Candidates for Congress in New York aren’t waiting for the new House maps to be finalized to start campaigning.
Jack Fallon-Underwood says he is seeking the 20th district Congressional seat held by Democratic Congressman Paul Tonko.
Fallon-Underwood is a musician and music teacher who lives in Colonie. He says the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol inspired him to run for public office.
"But it was mostly because I feel like my neighbors deserve a candidate who's going to stand up against corruption and career politicians," said Fallon-Underwood.
Fallon-Underwood says his Democratic primary campaign is built on the promise he will write an anti-corruption bill and a bipartisan majority bill , a measure Fallon-Underwood crafted that includes a wide range of policy changes, from increasing the number of immigration judges stationed at the border to establishing a national registry for police misconduct and taxing "Ivy League Endowments" to make public college less expensive.
"We need to start a constitutional convention, so that normal everyday Americans who are not ingrained in the Washington system can set up some basic rules that everyone's always agreed on, that representatives shouldn't be able to do," said Fallon-Underwood. " In tandem with that, we need to pass a common sense law of all, it's a shortlist, the few things that Republicans and Democrat voters agree on, just so we can regain trust in our federal government. I think last time I checked, trust in the federal government is 17%. So it's reforming as well as just delivering so people actually can trust the system again.”
Fallon-Underwood thinks he can garner Capital Region voter support.
"The fact that our incumbent is 14 years serving, it just struck me as kind of odd. I never thought I'd run for Congress. But the fact that our incumbent has been in power, I just kind of feel that there's a low probability that he hasn't been corrupted just being, you know, away in Washington for over a decade.”
Dave Lucas: "Has Tonko done anything wrong? Are there any particular actions or policies of his that you disagree with?"
"Yeah, I feel like he's continuously misused his platform," said Fallon-Underwood. "He's been absent from elections around the state where he could be supporting anti-corruption candidates. He's concealed his failures and stagnations. On his website, he makes a lot of bold claims about things he's done, but haven't really amounted to anything when it comes to actually serving the American people."
The Tonko Campaign responded: “Congressman Tonko has a long record of delivering results for the Capitol Region - enacting lifesaving limousine reforms, tackling our nation's opioid epidemic, and leading the charge on fighting climate change and building the clean energy jobs of tomorrow - and he looks forward to earning the support of voters again in 2022. “
Despite being relatively unknown, Fallon-Underwood claims his own chances of winning the Democratic primary are quite good.
"Politically, I identify as an Independent. I believe that going to one party or voting on a party line is just kind of un-American," he said. "Even George Washington told us not to do this. But just due to the fact that Democrats have represented Albany for the last 50 years, it's kind of the general election, this June. So I've decided to run against Paul in the primary."
Other declared Democratic candidates include Justin Chaires, Cole Matthews and Rostislav Rar. The primary is Tuesday, June 28th. Republican Liz Joy is running for the second straight cycle.
