REDISTRICTING MAY PUT at least one unfamiliar name on the Columbia County ballot this fall, state Senator Roy McDonald. In the fall election the whole county joins the newly reconfigured 43rd District, which reaches north through Rensselaer and into Saratoga and Washington counties.
Mr. McDonald, who already represents parts of those northern counties, is seeking reelection in the redrawn district, so some local Republicans are just getting to know him. He’s won support from the GOP in Kinderhook, Stuyvesant, Stockport and Canaan, and the county Republican Committee votes this week on whether to back him.
Some members of his party are dismayed that Mr. McDonald supported the state’s same-sex marriage law adopted this year. That reaction is politics as usual. But it’s reassuring to see local GOP leaders rally to Mr. McDonald because of his record on economic development and his fiscal conservatism. They have set a good example by refusing to pander to those on the fringe who still deny that all citizens deserve the same basic rights.