Early voting is underway for New York's Congressional and State Senate primaries. Democrat Paul Tonko is facing his first primary challenge since his election to Congress 14 years ago.
Rostislav Rar is challenging Tonko for the new 20th Congressional District seat in the August 23rd primary. The redistricted 20th now includes most of Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties, however, Tonko's hometown of Amsterdam was moved to the 21st. Nonetheless, Tonko says he’s ready.
“Challenges are good for the soul," said Tonko. "I think that they help hold our message that I want to share with the general public. People are benefited by choice, I believe. So they look forward to, you know, the primary process as it concludes, and then move into the general election.”
Rar was born in Siberia and came to the U.S. by way of Japan and Germany. He spent seven years interning then working as an assistant in the State Assembly. He went to law school, thinking he'd left politics for good.
“But then when Trump got elected as president, and I saw some of the horrific things that he was doing, starting from the Muslim ban, targeting different races and demographics of people, going after the most vulnerable people in our society, I realized I couldn't just sit still,” Rar said.
Rar says he sees weaknesses in Tonko's record.
“...especially on the environment. So Mr. Tonko is the Chair of the Subcommittee on the Environment and Climate Change," Rar said. "But he really hasn't done nearly enough on that issue. If you look at the bills that he's sponsored and bills that he's refused to sponsor, that's very clear. You know, he hasn't sponsored the Green New Deal, for example. He hasn't sponsored the equality, the Environmental Justice Act. He hasn't sponsored the Big Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act, which would just tax oil companies a little bit more; hasn’t sponsored Off Fossil Fuel acts. He's actually the only Democrat in New York not to sponsor that.”
Tonko stands by his record.
“ I'm proud of the work that we've accomplished," said Tonko. "As chair of the subcommittee, it's my role to take legislation, and work with it so that we can get the significant response to climate, to the climate change crisis, and at the same time garner the 218 votes that are required, and with hopes to have it passed in the Senate. Otherwise, we'll be standing still, as we did for the four years during the Trump administration. Standing still took us backward, we cannot afford that repeat of a scenario. So it's important for us to look at engaging sound investments, I think the track record is very clear, we've got an historic amount of dollars to $370 billion, this investment that the Inflation Reduction Act made, that will cover the next decade, implementing clean energy, development, which will help our country reach its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40%. By 2030. “
Rar says besides the environment, his platform addresses equality and education. He says the primary presents voters a unique opportunity, and he thinks he has a good shot at victory.
“This platform is extremely resonant," said Rar. "I've gone into all communities in the Capital District, but especially in communities like Arbor Hill, communities like Hamilton Hill, people are extremely, extremely responsive. They want to help, they want to hand out our literature. So that's been very clear, and they haven't seen Paul Tonko in those communities nearly enough. So, you know, it’s no secret to me that we're the big underdogs. We've been outraised. Of course, we were going to be outraised. He has more staff, more money, more resources, he has literally more of everything. But I think that on election day, on August 23rd, the only really thing that's going to matter is the vote of the people.”
Tonko says he’s been part of the Biden era’s success, pointing to the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure bill.
“Then we move to the to the CHIPS and Science Act, which for this location in the country is significant," Tonko said. "It invests in the semiconductor industry, it enables that the GlobalFoundries for example, to expand their operations, incorporating 1,000 to 1,200 new jobs that will come into the area. And in the shadows of this passage of this legislation, GlobalFoundries announced that they had an over $4 billion contract made with a company to deliver chips. So it is already inspiring, favorable response. And then of course, closes with the Inflation Reduction Act, which again, is the most significant action we have taken on climate change in history. A great package of success that we're running on and we feel tremendously strong in our message.”
The final day of early voting for enrolled party members is Sunday. The primary is the following Tuesday.
