Paloma Capanna, NYS 54th Senate and Dave Garretson, NYS 134th Assembly
Rochester, NY - We are pleased to announce that following endorsement deliberations on July 9, 2008, Progressive Democrats of Genesee Valley endorsed Paloma Capanna in the race for the 54th Senate District seat against Republican incumbent Mike Nozzolio, and Dave Garretson in his contest for the 134th Assembly District challenging Bill Reilich. You may find the completed candidate questionnaires for Paloma Capanna and Dave Garretson here.
Paloma Capanna of Webster is running on a platform of affordable, state-administered universal health insurance coverage for all New Yorkers, the development of a renewable energy production and deployment plan, remediation and preservation of the Finger Lakes, and campaign finance reform. As a candidate, she is running a grassroots-model campaign and has pledged that she will accept no individual contributions in excess of $1000. Her trademark “change for change” donor strategy has allowed her to develop a broad base of small money donors, through which she intends to restore representative government to the hands of the people, as opposed to well-funded special interests.
A Greece resident of twelve years, Dave Garretson is also a reform-minded candidate whose main plank involves improving the effectiveness of the New York State Legislature. He is a proponent of open and accountable government and favors a statewide, universal, single payer health care plan. He believes that statewide prioritization of an Apollo Program-type of initiative for clean energy would be an effective way to revitalize the industrial base in New York State. A supporter of clean, fair, and transparent elections, Garretson would co-sponsor legislation for public financing of public elections.
We appreciate the time spent by both candidates in explaining their policy positions to our membership and we laud their commitment to open dialogue between government and its constituents, as well as their support of grassroots-driven reform.
Please join us in congratulating both of these worthy aspirants for office.
May 14, 2008 - The local chapter voted unanimously to endorse Eric Massa's candidacy for the 29th Congressional District. His completed PDA questionnaire has been uploaded to this site.
Following a roundtable discussion and presentation, the chapter voted to endorse Eric Massa. The following is a summary of the round table discussion that ocurred during the meeting:
Eric Massa roundtable discussion
The below summary was transcribed from handwritten notes taken during a free-form discussion.
- Top 3 issues: Out of Iraq; universal healthcare; fair trade not free trade
- Advocated for a New Deal for American infrastructure – money being spent on war would be better spent on rebuilding bridges, highways, sewers, water systems, electrical grid, etc.
- Does not favor a gas tax holiday – said it wouldn’t have the intended effect.
- Would roll back the Bush tax cuts
- Favors changes to tax code, education and universal healthcare as ways to help the poor
- Asked about free college tuition, said he has not been asked about it so hasn’t given it a lot of thought. But “nothing’s off the table.”
- Supports the GI Bill currently before Congress
- Supports HR676 but there are compromises he would be willing to make to get it passed. As an example of a compromise, said that the ultra-wealthy probably would have the right to buy whatever healthcare they want.
Eric is a co-signer of the Responsible Plan To End The War In Iraq (http://www.responsibleplan.com) and emphasized that the absence of incumbent legislators as co-sponsors of the plan is deliberate, to avoid the polarized character of Congressional deliberations to date (“cut and run” versus “stay forever.”)
