The New York State government earlier this year passed its new budget in the early hours of the morning before any legislator had time to even read the actual bills in detail. It reminds me of a famous politician saying, “We need to pass the bill in order to find out what is in it.” Making legislators vote on massive bills without having the chance to read them is one of the problems in government. No representative should vote yes or no on a bill they haven’t had the opportunity to scrutinize in detail. Sadly, our representative Assemblywoman Markey did just that. What is even worse is that after the convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, NOT ONE ethics measure was passed by the legislature. Why is this important for our district?

Ethics Reform or Another Markey Lie?
A few months back, Assemblymember Marge Markey sent a mailing to her constituents that stated she had passed new measures to fight corruption. There is no other way to say this but this statement was misleading, if not a flat out lie. One of the main reasons I have decided to run for the Assembly against Markey is because I am tired of politicians lying to us.
Why was it a lie you ask? NONE of the measures Markey says she passed became law. In-fact one of the bills she tells us she helped pass, she didn’t even vote for. Another one of the bills she mentioned allows for so many loopholes that it actually creates more ways for corrupt politicians to take home money. None of the bills she mentioned in the mailing became law, but yet she told her constituents she passed these measures. When Markey had chances to stand up for real ethics reform with her colleagues, she was nowhere to be found. NOT ONE ethics reform measure was passed.

A Seldon Silver Groupie
Telling her constituents she passed ethics reforms when she didn’t is just another game the political establishment plays. Many of the politicians in power love to create headlines because they don’t expect their constituents to fact-check. It is not surprising coming from Assemblywoman Markey considering she has voted with the Albany political bosses 99% of the time year after year, including Sheldon Silver. This district deserves somebody who isn’t entrenched with the Albany political establishment and corrupt political bosses. I’m running to change that.
So the question is what ethics reforms do we need? We need a zero tolerance policy. The first policy should automatically remove pensions from convicted corrupt politicians. Markey favors a policy that will allow for politically connected individuals to make those decisions, favors political maneuvers that allow for multiple loopholes for the well connected, including not being able to bring charges for past corrupt misconduct.
We also need to eliminate the LLC, Corporate and Political Party loopholes. These entities are currently allowed to contribute significant amounts of money to incumbents which results in keeping the established politicians in power. It is the very reason why nothing changes. Finally, we need to ban outside income for politicians. Markey favors improving reporting requirements, but as we have seen time and time again, the legislators who make the laws know the loopholes and therefore we need a total ban.
I ask a simple question. How can we trust Assemblywoman Markey who not only lied (or misled at best) on a mailing she sent us, but also who failed to stand up to pass any ethics reform measures after telling us she did? In my opinion we cannot trust her because she is a part of the Albany political machine that she votes with almost 100% of the time year after year. If elected, I will stand for the community and not with Albany political bosses as Markey does.