As Governor Andrew Cuomo this month seeks to engineer a Democratic takeover of the state Senate, Republicans are sounding the alarm.

"I would say to the taxpayers and the voters: Be afraid, be very afraid," said Sen. Jim Tedisco of Glenville. "That's something I don't think the average voter on any side of the aisle would want to think about -- going back to where we were in 2009."

A Democratic takeover of the state Senate, Republicans fear, could lead to higher taxes in New York and a lack of understanding of upstate issues.

"No, I don't think they know where upstate is, I don't think they know where it starts and I don't think they care about it," Tedisco said.

But Karen Scharff, the executive director of the left-leaning activist group Citizen Action, disagrees.

"I think that's totally wrong," Scharff said. "I'm an upstate New Yorker. Most of our members live in upstate New York, and what [we] find is the issues that affect upstate are not that different from the issues that affect downstate."

Full Democratic control of the state Senate could lead to the passage of early voting and changes to how candidates receive donations to their campaigns.

"They would make it so people could vote more easily, really have good voting rights reform and also finally reform our campaign finance system," Scharff said, "which is so broken that the billionaires and millionaires have an outsized influence and outsized voice in our elections."

Cuomo this month is pushing to unite Democrats in the Senate ahead of an April 24 special election that could give the party a numeric majority of 32 members. The focus would then be on Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder to switch conferences and give Democrats a working, 32-member majority.

"This is a much different election than what we've gone through before. It is a transitional moment for this nation," Cuomo said.

But liberal activists like Citizen Action are skeptical of Cuomo, who has pushed before to have Democrats take over the Senate.

"We find ourselves with too many broken promises from the present administration, from too many tasks left undone," said Ivette Alfonso with Citizen Action.

The group on Tuesday endorsed Cuomo's rival for the Democratic nomination, Cynthia Nixon.