Three Republicans are vying for the party’s ballot line in the race for New York’s 118th State Assembly District seat.
New York’s 118th Assembyl District seat is currently held by Republican Robert Smullen, who is vying for the GOP ballot line in the race for New York’s 21st Congressional District seat—Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is not seeking reelection.
Democrat Colleen Maxwell will appear on November’s ballot in the race for the state assembly seat that encompasses large portions of the Mohawk Valley and North Country.
For Republican hopefuls Chanda King and Heather Scribner, it’s a different story.
A third GOP candidate running in the June 23rd primary, Charles Potter, will appear on November’s ballot regardless – he’s already set to appear on the states Conservative Party line.
Currently a Gloversville city representative on the Fulton County Board of Supervisors, he did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Scribner says increasing affordability will be a priority if she is elected.
“The affordability crisis is the major challenge. High taxes continue and the cost of unfunded mandates that are crushing family budgets. Those are the things that everyone is talking about. We have numerous issues based in New York under the one-party rule and under our Governor Kathy Hochul. And it’s trickling down to upstate New York,” said Scribner.
The current Fulton County treasurer adds that she’s got all the qualifications for the job.
“When tax season came up in March I had people coming in, Veterans coming in who couldn’t afford their taxes because their National Grid bills were so high. This should not be happening. And this is part of the affordability crisis, this is part of the one party ruling in Albany,” said Scribner.
Scribner says regardless of who is elected to represent the 118th district, it will be vital for them to work across the aisle to advocate for their constituents.
“Political push does work, we’re seeing it right now in the minority where we are fighting as Republicans for some of these things. For example, pushing back the electric school buses. I don’t think 5 years if should be pushed back, I don’t think it should be mandated, it should be a choice. But we are pushing back on that and what we have to do is be more proactive all the time and keep political pressure on [Democrats] because I think that is effective,” said Scribner.
King, on the other hand, is positioning herself as a less traditional candidate for the seat.
“Well, I’ve been in politics for a while on the outskirts. I don’t look like Albany, I look more like the founding fathers who went in and carried the load and then went home. That’s exactly what I plan on doing. I don’t plan on spending a lifelong time in the assembly and making a career out of it, I don’t plan on becoming rich. I’m going to do the job and go home. That’s what our founding fathers did,” said King.
King also takes issue with what she calls the growing gap between Albany’s priorities and the priorities of the 118th.
“There’s too many mandates including on myself. Things are expensive, things are hard.
And we don’t want the mandates of what Albany and New York City are telling us what we need to do here. They don’t live here, they don’t know what it’s like. I think it’s local control, they should be able to decide what they want. An electric bus is not going to work up in the town of Wells or Indian Lake. If Albany wants to have an electric bus, good for them, they should be able to make that decision for themselves. Just like here, we should be able to make that choice ourselves,” said King.
Early voting runs through Sunday, election day is Tuesday.
