Jewish Press Endorsements

Editorial Board
Posted September 07 2010

Below are our recommendations for the contested September 14 Democratic and Republican primary races in New York. We have made every effort to identify those candidates who have shown sensitivity to the needs of the Jewish community. http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/45153

49^th Assembly District: Republican Party

Lucretia Regina-Potter

We endorse Lucretia Regina-Potter in the Republican primary in the 49th district. Long involved in public affairs, she is fast emerging as a leading spokesperson for many of the issues of importance to the Jewish community there, including school choice, tuition vouchers, tax credits for small businesses and family values.

As we approach the final stage of this primary election campaign, we must make the final effort and necessary sacrifices that will culminate in victory in September and November.

We deeply appreciate the support of those of you who have already contributed to my campaign. However, since we are involved in two different primaries, we must ask ALL of you once more to pledge whatever amount you can afford in order to help us pay the cost of very expensive mailings and campaign literature that need to be distributed before the elections.

Please go to the CONTRIBUTE page and make a secure donation via PayPal      OR

Print out the bottom part of this form and return it with your donation to Friends of Lucretia Regina-Potter, 8024 17^th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214, Tel. 718-256-4414.

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE NOT TAX DEDUCTIBLE

 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

At a recent welcome home to our Nation’s Heroes, Lucretia Regina-Potter, Republican District Leader and Assembly Candidate in the 49^th AD, joined friends and neighbors, and volunteers to cheer our Soldiers as they crossed the finish line on their Soldier Ride from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Volunteers coordinated and organized the event, and several talented chefs cooked an amazing meal for our soldiers. Many supporters took part in the festivities and a great time was had by all!  Thank you to all involved in this great day!

To view more photos of the Wounded Warriors Come To Brooklyn go to:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Lucretia-Regina-Potter/12129211431?ref=sgm

Updated Chart Shows Obamacare’s Bewildering Complexity

Aug 02 2010

 Washington, DC – Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March.

Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.

“For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,” said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. “If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all.”

Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, “This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law. It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy.”

Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare “a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families.”

In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:

• $569 billion in higher taxes;
• $529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
• swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
• 17 major insurance mandates; and
• the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.

Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. “This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this.”

From the Joint Economic Committee of the Republican staff http://jec.senate.gov/republicans/public/index.cfm?p=CommitteeNews&ContentRecord_id=bb302d88-3d0d-4424-8e33-3c5d2578c2b0&ContentType_id=6ef5e4f8-e031-47b7-876c-607548c5dceb&e9209dd0-4f28-4f0e-9d97-d92ee31dbd8a&93fa2829-adbd-400a-933b-c99f81d9ad75&72ef4ce9-1fb5-43ca-9b7b-f0e334436d5b&062d1525-6790-426c-801f-7edadffc127f&11c26666-579d-432b-a65f-dab5849a0fce&19001c29-0915-4c80-b1d2-2ae4ecd424be&1c5fface-444a-49c1-acf7-63eb12b98985&Group_id=9f28f85b-18ad-490f-a392-9c8dfc73b23b

State Senate Democrats crying foul over former Mayor Ed Koch’s New York Uprising campaign should stop their whining.

They think it’s unfair that Koch’s group branded their Senate leadership as “enemies of reform” while all 29 members of the Senate GOP were hailed as “heroes.”

But Koch’s labels, though a bit harsh and simplistic, were issued fairly and honestly.

And if Dems don’t like his judgments, they have no one but themselves to blame.

Like every other candidate for state office, the Senate’s top leaders – including Democratic conference chief John Sampson, Temporary President Malcolm Smith and Finance Committee Chairman Carl Kruger – were challenged to pledge support for Koch’s three-point reform plan.

They chose not to sign.

Koch’s plan calls for basic good-government fixes that virtually every nonpolitician in the state recognizes as good ideas. It would abolish the rank, partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts that quashes competitive elections; beef up ethics enforcement to root out rampant corruption at the Capitol, and impose budget rules to assure responsible, open handling of tax dollars.

These are exactly the kinds of proposals that Senate Democrats promised only two years ago, when they were still in the downtrodden minority – but didn’t deliver when they finally got the chance.

Now, they’re not even signing a pledge that would commit them to do better in the future.

Sampson’s team has made some improvements since taking over, such as giving rank-and-file members and committees marginally more influence over what bills come to the floor for a vote. They’ve also posted their payrolls and other internal details online.

But on the all-important issue of redistricting, Smith had this to say in May: “We are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the State of New York for the next 20 years.”

And Sampson promised that nonpartisan redistricting would be put to a vote this year. Never happened.

Which is why Sampson, Smith and Kruger richly deserve Koch’s “enemies” tag.

Ditto for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and other Democrats in his house. They passed an ethics reform bill that exempted lawyers (including Silver) from full disclosure of their outside income, which was rightly vetoed by Gov. Paterson. And Silver is on record opposing independent, nonpartisan redistricting.

That said, the “heroes” label – given to the GOP leadership – is not a good fit for Sen. Dean Skelos & Co. No one should forget what the Senate was like when Republicans ran things.

They gerrymandered ruthlessly – with Skelos himself running the panel that twisted the district lines.

They co-authored decades worth of reckless budgets that spawned the massive deficits of today.

And they allowed corruption to flourish – to the point that Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno was indicted by the feds shortly after leaving office.

Bruno’s conviction may well be overturned, but the evidence that he ran his private business out of his Senate office – and took huge fees from businesses seeking his favors as Senate boss – remains unrefuted.

Skelos & Co.’s signatures on a reform pledge cannot wipe away that sorry record.

Another bad fit for the H-word is Pedro Espada of the Bronx, a Democrat infamous for flouting campaign finance rules and, according to charges from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, looting $14 million from his chain of health clinics.

Word choice aside, though, the fact remains: Skelos and his members have at least promised, in writing, to support critical reforms. Sampson and Silver did not. The voters should draw their own conclusions.

Governor:  Carl Paladino 

US Senate:  Joe DioGuardi  

Congress: CD 3 – Pete King CD 21 – Ted Danz CD 22 – George Phillips CD 23 – Doug Hoffman CD 25 – Ann Marie Buerkle

State Senate SD 1 – Kenneth LaValle SD 2 – John Flanagan SD 3 – Lee Zeldin SD 4 – Owen Johnson SD 5 – Carl Marcellino SD 6 – Kemp Hannon SD 8 – Charles Marcellino SD 11 – Frank Padavan SD 32 – Ruben Diaz SD 39 – Bill Larkin SD 41 – Steven Saland SD 44 – Hugh Farley SD 45 – Betty Little SD 46 – Bob Domenici SD 47 – Joe Griffo SD 48 – Darrel Aubertine SD 49 – Andy Russo SD 50 – John DeFrancisco SD 52 – Tom Libous SD 54 – Mike Nozzolio SD 55 – James Alesi SD 56 – Joe Robach SD 57 – Cathy Young SD 58 – Bill Stachowski SD 62 – George Maziarz  

State Assembly AD 3 – Dean Murray AD 7 – Mike Fitzpatrick

AD 49 – Lucretia Regina-Potter AD 97 – Annie Rabbitt AD 117 – Marc Butler AD 105 – George Amedore AD 108 – Steve McLaughlin AD 110 – Jim Tedisco AD 112 – Tony Jordan AD 114 – David Kimmel AD 119 – Christina M. Fitch   AD 120 – Rick Guy AD 121 – Don Miller AD 127 – Pete Lopez AD 129 – Brian Kolb AD 134 – Bill Reilich AD 140 – Robin Schimminger AD 145 – Mark Schroeder

FOR RELEASE: JUNE 23, 2010

NEW YORK STATE IS DYSFUNCTIONAL, 83% OF VOTERS SAY,

QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL FINDS;

CANDIDATES SHOULD PLEDGE TO FIX DISTRICT LINES 

New York State government is dysfunctional, 83 percent of voters say, the highest number ever measured in the state, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

            A total of 80 percent of New York State voters are “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the state, also the highest dissatisfaction ever in New York, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

            New York State voters say 59 – 21 percent that all candidates for state office should sign a pledge that they will support the creation of an independent group to draw legislative district lines.  There is no difference in support among Democrats, Republicans or independent voters.

            Nineteen percent of voters would vote against a candidate who refuses to sign the pledge on that issue alone.  There is little difference in support among political or regional groups.

            New York State voters disapprove 76 – 16 percent of the way the State Legislature is doing its job, the highest disapproval ever recorded for this group.

            To clean house in Albany, all New York State senators, even their own local senator, should be voted out of office this November, voters say 51 – 36 percent.  Voters say 50 – 34 percent that State Assembly members, even their own representative, should go, too.

“New Yorkers are fed up with Albany.  The resentment is bigger than we’ve ever measured.  Just about half think that the whole Legislature should be voted out of office – even their own state senator and Assembly member,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

-read more-

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1318.xml?ReleaseID=1469