Berman first achieved attention for her efforts to prevent the landing of Concorde and other supersonic transports at nearby John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The district was split evenly between Queens and Nassau, contained roughly equal numbers of African American and White voters, and had a strong Democratic majority.
The re-apportionment following the 1980 United States Census changed the boundaries of the 9th Senate District, which previously included parts of Queens County.
[7] Berman's victory over the well-financed Skelos made her the only Democrat elected to fill one of the eight State Senate seats in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
[8] Berman filed a $6 million suit against Skelos in Nassau Supreme Court, citing campaign literature that she claimed mischaracterized her positions on the use of plain language in insurance policies and on busing children across county lines.
[12][13] In September 2006 Berman made news when she broke her ankle during a fall into a 10-inch-wide (250 mm) gap between a Long Island Rail Road train and the platform at the LIRR's Lawrence station.