Hugh Farley has a large nimber of troubling anti-woman votes in the senate, including the following, according to a Savage press release:
Farley, who voted against the common-sense Women's Health and Wellness Act as well as groundbreaking legislation this year that supports women-owned businesses, has also launched vicious Paladino-esque attacks against Susan and her family in his desperate bid for an 18th term in Albany. He also voted against No-Fault Divorce, which finally brought New York's matrimonial laws into the 21st Century, as well as legislation which makes insurance companies cover the costs of emergency contraception for rape victims.
When it comes to the dysfunctional ole' boys club in the legislature, Farley is one of the worst members. Time to show him the door in 13 days.
You know the deal. Here's the interview. Also check out this great ad Savage is running that ties Hugh Farley to Pedro:
Why are you running for the State Senate and why do you think you could do a better job than Hugh Farley?
I have built my record in Schenectady County by focusing on job creation and economic development, and would like to continue fighting for those issues in the Senate.
As most people know, I have 9 children, and like any parent I want them to be able to grow up, get a job, and build their own family Upstate. Unfortunately, during Senator Farley's 34 years in Albany, he has not been a very effective voice for Upstate. He has focused on finger pointing and name calling, and has been more concerned with the size of his office than his constituents losing their jobs.
His record really hurts local taxpayers. Montgomery County, for instance, has one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the state, yet Senator Farley was the longtime Chair of the Banking Committee. He voted to raise taxes more than 680 times just since 1989, and he was one of the first people to raise his hand and vote to put Pedro Espada a heartbeat away from the Governor's office. Now he's ready to turn over the keys of the Governor's Mansion to Carl Paladino, a man more focused on attacking women, communities of color, and LGBT New Yorkers than explaining how he would actually run our state.
If we want to change Albany, we need to change the people we send to Albany.
In your tenure as County Legislative Chair, you restructured the county's economic development strategy with strong results, netting 3,500 private sector jobs since 2004. Can you talk about the details of that restructuring and how you would apply lessons from this in the legislature if elected?
When I became Chair of the County Legislature in 2004, the County was as dysfunctional as the Senate is today - there were warring factions of legislators, including one led by Robert Farley. Pettiness, parochialism and bomb-throwing were what Schenectady County was known for. And buildings were literally falling into the streets.
Around 1999, Senator Farley proposed building a convention center/hotel/courthouse complex in Downtown Schenectady known as "The Metroplex". It was a bad idea, and the plan they ended up putting into place was an absolute boondoggle which wasted $8 million in taxpayer funds each year. I started by changing the leadership of Metroplex, including the Chair and board members, and then streamlined 32 competing economic development programs into a single, strong and professional one. I also expanded the focus of Metroplex from Downtown rehabilitation to job creation - for real economic development people need jobs.
I rebuilt relationships with businesses who had one or both feet out the door. I also worked with businesses and businesspeople like General Electric, Angelo Mazzone, the Mallozi family and Villa Italia, as well as John Marcella and The Galesi Group so they would reinvest in our community.
There have been real wins. GE's Renewable Energy HQ, for instance, could have gone anywhere in the world but has now brought 650 new engineering jobs to the county. I did not do it all alone, but am very proud to have put an exceptional team in place and to be the leader of that team and our county government.
As part of our continuing interview series of Democratic Challengers to Republican Senate incumbents, I will be interviewing Susan Savage, who is challenging Senator Hugh Farley, who has been in Albany since the Bronze Age. This video is a nice intro to Savage:
This is one of the bigger races in New York. Republican Sen. Joe Robach is defending his seat against Democrat and former state senator Rick Dollinger. However, Robach doesn't have incumbent-like money. For example, Sen. Jim Seward is facing off with Don Barber. Seward has over $490,000 cash on hand, which is a pretty strong figure. Other Senate incumbents have plenty of money. Sen. Tom Libous has over $752,000 in the bank and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has over $1.3 million cash on hand.
The same cannot be said of Joe Robach. In his filing, it shows us that Robach only raised $121,625.00 and now has $270,048.95 cash on hand. That figure is very small considering fellow Republican incumbents have double, triple or even six times that amount (like Skelos does).
Other Senate notable races and filings (more to come later):
- The aforementioned Libous, the new deputy majority leader, has $752,279.30 cash on hand and received $357,397.46 in contributions over the first of the year.
SD-51: Seward's filing shows that he raised $176,634.00 during the first half of 2008 and now has $490,559.27 cash on hand. No filing yet from Barber, but that should be one to watch for.
SD-61: The Democratic primary is heating up in SD-61. Michele Iannello and Joe Mesi have yet to submit their filings, while fellow Democrat Dan Ward has. Ward's filing shows that he has $7,525.33 cash on hand. Republican Mike Ranzenhofer has yet to file. These filings will also be ones to watch for.
What is it with Hugh Farley campaigning with your money? You remember this publicly funded mailer, don't you? Or how about his fake news show that you also paid for? Well, guess what? Senator Farley is back with another mailer that looks an awful lot like a campaign piece. Though it isn't, because you paid for it and producing and mailing campaign literature with taxpayer funds would be, ya know, illegal. Right?
The next time someone argues against publicly funded elections in New York, please be sure to remind them that, in many ways, we already have them.
The rest of Senator Farley's totally legit, in no way illegal mailer on the flip...
