Judith Hunter for NY Assembly, 147th District

Background:

I became very involved in local politics as county coordinator for Dean (and our DFA group afterwards). I then worked on my town and county committees and attended as many political trainings as I could. I am an historian by profession who decided to stop only analyzing and to start doing.

Goals:

No one challenged the incumbent in 2004, despite the fact that ineffective representation clearly hurts the district. I vowed not to let that happen again. We have to stop settling for a downward slide in rural western NY. My goals in office are first and foremost to be responsible and responsive to the voters in the district; I'm calling that "real reform for rural NY." That means trying to reform state government so that it can really function as a representative system. It means insisting that the state operate in a fiscally responsible manner. It means cleaning up NY's notoriously lax campaign finance laws. And it means bringing transparency to the way Albany does business. It also means making sure that the state government hears about our needs. As it stands, we don't have a voice when decisions are made about this region.

Issues:

My top three issues are Albany reform and all that involves (see above), the upstate economy (which cannot be separated from the issue of healthcare, I think), and education.

Grassroots Support:

My opponent will have more money and the advantages of incumbency. The most effective way to counter this is through good organization and volunteers. This campaign will be an all-volunteer effort, and recruiting new people is one of the goals of every event we do. Giving voters the chance to participate in the campaign also gives them a way to help change things in the 147th District, a chance so many of us are really looking for in this election cycle. That's a real win-win situation for everyone.

DFA Values:

I believe reforming Albany is going to mean imposing fiscal responsibility on a state government that has made dishonest and irresponsible fiscal policies a way of life: backdoor borrowing to fund pork barrel spending, budget gimmicks, unfunded mandates ... The list goes on and on, and working to reverse these practices would be one of my very highest priorities if elected. Reforming Albany also means giving people a voice back in the process, something that gerrymandered districts and the influence of big money on our elections has practically taken away. Nonpartisan redistricting and campaign finance reform are bedrock issues for me, and they are socially progressive because these measures are all about returning control of the system to the voters. Working to improve the economic situation for the district and the healthcare and education available to rural western New Yorkers, real priorities for me, is also something I will aproach from a progressive standpoint. Finally, I will do my utmost to protect the civil rights of all new Yorkers.