Senate District 38 includes Ossining, Orangetown, Clarkstown and Ramapo.

Democrat Carlucci was part of the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference.

Republican Vanderhoef was Rockland's county executive for five terms.

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David Carlucci and C. Scott Vanderhoef are competing to represent the people of state Senate District 38. Again. But this isn't a remake of the 2010 ballot.

Back then, Democrat Carlucci was Clarkstown's whiz kid town clerk and Republican Vanderhoef was in his fifth term as Rockland County executive. Carlucci won. Voters decide the ending to this sequel on Nov. 6.

Both candidates' records are distinctly different this time around:

Vanderhoef's been out of office for years, but the 70-year-old still carries baggage from Rockland's deficit that swelled on his watch.

Now 37, Carlucci has plenty of legislation under his belt, but many in his own party remain riled by his tenure in the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference; he joined the IDC right from the beginning and stuck with it until the bitter end.

IDC factor lingers

The IDC remains a key issue in this race, as it was for Carlucci's Sept. 13 primary against a novice but focused contender, Julie Goldberg.

IDC's dissolution came in the spring, under the guise of fighting Trump but conveniently coming amid Gov. Andrew Cuomo's primary battle against progressive Cynthia Nixon. Meanwhile, ex-IDC chief Sen. Jeffrey Klein, accused of forcibly kissing an aide, lost his own primary challenge. Carlucci this month expressed regret for his earlier defense of Klein.

In our Oct. 19 interview, Carlucci said that the process of reuniting the IDC with the mainstream Democratic Conference was "good for the Democratic Party because we really hashed it out."

What's at stake

With or without the IDC, the GOP now holds onto Senate leadership by a thread (grasped tightly by Brooklyn Democrat, Sen. Simcha Felder, who caucuses directly with the Republican conference).

All Senate seats are on the Nov. 6 ballot, and several are considered in play. SD 38 could aid or block Democrats' momentum.

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IDC FIZZLES: The clock runs out for former breakaway Democrats' leader

SD 38 includes the towns of Ramapo, Clarkstown, Orangetown and Ossining. The district is nearly 2:1 Democrat vs. Republican. But those Republican numbers — a bit over 45,000 — are also neck-and-neck with unaffiliated voters in the 38th. Those unaffiliated voters (and the bloc vote among an organized and large Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish population in eastern Ramapo) hold big sway in this race.

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The Trump factor

Vanderhoef doesn't really fit in the new Trump-centric GOP. He said he didn't vote for President Donald Trump and he's "not a fan." It will be interesting to see if his "Rockefeller Republican" roots resonate with unaffiliated voters.

Vanderhoef, an environmental lawyer, said he worried about Trump's immigration and environmental stands.

That's not to say Vanderhoef won't tap GOP tactics. He accused Carlucci of backing "New York City" and "de Blasio" Democrats. Vanderhoef seems to ignore that the Dems' state Senate leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, represents Westchester.

Carlucci said he strongly supports Stewart-Cousins. But he tapped the Democrats' playbook by taking several potshots at GOP Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who once shared power with IDC Leader Klein.

School issues

In the Lower Hudson Valley, education quality and property taxes top much of the political discussion. In the 38th, the issue takes on even more complexity, as the East Ramapo and Ossining school districts face specific struggles.

Some 80 percent of students in East Ramapo go to non-public schools, mostly yeshivas; public-school children often struggle with the English language and with poverty. The school board has long been dominated by the yeshiva community.

Carlucci said he crafted the legislation to place a state monitor in the district, but "faced a dilemma" when the Senate GOP balked at giving a monitor "veto power." The legislation ensures the state education commissioner has "skin in the game" because she can veto budget proposals before they are put before voters. Still, the last school budget proposal failed at the polls — twice.

Vanderhoef, whose spouse is an art teacher in the district, said the key is having a monitor who keeps the education commissioner in the loop, as past boards have "misused or misapplied" the district's limited resources.

Ossining school district, which struggles to serve a swelling student body and growing immigrant population, has lost millions of state dollars because the state's Foundation Aid formula fails to account for those changes. Carlucci pointed out the imbalance that hits a district with a 25 percent enrollment increase in recent years.

Vanderhoef said the question for Carlucci is, "what have you done" to fix the Foundation Aid formula in four Senate terms?

Private school education is also a key issue for SD 38, where some have questioned whether certain Hasidic yeshivas are honoring their mandate to provide a "substantially equivalent" education in subjects like math, science and history. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia plans to update guidelines any day. "There's great controversy but there really shouldn't be," Vanderhoef said. "This is not because the government wants everybody to be the same," he said, but because government wants everyone "to be educated ... to reach their full potential."

Ramapo has over 100 yeshivas, said Carlucci, so there's no way the superintendent of a public district could ever enforce substantial equivalency, as mandated by state law. "We have to make sure that there's a foundation," he said, "that there's a floor that no child can go through."

That bridge

Carlucci said the cashless tolls system instituted on the Tappan Zee and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo bridges has been "one disaster after another." He passed legislation that would modify the collection system; it awaits the governor's signature.

Carlucci also wants a "resident discount" that, unlike a commuter rate, would give a break to locals no matter how many times they cross the bridge.

Vanderhoef, who was county executive when the replacement for the overtaxed, undersecure crossing was first unveiled, blasted the state's lack of fiscal transparency. "Where is the outrage?" he asked, about the lack of financial information, including the cost of future tolls. "Why is this such a mystery?" The governor and Thruway Authority have said that tolls are frozen until at least 2020; a tolls task force, promised in 2012 with members appointed in 2015, still has not met.

As for that name, Carlucci supports legislation that would make it the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge. Vanderhoef said he would submit legislation to bring back the name that focuses solely on the crossing's historic and geographic location — the Tappan Zee.

State issues

Both support the Child Victims Act, which would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sex abuse and provide a one-year "look back" for adults to file suit over abuse when they were children. Vanderhoef said the current bill, as is, "should have been passed" already, a departure from many in the GOP conference.

Both support closing the LLC loophole, which allows deep-pocketed special interests to pour money into campaigns.

Carlucci is a co-sponsor of the Reproductive Health Act, a bill designed to ensure abortion access in New York, even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns part or all of Roe v. Wade. Vanderhoef said New York must update its antiquated abortion laws (they predate Roe) and move them from the criminal code to the health code. "I'm a pro-choice moderate Republican," he said. However, he doesn't back the current Reproductive Health Act.

They differ on New York's impending foray into permitting adult-use marijuana: "We just have to get real," Carlucci said in voicing his support for a plan to legalize recreational pot; "I oppose it," Vanderhoef said, calling it a gateway drug.

Both said the state needs to make a deeper investment in battling the growing opioid addiction crisis. Carlucci, who has hosted many naloxone trainings in the district, drove home the need for action: "One person is saved every day in Westchester because of naloxone."

Nancy Cutler is an Engagement Editor. Twitter: @nancyrockland