Catharine Young - Political Career

Political Career

Catharine Young entered elective office at the age of 37 when veteran Republican New York State Senator Jess Present died in August 1998, near the end of his fifteenth term, and was succeeded by Republican Assembly member Patricia McGee, thus opening a vacancy for McGee's Assembly seat. Running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines, Young defeated her Democratic opponent Patrick Tyler 19,337 to 12,045. She won by even larger margins in the 2000 and 2004 elections and ran unopposed in 2002. During her time in the Assembly, Young was named to several top leadership positions, including Assistant Minority Leader Pro Tempore. She also favored "Penny's Law" which provided for juvenile justice reform.

When Patricia McGee died three months into her 2005 State Senate term, Young was nominated to replace her in the May 10 special election. Running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence Party, she achieved a decisive victory over her Democratic rival Nancy Bargar, 29,559 to 12,800. Appointed to chair the Senate Agriculture Committee, and co-chair of the Administrative Regulations Review Commission, she has also served on the Rural Resources Commission, Transportation Committee, Health Committee, Environmental Conservation Committee, Housing Committee and Insurance Committee. During her time as Agriculture chair, Young streamlined and expanded agricultural programs and championed the Dairy Assistance Program which provided state resources to dairy farmers and, following the Democratic takeover in January 2009, has been the ranking member on the Committee. On December 2, 2009 she voted against the bill, which was not passed, to legalize same-sex marriage. She again voted against the Marriage Equality Act when it came before the Senate on June 24, 2011; the bill passed nonetheless.

Rarely facing more than token opposition in elections, she was unopposed in 2006 and won 78 percent of the vote against 2008 challenger Christopher Schaeffer. In 2010 she defeated Allegany County legislator Michael McCormick by an 85–15 margin. Mentioned as a potential candidate in 2010 to run against Eric Massa for New York's 29th congressional district, she stated that although the opportunity was "very tempting", her seat had to be retained in order to help Senate Republicans retake control of the chamber, thus giving Upstate New York more of a voice in state government (even though the Senate Republican leader, Dean Skelos, is from downstate Long Island) and prevent gerrymandering efforts to eliminate upstate representation.