AD-64 primary challengers Luke Henry and Paul Newell are profiled in the New York Sun:
Challengers Emerge Aiming To Topple Silver
Luke Henry, 33, Says Silver Is 'Obstacle Toward Real Reform'
The 33-year-old attorney who lives in the East Village should get the hang of it soon enough: Two weeks ago, he took a leave of absence from his job to launch a full-time campaign to oust the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Although the fliers Mr. Henry is handing out say "Choose Change," his motto might as well be "Get Rid of the Roadblock."
"Speaker Silver is the obstacle toward real reform," he said yesterday."Nothing is going to change in the state Assembly while he's still there and you can sit back and watch or do something about it and people want to do something about it, and I am one of them."
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Mr. Henry's campaign Web site details his stance on a host of issues, indicating that he'll advocate repealing the Urstadt law so that local officials would have control over the city's rental laws; fight for public financing of state elections and a ban on political contributions from lobbyists and corporations, and work to create universal health care coverage in New York State.
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"Silver is an obstacle towards making progress on these issues. None of these issues are easy and they require a real professional legislator and experts who can look at these issues seriously and everything that is done in Albany is done in a ham-handed way," he said. "Removing Silver is a way towards achieving progress on these issues."
Paul Newell, 32, Is Inspired By Fight on Rockefeller Laws
"I need to get a few thousand people to vote for me," he said. "Sheldon Silver is a very powerful man in Albany. He's not that powerful downtown."
Mr. Newell is running on two issues: accountability and "affordable" housing, both of which, he said, Mr. Silver is against.
He accuses the speaker of "blocking development of 'affordable' housing in downtown for 20 years" and also blames him for "killing" congestion pricing, an issue, he said, that is "the perfect demonstration of Sheldon Silver's contempt for the democratic process and the concerns for Lower Manhattanites."
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He has hired a campaign manager, Evan Hutchison, a grassroots campaigner for General Wesley Clark and Senator Kerry in the 2004 presidential race. And he's prepared to tap into personal funds. He feels confident, however, that voters across the state will fork over cash once he informs them the identity of his opponent. "There are millions of people in this state who don't like Sheldon Silver. Some of them use the Internet and some of them answer phone calls," he said.
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In Washington State, he landed his first paid political job, a field organizer for what would be the final campaign of Rep. Tom Foley, the U.S. House speaker whose defeat in 1994 has ironically given Mr. Newell confidence in retrospect. "It taught me that a sitting speaker of a legislative body can be beaten in his home district," he said.
On the web: Luke Henry for Assembly
Paul Newell for Assembly
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