John Hall for NY 19th Congressional

Background:

John Hall, award-winning musician and citizen activist, former county legislator and school board president, 35-year member of Local 802 AFM and AFTRA, is running for United States Congress in New York's 19th Congressional District.
After studying at Notre Dame and Loyola College of Baltimore, John began his professional music career in the clubs of Washington DC and New York City. He now looks back on a thirty-five year career during which he has recorded eighteen albums and CDs, written and directed music for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. He has played guitar for, produced, and/or written songs for Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Chaka Khan, Ricky Skaggs, Chet Atkins, Steve Wariner, Bobby McFerrin, Linda Ronstadt, the Doobie Brothers and James Taylor. He is perhaps best known for his work with the band Orleans, of which he is a founding member. John co-authored their hits "Still The One" and "Dance With Me," which have been certified for over four million airplays each in the U.S. alone.
John has lived most of his life in the Hudson Valley. He now resides in Dover Plains with his wife, Pamela Bingham Hall, a fellow musician, attorney, former Tennessee Assistant State Attorney General and general counsel to the State Treasury Department. He has a twenty-six year old daughter who is in graduate school. While a member of the Board of Directors of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, John continued to perform and record his music, releasing new CDs this year by Orleans and his new band Gulf Stream Night, cracking the Americana charts and receiving critical acclaim and radio airplay across the country.

Goals:

Right now, there are no checks and balances. Our six-term incumbent Representative, Sue Kelly, has voted with Tom Delay 90% of the time in the last eighteen months. The White House, the Senate and the House are all controlled by Republicans. The Supreme Court is being stacked to the right. The President and Congress may spend the next three years reversing environmental laws and appointing industry lobbyists to regulate their industries. But if 15 seats in the House of Representatives change hands, the Democratic Party can be a check and a balance. I want to be one of those fifteen.

Issues:

End the War in Iraq
Provide Universal Healthcare
Solve the Energy Crisis

Grassroots Support:

We depend on grassroots organizing to win. That includes reaching out to constituency and advocacy groups -- the labor movement, the peace movement, veterans, the environmental groups, progressive democratic organizations and others who will help to gain power by working for a congressional candidate.

DFA Values:

I believe in affordable universal healthcare, equal rights, a woman's right to choose, privacy from governmental intrusion for all citizens, and other socially progressive positions. I support bringing our troops home from Iraq as quickly as can be done safely, in closing corporate tax loopholes and stopping the use of no-bid contracts that line the pockets of Republican contributors.