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Originally Posted by JManc
An Upstate legislator may get a chance here and there to make a 'fuck you' vote against the City but NYC clearly dominates the state government including the governorship as well as in the Senate and a majority of NY's House representation. Kirsten Gillibrand is the first Upstate senator I recall in a long time and she was appointed by a governor who lived in the Albany area and he only became so because his predecessor got busted with a hooker.
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Kirsten Gillibrand has lived in Manhattan most of her adult life. She worked on Wall Street for many years. Don't see how she's more "Upstate" than Governor Cuomo, given they now both live on the Hudson north of NYC.
The NY Legislature and Governorship have traditionally been very anti-NYC, but it's more a failure of personalities and institutions than city vs country. Cuomo is in a running feud with DeBlasio, Giuliani was constantly feuding with Pataki. The NYC legislative contingent is too fractious to agree on much; yeah they're all Dems but they have very divergent interests.
Most Governors and top state leadership will be from NYC and environs simply because that's where most people live. NYC proper has nearly half the state population, and including surrounding suburbs you have more than 3/4 of the state population.
The strangest thing about the NYC area politically is that half of "NYC" isn't in NY State. This creates very odd situations in terms of regional planning. City-suburb coalitions don't really work, because the suburbs are mostly in other states. There are far more people living in NJ suburbs than in NY State suburbs.