The Examiner News: Stewart-Cousins Should Get Another Two Years
Posted in Press by Andrea Stewart-Cousins on October 28, 2010
One of the themes to this year’s election season has been that the public should throw the incumbents out of office. Disgust with the state of politics at nearly every level and the financial pressures that so many citizens feel is fueling much of the revolt.However, when measuring an incumbent’s worthiness for continued service, both their record and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the challenger should be weighed.
In the election for the 35th Senate District next week, when placing those factors on the scale Democratic incumbent Andrea Stewart-Cousins is the one who carries greater weight.
The senator has done her best to advance a reform agenda in the teeth of corruption and dysfunction in Albany. While most of us would like to see the pace of change move more rapidly, there is still room for Stewart-Cousins to grow as a legislator. Based on an already solid performance and still unrealized potential, she should be returned to the Senate for a third term.
The Senate’s Local Government Committee, of which she is chair, has been one of the more active committees in the capital. It has produced more than 200 pieces of legislation and more than half of those are now law, including critical measures that allow for the consolidation for local governments, shared services, mandate relief and ethics reform.
Stewart-Cousins has also been active on a variety of other matters, proving she is not a one-issue legislator. She called the saving of Dobbs Ferry Hospital during her early days in the Senate one of her most important accomplishments.
Although based in Yonkers, she is no stranger to the northern portions of the district, including Mount Pleasant, Pleasantville and Greenburgh. Citizens in those municipalities deserve the same level of attention and representation as those in the more populated areas. Regardless of the locality she has delivered. Most notably, last year when Con Edison came into Pleasantville and neighboring towns and destroyed large swaths of forest, Stewart- Cousins demanded the Public Service Commission exercise greater oversight over utilities. That resulted in the re- opening of public comment periods and hearings held throughout the region earlier this year.
Her Republican challenger, Liam McLaughlin, a former Yonkers city councilman and an attorney, is also a smart, reform-minded candidate. He supports the 2 percent tax cap and greater transparency, especially when it comes to the MTA.
His focus and public service experience, although solid in Yonkers, is much more provincial and there is a real concern he may not have enough of a grasp of the expanse and diversity of the district to benefit all constituents.
During her four years, Stewart-Cousins has proven that she has been responsive to all areas and there is every reason to believe that would continue.
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