Dec. 27, 2020 7:00 pm ET
Albany was a more bipartisan place in the 1970s: The decade started with Nelson Rockefeller as governor, before Democrat Hugh Carey was elected in 1974. Republicans had solid control of the state Senate and, until a wave of elections that followed the Watergate scandal, the state Assembly.
That climate forged the governing style of Joe Lentol and Robin Schimminger, who after a combined 92 years in office are leaving their Assembly seats at the end of the year. Mr. Lentol lost a Democratic primary in June; Mr. Schimminger, who is also a Democrat, didn’t seek another term.
In recent interviews, the men said the lessons from their early years in the chamber—which has been controlled by Democrats since 1975—are instructive in a current political climate that they called divisive.