Julian Schreibman. (Photo by Phyllis McCabe)
Schreibman’s campaign has consisted of shredding Gibson’s claims of being a moderate, as directed from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters. Few locals dot the campaign staff. It’s been strictly follow the blueprint as dictated from above. He’s a tepid speaker who has hewed strictly to the party line when discussing policy. His credentials are thin and his off-the-rack campaign has done little to inspire.
The Republican Gibson, who’s held the former 22nd Congressional District for one term, has charmed his way into the hearts of some local Democrats, who are vigorously advocating for him. He certainly sounded like a moderate when he met with us, telling how he was already on Grover Norquist’s bad side and that he had among the most bipartisan records in Congress. He voted for the first Ryan budget in Congress, one that would have turned Medicare into a voucher program, but against the second, and now supports the bipartisan Cooper-LaTourette budget, based on the findings of the Simpson-Bowles panel. His moderate side says about Obamacare, “The president had the right idea, to drive down costs and expand access. I just don’t think that it’s going to live up to expectations.” Very tempered language, very reasonable. He’s wonkish about policy and advocates in a reasonable fashion for his views.
Yet, you can look at a Gibson video from 2010, when his district was decidedly more conservative in demographic — (https://district20ny.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/chris-gibson-for-congress-campaign-update-5042010-2/) — and hear a different guy. The frothing language of the Tea Party coming from him as he angrily called the health care plan an “abomination,” amid continual claims that our “freedoms” are being threatened. Quite a different performance.
What it comes down to for us is not so much who they are as to where they will fall in line. Schreibman will, when push comes to shove, no doubt follow the Democratic line in Congress. Gibson, when push comes to shove, will hew to the Republican line — which, in the past two years, has been solely obstructive toward any progress in government, sandbagging for primarily political reasons the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s. We suspect that Grover Norquist would be quite happy with what Gibson calls “moderate” — his 74 percent record of voting with the Republican majority. We cannot support that.
We believe that Schreibman is a better choice for this district.
State Senate
The 46th district includes Woodstock, Saugerties, Hurley, Kingston, Ulster, Marbletown and more, but not Olive and Shandaken, and pits Republican George Amedore, an assemblyman from Rotterdam who runs his family’s construction business, against Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk of Duanesburg, who worked in the state Senate and for affordable housing advocacy organizations.
Both visited our offices for interviews. Both are in favor of more funding for education upstate by the state and relief of property taxes by shifting education funding to the income tax. Tkaczyk is set against fracking; Amedore was a previous supporter who has now said he is waiting on results of environmental studies. Tkaczyk supports campaign finance reform; Amedore is using that against her in a flurry of negative ads this week. There are big differences on social issues. Amedore voted against same-sex marriage while in the Assembly and says is pro-life in all instances. Tkaczyk says she would have voted in favor of same-sex marriage and is pro-choice.
For us, this is an easier call. We endorse Cecilia Tkaczyk.
State Supreme Court
We support Mike Kavanagh. No question. He’s got a rough road ahead as what is usually a brokered seat, with both parties agreeing on the candidates and no contested races, has this year become a dogfight with the Republican Kavanagh on the wrong side of the numbers of registered voters. So we’ll stand with our local guy, whose record, first as DA and then as a judge, is first-rate.
Mike Kavanagh. (Photo by Dan Barton)
In this race with four candidates for two seats (Malone is the Republican, Stephan Schick the other Democrat) there’s not much information about the other guys. I’ve seen democrat Richard Mott work as a defense attorney in a murder case and he was quite competent at that.
State Assembly
The unopposed Kevin Cahill, a Democrat, is still an articulate advocate of the upstate cause who has an important position in the majority caucus as chair of the Assembly Energy Committee. We strongly advocate for his re-election.
U.S. Senate
Incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand is the obvious choice here. Challenger Wendy Long thinks everything is fine with fracking and that there’s no need to study any further. There’s a DQ right off.
