State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Queens Democrat, reflects on his first two legislative sessions in Albany. We discuss the process of moving bills at the Capitol, living out of a suitcase for half the year, and taking over a newly carved up district.

The primary campaigns for state legislative races in New York may have been exciting, but the results of the elections were not.

We explore why the status quo was so powerful in Democratic primaries this year and consider what the outcomes mean for governing in Albany for the next two years.

Our guests are Jasmine Gripper, co-director of the New York Working Families Part, and Loren Amor, a senior vice president with BerlinRosen.

Two bills - one imposing a controversial waste reduction mandate and the other a broadly supported employee benefit update - successfully made it through the state Senate in the waning days of the legislative session in June, but didn't end up coming up for a vote in the Assembly.

Both of these measures were expected to make it to the governor's desk, so we explored what happened.

Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Pete Harckham, a Westchester County Democrat, talks about the effort to curb plastic packaging waste and Assembly Labor Committee Chair Harry Bronson, a Rochester-area Democrat, discusses the legislation increasing short-term paid medical leave.