Environmental Attorney Chris Murray Enters Race for Suffolk's 1st Senate District

Chris Murray, an environmental attorney who has chaired both Suffolk County Community College's board of trustees and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment's board of directors, announced his campaign for New York's 1st Senate District last week, entering a race against incumbent Republican Anthony Palumbo for a seat covering northern Suffolk County from Stony Brook eastward to the East End.

Murray's platform is built on an argument that Washington's retreat from environmental enforcement has created an urgent mandate for Albany. With the federal government "pulling all the regulations, all the funding for enforcement," he said, "it's up to the state to really step in at this point in time." For a district that stretches across Long Island Sound coastline and the Peconic Estuary, where communities from Brookhaven to Southold face active debates over coastal resiliency funding, nitrogen-laden groundwater, and the pace of new development, that framing carries concrete implications. A state senator for the district controls access to state grant money for sewer projects, flood protection infrastructure, and open space acquisition, tools that municipal governments in the district routinely pursue.

Murray's qualifications lean heavily on institutional knowledge of land-use systems. He served on both the Nassau County ethics commission and the North Hempstead zoning board, experience he says gives him a ground-level understanding of how regulatory decisions play out for property owners and municipalities. "That experience helps me understand what the issues are facing New York State," he said.

Beyond environmental policy, Murray identified voting rights as a second pillar of his campaign, arguing that without state-level protections, legal voters could face intimidation at the polls. Court system efficiency rounds out his stated priorities.

Palumbo, who represents a district that also includes Riverhead, Southold, East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island, has held the seat and previously served as a Suffolk County assistant district attorney. Murray's entry sets up a contrast between a career prosecutor-turned-legislator and an environmental attorney whose professional and civic work has centered on the regulatory frameworks that shape development and conservation across Long Island.

The primary is scheduled for June 23, 2026, with the general election to follow November 3.