New York’s 1st Senate District encompasses a large swath of Suffolk County, including Riverhead, Southold, Shelter Island, Southampton and East Hampton and stretching into parts of Brookhaven Town. As the upper chamber of the state Legislature, the Senate’s 63 members are primarily responsible for drafting and approving changes to state law; working with Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Assembly to establish annual budgets, set spending levels and raise and lower taxes; and voting to uphold or override gubernatorial vetoes. The Senate alone has the authority to approve or reject non-elected state officials and judges nominated by the governor. Each senator serves a two-year term and there are no term limits. All 63 seats are up for election this year. The Democratic Party currently controls the majority in both chambers of the Legislature as well as the governor’s office.
Republican incumbent Sen. Anthony Palumbo is seeking his third term in the high chamber. He first won the seat in 2020, replacing his retiring Republican predecessor Kenneth La Valle, New York’s longest-serving state representative. The state Senate candidates met recently with The Suffolk Times’ editorial staff to discuss their motivations for seeking office and outline their key priorities for serving the needs of District 1 voters.
Sarah Anker (D-Mt. Sinai)
Ms. Anker highlighted her extensive record of public service in both elected and nonelected roles over many years. She served as a Suffolk County legislator from 2011 until she was term-limited in 2023. She worked previously as the first director of the energy department for Brookhaven Town, where she launched the Green Homes Go Solar program, which she said created enhanced renewable energy opportunities for the town’s 500,000 residents.
Ms. Anker spoke of her experience working with the Mt. Sinai Civic Association, which led her to spearhead creation of the Community Health and Environment Coalition, a not-for-profit devoted to cancer research and combating the region’s historically high cancer rates. She was also a member of former congressman Tim Bishop’s Breast Cancer Advisory Board. She pledged to continue that work if elected to the state Senate, where she will advocate for improved cancer-rate data collection and analysis from the state Department of Health. “As a senator, I will address that,” Ms. Anker said. “I want more studies. I want more focus in this area.”
On affordable housing and community development:
Ms. Anker spoke about her ideas for creating more affordable housing opportunities for young working families in the area, including the potential development of residential and commercial districts near colleges and transportation hubs. “[Gov. Hochul] didn’t have a lot of luck when she was trying to move forward doing more of this type of housing near transportation hubs, because she kind of left out the important component of including local government oversight,” Ms. Anker said.“And she got a lot of pushback — and rightfully so, because the local jurisdiction understands what the community wants.”
Ms. Anker also noted her role in the creation of the North Shore Rail Trail, a 10.4-mile green space along a former rail corridor that runs west from Wading River to the border of Mt. Sinai and Port Jefferson Station. She spoke about her extensive coordination efforts among state and local officials and private and public stakeholders to push the project forward some 50 years after it was initially conceived. She also signaled support for extending the trail eastward to Orient Point.
“I love community projects,” she said, “because not only do they enhance the quality of life, they also support the local economy and create safer spaces.”
On climate change and sustainability: Ms. Anker spoke of the need to protect safe drinking water, improve water quality and enhance coastal resiliency across the East End. She noted her role as chair of the Coastal Erosion Advisory Board, a special task force created to combat beach erosion following Super Storm Sandy. “We worked with the Cornell Extension, we worked with the Soil and Water Conservation District, and came up with a presentation and a guide to give to all those [waterfront] communities,” she said. Ms. Anker also called for the release of more data from the state’s Coastal Erosion Hazard Area mapping program, which defines high-risk areas to allow local municipalities to create and implement effective zoning regulations. “I think it has been 50 or 60 years since they updated the mean water line,” Ms. Anker said, referring to the average measure of where seawater meets the coast during high tides. “That line is really important for local municipalities, because it helps them understand … where the water line is.”
On the opioid crisis and public health: Ms. Anker addressed the need for more initiatives to better educate Suffolk County youth on the dangers of opioids and the increased risk from fentanyl. She signaled support for Chelsey’s Law, which empowers law enforcement officials to charge drug dealers convicted of selling fentanyl- laced narcotics linked to fatal overdoses with manslaughter. She further suggested that more funding should be put toward drug enforcement and misuse prevention.
“Enough is enough,” Ms. Anker said. “More people have died from the opioid epidemic than the combination of our major world wars. We have an internal war going on right now, and it’s killing more people. Why can’t we use the resources and the funding of our defense department to go after the drug dealers? To go after cartels? … This should not be happening.”
On fiscal spending and government accountability: Ms. Anker expressed her commitment to being fiscally responsible, streamlining government and consolidating departments. She called for implementation of a bipartisan “control board” to oversee the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She noted that when she came to the Legislature, Suffolk County was operating with a $500 million deficit, and when she left office more than a decade later, “we had a surplus with a higher bond rating.” She also pointed to the advantages of serving in the legislative majority when it comes to serving the needs of local constituents. “The New York State Senate has 63 senators; 41 of those are in the Democratic majority. When you’re in the majority, as I learned as a county legislator, you can get so much done. You can get funding. You can get the resources from the different agencies and departments. I want to do that for our area.” Ms. Anker noted that former state senator Kenneth La Valle and current District 2 Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio, both Republicans, had nominated her as a Woman of Distinction during her time as a county legislator.
“I can differentiate myself from my party,” she said, “and I’ve had to, because I’ve represented a fiscally conservative area, and I can do that in Albany.”