Northeast
Inside the Republican victories in suburban New York: 'fed up with one party Democratic rule'
Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who delivered a critical victory for the GOP on election night, explained his success to Fox News on Thursday, saying that “voters in New York are fed up with one party Democratic rule.”
Two days after the election, several House races remain uncalled, and control of the lower chamber of Congress remains undetermined. If Republicans can eke out a majority, the party will have a unified federal government until at least 2026.
Lawler won his race with 52.4 percent of the vote, defeating his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Mondaire Jones, by 6.8 points.
REPUBLICANS WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF HOUSE MAJORITY AS KEY RACES REMAIN TOO CLOSE TO CALL
Mike Lawler, Republican candidate for New York’s 17th Congressional District, greets supporters at the end of Senate candidate Bill Weber’s speech during an election night party in Pearl River, New York, on Nov. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Lawler’s district, New York Congressional District 17, is just north of New York City and is primarily suburban and middle-class. Politically, the district is fairly split between party lines, making it a highly targeted district for both sides. Democrats poured in millions in hopes of flipping the seat blue.
The race ended up being one of the most expensive House races in the country.
Republicans also garnered victories in nearby districts 1, 11 and 12, all of which are suburban areas near New York City.
Lawler said that, ultimately, New Yorkers’ concerns over inflation, the cost of living and crime pushed him to victory.
“In a state like New York where Democrats control everything and they have created an affordability crisis, a crime crisis, the migrant crisis exploding, billions of dollars of taxpayer money, voters had had enough,” he said. “Voters want us to focus on the issues that impact them most acutely and that is the economy, that is the border, that is the international crises that we’re seeing, energy policy.”
TRUMP-BACKED PA SENATE CANDIDATE FLIPS LONGTIME DEM SEAT RED IN NAIL-BITER ELECTION
Alleged migrants line up in front of the East Village re-intake, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families, in New York City on Dec. 4, 2023. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Lawler homed in on the border crisis as especially important to his constituents.
“What [President] Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris allowed over the last three and a half plus years, 10.5 million migrants coming into the United States, it’s unfathomable,” he said. “It’s created a crisis in states like New York, where they’re spending billions of dollars.”
David Laska, spokesperson for the New York state Republican Party, told Fox News Digital that the victories in his state were spurred on by President-elect Trump’s clear messaging to voters on issues that they care about.
In the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris won New York. However, she earned nearly 6 percent less of the vote share than Biden did in 2020.
“Kamala Harris tried to run on vibes. What does that even mean? What a joke,” he said. “President Trump ran on inflation, immigration, those were the issues that mattered to Americans. And you saw Republican victories up and down the ballot.“
TRUMP TRAIN CHUGS PAST 2020 MARGINS, PARTICULARLY AMONG HISPANICS, URBAN NORTHEASTERNERS
Former President Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Laska believes Tuesday’s election is indicative of a broader political realignment of working-class voters who no longer believe the Democratic Party cares about their needs. Put simply, he said that people just wanted change.
“Look, New York is a blue state, but it’s not progressive blue. It’s not woke blue. It’s blue-collar blue. It’s working-class blue. These are the old ‘Reagan Democrats,’ as we used to call them. And you might be calling a lot of them ‘Trump Democrats,’” he said. “When you look back on this chapter of history, because voters of all stripes had economic concerns, had concerns about immigration, and again, President Trump spoke to those. Kamala Harris did not.”
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The decision to trade catcher Joey Bart to the Braves gives the Pirates a solution to a problem that soon needed to be made.
Bart had been on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis, working his way back from a left foot infection that kept him out of action for over a month.
With Bart nearing a return, the Pirates were going to have to figure out what to do at catcher with Henry Davis and Endy Rodríguez splitting time behind the plate in his absence.
Given how Rodríguez has been swinging the bat since he was recalled from Indianapolis to replace Bart on the active roster, there was no way the Pirates could’ve sent him down. In 23 games, the 26-year-old has a .267/.413/.467 batting line with three doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, two steals and a robust 19.7% walk rate.
Davis, meanwhile, has struggled to an anemic .138/.242/.285 batting line with four doubles, five home runs and 17 RBI in 47 games. While he hasn’t offered much with the bat, he’s been responsible for two defensive runs saved and leads MLB with a 55% caught stealing rate.
Now that Bart has been traded, Rodríguez and Davis will remain the catching tandem at the big-league level with Rafael Flores Jr. as the top backup option with Indianapolis. Flores is considered Pittsburgh’s eighth-best prospect on MLB Pipeline.
For the first time in the big leagues, Rodríguez is realizing the potential that once made him one of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Because of that, he should get the majority of the playing time with Davis continuing to catch Paul Skenes’ starts and filling in when needed.
As for the return, the Pirates known what to expect from Hunter Stratton, who spent nine seasons in the organization and made 47 appearances with the team from 2023-25.
The bullpen has been an obvious weak spot for the team this season, and while it was somewhat surprising to see the Pirates assign Stratton to Indianapolis, he improves the pitching depth and will almost surely be called upon at some point this year.
In 60 career big-league appearances between the Pirates and Braves, Stratton is 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA and two saves. The right-hander spent most of the 2026 season with Triple-A Gwinnett and went 2-4 with a 4.38 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 24.2 innings across 21 appearances.
One more important note about the trade is that the Pirates saved some money in the deal, which could be used later in additional trades to add to an already record-setting payroll. Stratton is a pre-arbitration player, while Bart is making $2.53 million this season.
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Connecticut
Joe Deko Appointed to State Legislature’s Group Studying Prepaid Funeral Contracts to Protect Consumers
- Reviewing contract structures: Examining issues related to pre-need funeral contracts and cremation service agreements.
- Strengthening oversight: Recommending stronger consumer protections and improvements to state regulation of the funeral services industry.
- Developing compensation mechanisms: Creating rules for distributing funds to affected consumers and exploring the framework for a future industry-backed guarantee fund.
Deko took to Facebook to share the news.
“I am honored to announce my appointment to the Connecticut State working group focused on reviewing and strengthening Connecticut’s prepaid funeral laws.
This important effort brings together professionals and stakeholders committed to ensuring that prepaid funeral arrangements continue to serve and protect Connecticut families while maintaining the highest standards within our profession.
I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute my experience and perspective to this process and look forward to working collaboratively with fellow members of the group.
A special thank you to Senator Paul Cicarella for his confidence in me and for entrusting me with this appointment. Your support and leadership are greatly appreciated. I look forward to helping shape thoughtful policies that will benefit Connecticut families and the funeral profession for years to come.”
FALMOUTH — Standing in the apple orchard at Gilsland Farm, Chris Maher instantly recognized the woodchuck waddling across the grass 30 yards away.
“There’s Torch,” said Maher, needing neither her binoculars nor the telescope she had on hand to identify the tan marmot the size of a small cat. “And, oh, look, she’s got a pup with her.”
Trailing behind Torch was one of her several “pups” in her litter this year. Only 6 weeks old, the baby woodchuck was the size of a grapefruit, scurrying around under the watchful eye of its mother, who was nibbling clover flowers. Their burrow was just yards behind them, under the base of a tree stump.
Maher has been studying the woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm since 1998. A biology professor at the University of Southern Maine, her office is 10 minutes away in Portland.
Over the nearly 30 years of studying this population in Falmouth, she’s been answering longstanding questions about the species. Not whether they’ll see their shadow on Feb. 2, and not how much wood they could chuck if they could chuck wood, but how and why they behave the way they do.
“They’re basically a lot more social than people had thought they were,” she said.
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Woodchucks are one of six native marmot species in North America and the least social of them all. When Maher first started reading the scientific literature on the species in the 1980s and 1990s, it said that woodchucks were solitary and territorial — but some anecdotal reports also shared they were perhaps more social than previously thought.
When Maher moved to Maine in 1997 to work at USM after years studying the behaviors of other species, she decided the social lives of woodchucks were worth examining. With the permission of Maine Audubon, she started trapping and tagging the woodchucks at Gilsland Farm. It became the longest study of woodchucks ever conducted.
While there were once three dozen woodchucks on the property, now only eight adults have multiple burrows each in the many fields, orchard, peony bushes, parking lot and underneath Maine Audubon’s outdoor classroom. Maher’s workforce has declined as well, as her busy schedule as an interim dean at USM means she has less time for student assistance.
One of the eight and Torch’s adult daughter, named Tremont, also wandered under the apple trees. After she left her mother’s burrow, she moved in next door, digging burrows under the outdoor classroom and in a field of goldenrod.
“Born in the orchard, and basically never left home. The parallels with people are amusing,” said Maher.
With her handheld computer, which resembles a PIN pad in the grocery store checkout, Maher took a 15-minute sample of Torch’s behavior, hitting buttons every time Torch switched what she was doing. There are codes for when the woodchucks eat, groom themselves, dig, recline or are on alert.
Female woodchucks have a territory of about three-quarters of an acre. Maher’s research found that related female woodchucks will overlap their territory, previously thought to never happen. Mother and daughter, aunts and nieces, grandmother and granddaughter are all more tolerant of sharing space than unrelated woodchucks.
But sometimes they still need to take a stand. That morning, Tremont and Torch got into a fight, squeaking at and batting each other. With their familiar relationship bringing higher tolerance, it wasn’t a “knock-down, drag-out” brawl, said Maher, just “Torch being Torch.”
For the fight, Maher hits the button to indicate “other.”
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Maher knows that not everyone is a fan of woodchucks.
“People kind of run this gamut between ‘I hate woodchucks, because they eat my garden, or they dig under my shed.’ Or they love woodchucks — chances are, those people don’t have a garden,” she said.
Despite the woodchucks who keep eating the zucchini plant in her home garden, Maher maintains her affinity for the animals. Over the years, she’s trapped and tagged 630 Falmouth woodchucks.
In addition to the number on its metal ear tag, each woodchuck also gets a name, which helps her students remember them. Each year, there’s a theme: cars, cartoon characters, musical instruments and colleges. This year, she’s thinking it will be sports teams, in honor of the World Cup.
Now she’s attempting to trap and tag the pups born this year, including those of Tremont, who was born three years ago when the naming convention was Maine towns and had four pups this year.
Maher set four traps at right angles around the entrance of one of Tremont’s burrows, smearing a dab of Hannaford’s smooth peanut butter on the pressure plate that will trigger the trap to close if stepped on. Apple slices she dropped inside the metal grate increase the temptation.
Between the traps, Maher shoved wooden shingles to make a fence. Adult woodchucks will get creative trying to escape, as evidenced by tooth marks on the wood. Catching the pups is easier.
“They’re naive,” she said.
” data-image-caption=”<p>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher sets four traps around a woodchuck burrow in the Pond Meadow at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
” data-large-file=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?w=780″ height=”683″ width=”1024″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-7669140″ srcset=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg 3000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=780,520 780w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_1.jpg?resize=400,267 400w” sizes=”auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”/><figcaption>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher sets four traps around a woodchuck burrow in the Pond Meadow at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)<span class=)
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Once a pup is caught, she’ll weigh it, take a hair sample, give it a numbered ear tag and paint a distinct mark on it with Revlon black hair dye, so she can recognize it from a distance.
Keeping track of which of these squirrely animals are related for 28 years, as well as what they’re doing and where they’re going, is no small feat. Maher’s logbook is filled with decades of notes on trappings and re-trappings of the hundreds of animals.
“Long-term studies are really valuable,” said Daniel Blumstein, a biology professor at University of California Los Angeles who studies yellow-bellied marmots. “Having decades of information gives us a whole different way of thinking about what’s going on.”
In addition to changing understandings of their social behavior, Maher has conducted numerous other studies across the course of the project, including the variation in woodchuck personalities, tracking their movement with radio transmitters, testing their paternity using DNA from hair samples and seeing if they pay attention to the alarm calls of other animals (turns out, woodchucks care what chipmunks have to say).
She’s also seen their lineages unfold across generations, such as with the woodchuck named Bonnie.
Maher first caught Bonnie in 1998. She lived for 12 years, twice the average woodchuck lifespan, until she disappeared. Her legacy living onwards, as having trapped and tagged her offspring, and her offspring’s offspring, Maher was able to track Bonnie’s bloodline for seven generations until it died out in 2018.
Maher wondered what exactly happened to Bonnie. The answer was unearthed in 2021, when Maine Audubon tore down the pavilion that her burrow had been under. Curled up underneath was the mummified body of Bonnie, identifiable by the tag still in her ear.
” data-image-caption=”<p>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher has recorded notes on each woodchuck that she has trapped at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. The next woodchuck that Maher trapps will be No. 631. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
” data-large-file=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?w=780″ height=”683″ width=”1024″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-7669141″ srcset=”https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg 3000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=780,520 780w, https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/06/43635806_20260615_Falmouth-Woodchucks_3.jpg?resize=400,267 400w” sizes=”auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”/><figcaption>University of Southern Maine biology professor Chris Maher has recorded notes on each woodchuck that she has trapped at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. The next woodchuck that Maher trapps will be No. 631. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)<span class=)
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Maher keeps Bonnie’s mummy in her office in a plastic tote, occasionally taking her out when she gives talks about her research at libraries, to Girl Scout troops and Maine Audubon camps.
“It’s a highlight of the summer for many campers,” said Molly Woodring, who oversees day camp and other educational programs at Maine Audubon.
With additional assistance from a woodchuck puppet, Maher presents her research and what it’s like to be a wildlife biologist to campers each year, also often explaining what she’s doing to other curious visitors of Gilsland Farm who typically come out to birdwatch.
“I do think, like in the context of the sanctuary, and in the context of her work, (woodchucks) do become really fascinating and lovable,” said Woodring.
As she starts this season’s pup tagging, Maher is also considering winding down her project. She turned 63 on Thursday — a day she wished she could have spent with the woodchucks, but was packed full of meetings.
In a year she’ll be on sabbatical, where she’ll write up more findings and is hoping to write a popular science book about woodchucks and her life studying them. Retirement is not too far off, and it doesn’t look like anyone else will be taking over the reins of the study.
“It will be hard to not keep coming out here,” she said. “By then, it will be 30 years of stories.”
While Maher may soon reduce her time observing Falmouth’s woodchucks, the woodchucks will remain — with evidence of their contribution to science still visible for at least another generation.
“Animals with tags will still be running around for a little while,” said Maher.
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