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NYS Senate Candidates Speak At Putnam County Forum

WAMC, Allison Dunne

A forum in Putnam County Wednesday included candidates for two New York state Senate races.

The tone was set before the two candidates from Westchester County in the race for the 40th state Senate District even spoke.

That was Democrat Justin Wagner saying “good way to start” after Republican Dr. Terrence Murphy refused to shake Wagner’s hand because of a negative campaign mailer. The two are vying for the seat held by Republican Greg Ball, who is not seeking reelection and to whom Wagner lost in 2012. A panelist asked Murphy how he would serve in a bipartisan manner if he refused to shake his opponent’s hand. Murphy responds.

“I will not, I refuse to go into his cesspool, okay,” Murphy says. “I’m about integrity and I’m about, I respect people. And I deserve respect like I’ll respect him, but he hasn’t respected me so I won’t respect him.”

And here’s Wagner.

“The mailer he just referred to we didn’t send. An outside group that we have no involvement or coordination with sent it,” says Wagner. “And I’ll tell you right now, I denounce that mailer. I think it was wrong. I agree with you.”

There was agreement – that the Common Core educational standards are not working, the Moreland Commission to investigate potential corruption was disbanded too early, and the issue of bringing more jobs to the region is a big one. Murphy, a chiropractor who owns a neighborhood restaurant, says he ushered in a large amount of economic development for the Town of Yorktown, where he is a councilman.

“The difference between myself and my opponent is business. I’m a businessman. I know how to run a business. I understand taxes,” Murphy says. “I don’t collect the $350,000 salary every year from a law firm that goes out and represents what I believe are some criminals, like the ones that were in  Guantanamo Bay that his law firm represented.”

“Same question,” says panelist to Wagner.

“One day Mr. Murphy’s attacking my law firm for being a corporate law firm and the next day we represent criminals at Guantanamo Bay. This is what happens when you’re losing the race and you’re throwing mud at the wall,” says Wagner. “I’m going to answer the question. The question was about jobs. Jobs are critical to this region, and what do we do? We have to rebuild our infrastructure.”

Wagner, who resides in the Village of Croton-on-Hudson in the Town of Cortlandt, serves on the board of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. He supports the SAFE Act. Murphy does not. The SAFE Act, or Safe Ammunitions and Firearms Enforcement Act, is the controversial gun control bill Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law nearly two years ago.

At the start of his closing statement, Murphy apologized and shook Wagner’s hand.

“My apologies, Justin,” says Murphy. 

Despite the reconciliation, barbs on the matter continued. The 40th District includes portions of northern Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties.

The 41st state Senate District candidates exhibited more civility, though sparred over one of the points in the Women’s Equality Agenda, as have many candidates in state races. First-term Democratic state Senator Terry Gipson refers to Roe v. Wade.

“Should that law ever be overturned, that women in this state will still be protected and have the rights that they currently have. It won’t change anything, it won’t expand anything, it won’t create anything new than what we’ve been accustomed to for the last 40 years. I think that’s important,” says Gipson. “I’m quite certain that if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t even be having these questions right now.”

Credit WAMC, Allison Dunne

Republican senators are steadfast in their opposition to one of the measures in the 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda: codifying abortion rights in Roe versus Wade. Republican Sue Serino, a Dutchess County legislator, argues codification is a misrepresentation. She addresses the entire agenda.

“The only people that are looking to change this law is actually the Democrats. They’re holding us hostage on the 10th point. There are nine great points. And if we took any one of those points, we would be heroes if we passed them,” says Serino. “So I just feel that it’s a total political debacle and it shouldn’t happen and we should pass the first nine points.”

“Just to be clear that the state Senate, almost in unanimous fashion, has voted to pass the first nine points of the Women’s Equality Act twice now and I have been one of those who voted for it,” says Gipson. “So it’s really not the Democrats holding anything up. It is really the Republican majority that has refused to pass the tenth point.  But I just wanted to set the record straight   that we have supported those.”

“That makes absolutely no sense to me because if you have nine points that you agree upon, pass the nine points,” says Serino.

The 41st District contains all of Dutchess County, minus the towns of Beekman and Pawling, along with the Putnam County towns of Kent, Philipstown, and Putnam Valley. Again, Serino.

“People when they’re running for this seat, they’ll start a year ahead of time. When you think about it, I only started in June. I’m 12 points up in the polls,” says Serino. “So the people are really making their voices heard. They’ve had enough.”

She refers to a Siena College poll from early October. Gipson maintains his campaign is going well.

“We are working very hard to get the message out to the constituents that we are serious about continuing to cut taxes and making sure that we don’t create new ones. That’s something that we’ve established a solid record on,” Gipson says. “And we’ve also shown that we’re willing to work with anybody that has a good idea and a good solution. And that’s something that we want to go back and continue to work on again.”

The forum, held at the VFW Hall in Carmel, was sponsored by the Putnam County News & Recorder and the Putnam County Courier, published by Elizabeth Ailes. She was on hand as was her husband, Fox News head Roger Ailes.

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