 This was seen as an election-year move to help Republican candidates in Western New York.But residents of the mid-Hudson region felt NYSTA had done a better job plowing the road in winter, and Thruway workers assigned to I-84 feared having to move or working for the DOT at lower pay and with different union representation.State Senator John Bonacic, a member of that body's then-Republican majority whose district covers western Orange County, introduced legislation at the beginning of 2007 to block the changeover.