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State assembly candidates came out Tuesday at an Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Kingston. Seen from left to right are Kevin Cahill, Kevin Roberts, Frank Skartados, Sakima Green-Brown, Claudia Tenney and Pete Lopez. The League of Women Voters moderated. Photo by Paul Smart
Down To The Wire For Election 2014...
Assembly Candidates Gather As State Races Build Momentum

KINGSTON – All the local candidates running for seats in state assembly districts that touch on Ulster County — which represents all of our reading region's candidates except for Sullivan County's 100th District represented by Aileen Gunther — came out Tuesday morning, October 21, for a League of Women Voters-moderated event at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Kingston.

The two unopposed candidates in the bunch, however, showed up well into the event, albeit because their districts stretch far north to Herkimer County in the case of Claudia Tenney of the 101st, which includes Crawford, Shawangunk and Wawarsing; and out towards Schoharie County in the case of Pete Lopez's 102nd District, which includes Saugerties.

Both were also chastised, after the event was over, for having spent time whispering to each other and even making faces, in the case of Lopez, as other candidates spoke.

Apart from such glitches, however, the event drew great interest from its SRO audience, and demonstrated clear differences between the candidates on most issues raised.

For the 103rd District, which includes most of the Rondout Valley and a majority of Ulster County, longtime incumbent Kevin Cahill, the Democrat, touted the power of the state legislature's accomplishments in introductory remarks that played heavy on the pronoun, "we." He spoke of work he's done as head of his legislative body's insurance committee, and noted the renaming of Route 209 in honor of the late Marine, Sgt. Shawn Farrell. His Republican opponent, Plattekill county legislator Kevin Roberts, talked about raising awareness for DWI, his aversion to fracking, and work he's done to keep pesticides from being used on county property. But he also proudly noted how he's never voted for any tax raises and described Albany and state government as being "broken."

In later discourse, Cahill answered questions about job development by noting how he wasn't a big fan of Startup NY and other "tax giveaways," but remained a true believer in the power of education and infrastructure programs. He also described himself as "pro water" when it came to the fracking issue, which he believed a scientific process would show wasn't good for the state; and later pushed the idea of building strong partnerships for local businesses, and educational institutions, the better to solidify New Yorkers' place in a global economy.

Roberts, for his part, spoke against big tax break programs pushing for regulatory and tax relief. He, too, said that computing skills and new business were key to the region's future and at event's close, thanked everyone, including his opponent, for having given him a chance to run even though he was "reluctant" and picked "because I would do it."

Incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Frank Skartados, running for re-election in the 104th Assembly District, described Startup NY as an excellent program and noted the recent naming of Mount St. Mary's College, in his district, as a site for development. He too pushed the idea of bringing better computer and digital age jobs, and education, to the region as a means of ensuring its future. His Republican opponent, West Point graduate and former Poughkeepsie school board president Sakima Green-Brown, wowed many in the crowd with her sharp delivery and use of punchy statements, while pushing a straight GOP line against any tax incentives for small business over any hints at global or national outreach, and described fracking as something that should be decided by local governments that had taken too long to decide already. She stressed ethical education over new computing skills.

Speaking on their own, without any opponents, Tenney and Lopez demonstrated how they represented two distinct sides of a splitting GOP.

Tenney outright condemned Startup-NY as being anti-small business and a type of "crony capitalism," kept stressing the agricultural nature of the state and her district, and felt computer skills would occur without being stressed too much. She pushed her background as a business owner and strong anti-tax, anti-Albany, pro-fracking views, all points she tried to take to a Republican nomination for Congress last spring, and regularly noted her backing for Green-Brown, with whom she joked at times. She still faces one non-campaigning opponent, a county sheriff, on the Independence line.

Lopez appeared middle-of-the-road in many of his answers until he started making faces as Cahill spoke about state energy policies and mimed boxing moves at several points.

The key battle ground for the event centered around the Common Core curriculum, being adopted and implemented across the nation after years of calls for new educational standards. Cahill said he supported them, and worked to "fix" elements that came to light through a bad roll out. He noted the need for students to be able to compete globally these days, something that Skartados reiterated via stories involving his own elementary school kids, pointing out how their teachers liked the new standards. On the GOP side, Roberts said he was against Common Core because he believed it was against the Constitution, while Green-Brown and Tenney said they would vote to end the new curriculum, with Tenney saying the new standards often taught lessons that seemed to be against America's best interests, and stressing the need for "our great individualism," while Green-Brown said Common Core treats children like "guinea pigs."



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