R-Rochester)
Ranking member: Sen. George Onorato (D-Queens)

Transportation Committee
Current chair: Sen. Tom Libous (R-Chenango)
Ranking member: Sen. David Valesky (D-Onondaga/Madison)
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