167th New York State Legislature

The 167th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 5, 1949, to March 22, 1950, during the seventh and eighth years of Thomas E. Dewey's governorship, in Albany.

167th New York State Legislature
← 166th 168th →
New York State Capitol (2009)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1, 1949 – December 31, 1950
Senate
Members	56
President	Lt. Gov. Joe R. Hanley (R)
Temporary President	Benjamin F. Feinberg (R), until March 30, 1949; Arthur H. Wicks (R), from March 30, 1949
Party control	Republican (31–25)
Assembly
Members	150
Speaker	Oswald D. Heck (R)
Party control	Republican (87–63)
Sessions
1st January 5 – March 31, 1949 2nd January 4 – March 22, 1950

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1938, re-apportioned in 1943, 56 Senators and 150 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts for two-year terms. The senatorial districts consisted either of one or more entire counties; or a contiguous area within a single county. The counties which were divided into more than one senatorial district were Kings (nine districts), New York (six), Bronx (five), Queens (four), Erie (three), Westchester (three), Monroe (two) and Nassau (two). The Assembly districts consisted either of a single entire county (except Hamilton Co.), or of contiguous area within one county.

At this time there were two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Liberal Party and the American Labor Party also nominated tickets.

Elections

The New York state election, 1948, was held on November 2. No statewide elective offices were up for election.

Seven of the eight women members of the previous legislature—Assemblywomen Gladys E. Banks (Rep.), of the Bronx; Mary A. Gillen (Dem.), of Brooklyn; Janet Hill Gordon (Rep.), a lawyer of Norwich; Elizabeth Hanniford (Rep.), a statistician of the Bronx; Genesta M. Strong (Rep.), of Plandome Heights; Mildred F. Taylor (Rep.), a coal dealer of Lyons; and Maude E. Ten Eyck (Rep.), of Manhattan—were re-elected.

The New York state election, 1949, was held on November 8. Both statewide elective offices up for election were carried by the Democratic/Liberal nominees. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for U.S. Senator, was: Republicans 2,378,000; Democrats 2,149,000; and Liberals 426,000. Two vacancies in the State Senate, and two vacancies in the Assembly were filled.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the first regular session (the 172nd) at the State Capitol in Albany on January 5, 1949; and adjourned in the morning of March 31.[1]

Oswald D. Heck (Rep.) was re-elected Speaker.

Benjamin F. Feinberg (Rep.) was re-elected Temporary President of the State Senate. On March 30, 1949, Feinberg was appointed as Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission, and Arthur H. Wicks (Rep.) was elected Temporary President of the State Senate.[2]

The Legislature met for the second regular session (the 173rd) at the State Capitol in Albany on January 4, 1950; and adjourned on March 22.

State Senate

Districts

• 1st District: Suffolk County
• 2nd and 3rd District: Parts of Nassau County
• 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th District: Parts of Queens County, i.e. the Borough of Queens
• 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th District: Parts of Kings County, i.e. the Borough of Brooklyn
• 17th District: Richmond County, i.e. the Borough of Richmond (now the Borough of Staten Island)
• 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd District: Parts of New York County, i.e. the Borough of Manhattan
• 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th District: Parts of Bronx County, i.e. the Borough of the Bronx
• 29th, 30th and 31st District: Parts of Westchester County
• 32nd District: Orange and Rockland counties
• 33rd District: Columbia, Dutchess and Putnam counties
• 34th District: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties
• 35th District: Albany County
• 36th District: Rensselaer and Saratoga counties
• 37th District: Montgomery and Schenectady counties
• 38th District: Clinton, Essex, Warren and Washington counties
• 39th District: St. Lawrence and Franklin counties
• 40th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer and Lewis counties
• 41st District: Oneida County
• 42nd District: Jefferson and Oswego counties
• 43rd District: Onondaga County
• 44th District: Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Otsego and Schoharie counties
• 45th District: Broome County
• 46th District: Chemung, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins counties
• 47th District: Cayuga, Seneca and Wayne counties
• 48th District: Ontario, Steuben and Yates counties
• 49th District: Allegany, Genesee, Livingston and Wyoming counties
• 50th and 51st District: Parts of Monroe County
• 52nd District: Niagara and Orleans counties
• 53rd, 54th and 55th District: Parts of Erie County
• 56th District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties

Senators

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. Harry Gittleson and Louis Bennett changed from the Assembly to the Senate at the beginning of this Legislature. Assemblyman Henry Neddo was elected to fill a vacancy in the Senate.

Note: For brevity, the chairmanships omit the words "...the Committee on (the)..."

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	S. Wentworth Horton*	Republican
2nd	John D. Bennett*	Republican
3rd	William S. Hults, Jr.*	Republican
4th	Seymour Halpern*	Republican
5th	James F. Fitzgerald	Democrat
6th	Frank D. O'Connor	Democrat
7th	William N. Conrad	Democrat
8th	James J. Crawford*	Dem./Lib.
9th	Harry Gittleson*	Dem./Am. Labor
10th	Herbert I. Sorin	Dem./Lib.
11th	Fred G. Moritt*	Dem./Am. Labor
12th	Samuel L. Greenberg*	Dem./Am. Labor
13th	John F. Furey	Dem./Lib.
14th	Mario M. DeOptatis	Dem./Am. Labor
15th	Louis L. Friedman*	Dem./Lib.
16th	William Rosenblatt*	Dem./Am. Labor
17th	John M. Braisted, Jr.*	Democrat
18th	Elmer F. Quinn*	Democrat	Minority Leader
19th	Francis J. Mahoney*	Democrat
20th	MacNeil Mitchell*	Republican
21st	Harold I. Panken*	Democrat
22nd	Alfred E. Santangelo*	Dem./Am. Labor
23rd	Joseph Zaretzki*	Dem./Lib.
24th	Sidney A. Fine*	Democrat	on November 7, 1950, elected to the 82nd U.S. Congress
25th	Arthur Wachtel*	Dem./Rep.
26th	Louis Bennett*	Democrat	resigned on July 22, 1949,[3] to run for the Municipal Court
	Nathaniel T. Helman	Democrat	on November 8, 1949, elected to fill vacancy
27th	Paul A. Fino*	Republican	on May 29, 1950, appointed to the Municipal Civil Service Commission[4]
28th	Charles V. Scanlan*	Rep./Dem.
29th	William F. Condon*	Republican
30th	J. Raymond McGovern*	Republican	on November 7, 1950, elected New York State Comptroller
31st	Pliny W. Williamson*	Republican	Chairman of Judiciary
32nd	Thomas C. Desmond*	Republican
33rd	Ernest I. Hatfield*	Republican
34th	Arthur H. Wicks*	Republican	until March 30, 1949, Chairman of Finance; on March 30, 1949, elected Temporary President
35th	Peter J. Dalessandro*	Democrat
36th	Gilbert T. Seelye*	Republican
37th	Thomas F. Campbell*	Republican
38th	Benjamin F. Feinberg*	Republican	re-elected Temporary President; on March 30, 1949, appointed as Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission
	Henry Neddo*	Republican	on November 8, 1949, elected to fill vacancy
39th	Paul D. Graves	Republican
40th	(Fred A. Young)*	Republican	on January 5, 1949, appointed to the Court of Claims
	Walter Van Wiggeren	Republican	on February 8, 1949, elected to fill vacancy
41st	John T. McKennan	Democrat
42nd	Henry A. Wise*	Republican	Chairman of General Laws (1950)
43rd	John H. Hughes*	Republican
44th	Walter W. Stokes*	Republican
45th	Floyd E. Anderson*	Republican
46th	Chauncey B. Hammond*	Republican
47th	Henry W. Griffith*	Republican
48th	Fred S. Hollowell*	Republican
49th	Austin W. Erwin*	Republican
50th	George T. Manning*	Republican
51st	Ray B. Tuttle	Democrat
52nd	Earl W. Brydges	Republican
53rd	Walter J. Mahoney*	Republican	Chairman of Finance, from March 30, 1949
54th	Edmund P. Radwan*	Republican	on November 7, 1950, elected to the 82nd U.S. Congress
55th	Benjamin Miller	Democrat
56th	George H. Pierce*	Republican	Chairman of Affairs of Villages (1950)

Employees

• Clerk (1949), office renamed Secretary (1950): William S. King

State Assembly

Assemblymen

Note: For brevity, the chairmanships omit the words "...the Committee on (the)..."

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	D-Cady Herrick 2nd*	Dem./Lib.
	2nd	George W. Foy*	Dem./Lib.
	3rd	James F. Dillon	Dem./Lib.
Allegany		William H. MacKenzie*	Republican
Bronx	1st	Bernard C. McDonnell*	Dem./Rep.
	2nd	Richard M. Goldwater*	Dem./Rep.
	3rd	Edward T. Galloway*	Dem./Rep.
	4th	A. Joseph Ribustello*	Republican
	5th	Joseph A. Martinis*	Democrat	resigned on February 11, 1950, appointed as a City Magistrate[5]
	6th	Julius J. Gans*	Democrat
	7th	Louis Peck*	Democrat
	8th	John T. Satriale	Democrat
	9th	Elizabeth Hanniford*	Republican
	10th	John J. DePasquale*	Republican
	11th	Gladys E. Banks*	Republican
	12th	Nathan A. Lashin*	Democrat
	13th	William J. Drohan*	Republican
Broome	1st	Richard H. Knauf*	Republican
	2nd	Orlo M. Brees*	Republican
Cattaraugus		Leo P. Noonan*	Republican
Cayuga		Charles A. Cusick*	Republican
Chautauqua		E. Herman Magnuson*	Republican
Chemung		Harry J. Tifft*	Republican
Chenango		Janet Hill Gordon*	Republican
Clinton		James A. FitzPatrick*	Republican
Columbia		Willard C. Drumm*	Republican
Cortland		Harold L. Creal*	Republican
Delaware		Elmer J. Kellam*	Republican
Dutchess		Robert Watson Pomeroy*	Republican
Erie	1st	Leonard S. Capizzi	Democrat
	2nd	Justin C. Morgan*	Republican	Chairman of Judiciary from July 7, 1950[6]
	3rd	William J. Butler*	Republican
	4th	Frank J. Caffery	Democrat
	5th	Philip V. Baczkowski*	Democrat
	6th	George F. Dannebrock*	Republican
	7th	Julius Volker*	Republican
	8th	John R. Pillion*	Republican
Essex		L. Judson Morhouse*	Republican
Franklin		William L. Doige*	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		Joseph R. Younglove*	Republican
Genesee		John E. Johnson*	Republican
Greene		William E. Brady*	Republican
Herkimer		Leo A. Lawrence*	Republican
Jefferson		Orin S. Wilcox*	Republican
Kings	1st	Max M. Turshen*	Democrat
	2nd	J. Sidney Levine*	Democrat
	3rd	Mary A. Gillen*	Democrat
	4th	Bernard Austin*	Democrat
	5th	Harry Morr	Democrat
	6th	John J. Ryan*	Democrat
	7th	Louis Kalish*	Democrat
	8th	Arthur A. Low	Democrat	resigned on August 31, 1949, to run for the New York City Council
		Frank Composto	Dem./Lib.	on November 8, 1949, elected to fill vacancy
	9th	Frank J. McMullen*	Republican
	10th	Lewis W. Olliffe*	Republican
	11th	Eugene F. Bannigan*	Democrat
	12th	James W. Feely	Democrat
	13th	Lawrence P. Murphy*	Democrat
	14th	Edward S. Lentol	Democrat
	15th	John Smolenski*	Democrat
	16th	Frank J. Pino*	Democrat
	17th	Bertram L. Baker	Democrat
	18th	Irwin Steingut*	Democrat	Minority Leader
	19th	Philip J. Schupler*	Democrat
	20th	Joseph R. Corso	Democrat
	21st	Thomas A. Dwyer*	Democrat
	22nd	Anthony J. Travia	Democrat
	23rd	Alfred A. Lama*	Democrat
	24th	Ben Werbel	Democrat
Lewis		Benjamin H. Demo*	Republican
Livingston		Joseph W. Ward*	Republican
Madison		Wheeler Milmoe*	Republican
Monroe	1st	J. Eugene Goddard	Republican
	2nd	A. Gould Hatch	Republican
	3rd	Raymond H. Combs*	Republican
	4th	Charles F. Stockmeister	Democrat
Montgomery		John F. Bennison*	Republican
Nassau	1st	Frank J. Becker*	Republican
	2nd	Joseph F. Carlino*	Republican
	3rd	Genesta M. Strong*	Republican
	4th	David S. Hill, Jr.*	Republican
New York	1st	Maude E. Ten Eyck*	Republican
	2nd	Louis DeSalvio*	Democrat
	3rd	Owen McGivern*	Democrat
	4th	Leonard Farbstein*	Democrat
	5th	vacant	Irwin D. Davidson (D) was re-elected, but resigned on December 31, 1948
		Monroe Flegenheimer	Dem./Lib.	on February 15, 1949, elected to fill vacancy[7]
	6th	Francis X. McGowan*	Democrat
	7th	James T. McNamara	Democrat
	8th	Archibald Douglas, Jr.*	Republican
	9th	John R. Brook*	Republican
	10th	Herman Katz	Democrat
	11th	Thomas Dickens	Democrat
	12th	Elijah Crump	Democrat
	13th	Harold A. Stevens*	Democrat	on November 7, 1950, elected to the Court of General Sessions
	14th	Hulan E. Jack*	Democrat
	15th	Samuel Roman*	Republican
	16th	Louis A. Cioffi*	Democrat
Niagara	1st	Jacob E. Hollinger*	Republican
	2nd	Ernest Curto*	Republican
Oneida	1st	Ira Francis Domser	Democrat
	2nd	Jeremiah J. Ashcroft	Democrat
Onondaga	1st	Searles G. Shultz*	Republican
	2nd	Donald H. Mead	Republican
	3rd	Lawrence M. Rulison*	Republican
Ontario		Harry R. Marble*	Republican
Orange	1st	Lee B. Mailler*	Republican	Majority Leader
	2nd	Wilson C. Van Duzer*	Republican
Orleans		Alonzo L. Waters	Republican
Oswego		Henry D. Coville*	Republican
Otsego		Paul L. Talbot*	Republican
Putnam		D. Mallory Stephens*	Republican	Chairman of Ways and Means
Queens	1st	Alexander Del Giorno*	Democrat
	2nd	William E. Clancy*	Democrat
	3rd	Anthony R. Carus	Democrat
	4th	Thomas A. Duffy	Democrat
	5th	William G. Giaccio	Democrat
	6th	William F. Bowe	Democrat
	7th	Anthony P. Savarese Jr.	Republican
	8th	Samuel Rabin*	Republican
	9th	Fred W. Preller*	Republican
	10th	Angelo Graci*	Republican
	11th	Thomas Fitzpatrick	Democrat
	12th	J. Lewis Fox	Democrat
Rensselaer		Thomas H. Brown	Republican
Richmond	1st	William N. Reidy	Democrat
	2nd	Edward V. Curry	Democrat
Rockland		Robert Walmsley*	Republican
St. Lawrence		Allan P. Sill*	Republican
Saratoga		John L. Ostrander*	Republican
Schenectady		Oswald D. Heck*	Republican	re-elected Speaker
Schoharie		Sharon J. Mauhs	Dem./Lib.
Schuyler		Jerry W. Black*	Republican
Seneca		Lawrence W. Van Cleef*	Republican
Steuben		William M. Stuart*	Republican
Suffolk	1st	Edmund R. Lupton*	Republican
	2nd	Elisha T. Barrett*	Republican
Sullivan		James G. Lyons*	Democrat
Tioga		Myron D. Albro*	Republican
Tompkins		Ray S. Ashbery	Republican
Ulster		John F. Wadlin*	Republican
Warren		Harry A. Reoux*	Republican	Chairman of Judiciary; resigned in June 1950 to become Counsel to the Joint Legislative Committee on Re-Apportionment
Washington		Henry Neddo*	Republican	resigned to run for the State Senate
		William J. Reid	Republican	on November 8, 1949, elected to fill vacancy
Wayne		Mildred F. Taylor*	Republican
Westchester	1st	Malcolm Wilson*	Republican
	2nd	Fred A. Graber*	Republican	died on March 22, 1950
	3rd	Harold D. Toomey*	Republican
	4th	Frank S. McCullough*	Republican
	5th	Samuel Faile	Republican
	6th	Theodore Hill, Jr.*	Republican
Wyoming		Harold C. Ostertag*	Republican	on November 7, 1950, elected to the 82nd U.S. Congress
Yates		Vernon W. Blodgett*	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: Ansley B. Borkowski
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Joseph C. Williams

Notes

1. LEGISLATURE ENDS; ILLNESS PAY VOTED in The New York Times on March 31, 1949 (subscription required)
2. DEWEY, IN PERSON, APPOINTS FEINBERG; PSC Chairmanship Given to Majority Leader; A. H. Wicks Chosen to Succeed Him in The New York Times on March 31, 1949 (subscription required)
3. Elected Public Officials of the Bronx since 1898 Archived March 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (2014; pg. 11)
4. FINO, JUDGE TO JOIN CIVIL SERVICE BODY in The New York Times on March 30, 1950 (subscription required)
5. Elected Public Officials of the Bronx Since 1898 Archived March 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (2014; pg. 21)
6. Judiciary Chairman Named in The New York Times on July 8, 1950 (subscription required)
7. SPECIAL ELECTIONS WON BY DEMOCRATS in The New York Times on February 16, 1949 (subscription required)

Sources

• Your Representatives in Merit (Winter 1948, Vol. 17, No. 4, pg. 118f)
• Members of the New York Senate (1940s) at Political Graveyard
• Members of the New York Assembly (1940s) at Political Graveyard