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NYS Senator Readies New Ballot Line

A New York state senator has submitted petitions to create a ballot line, adding to the two on which he will already appear. Candidates statewide are adding a flurry of new lines to the ballot.

Democratic state Senator Terry Gipson says he filed more than 5,000 signatures with the state Board of Elections to create the “Tax Relief Now” ballot line.

“And since I was elected, I’ve made reducing taxes the number-one goal for me,” says Gipson. “And we’ve introduced a lot of legislation towards that end, and we have had some success at reducing taxes, but I felt like it made sense to give the constituents in my district an opportunity to support someone that was clearly for tax relief so we created the line ‘Tax Relief Now.’”

Gipson, who also has the Working Families line, says tax relief defines his race.

“What it really says about this particular race is that this race is not about political parties, it’s not about Republicans and Democrats,” Gipson says. “It is about the person who is committed the most to tax relief, and has a record of tax relief, and that is clearly me.”

Dr. Gerald Benjamin is a political scientist at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

“Now this idea of issue-based line items or constituency-based line items is not new,” Benjamin says. “We’ve had the Right to Life party, for example, in New York for a significant amount of time.”

However, he says:

“It’s highly visible now because it’s taking place with regard to the gubernatorial election.”

Gipson’s line comes after Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino submitted more than the requisite number of signatures needed to create the Stop Common Core line, and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign submitted more than enough signatures to create the Women’s Equality line.

Gipson, who represents most of Dutchess and a few municipalities in Putnam, says the idea for his tax relief line had nothing to do with the other party lines. His opponent, Republican Dutchess County Legislator Sue Serino, of Hyde Park, alleges Gipson’s tax relief line is hypocritical.

“And then in this year’s state budget he voted for 18 different major taxes which ended up costing New York $70 billion, and that also includes $183 million in the utility taxes, an extension of the MTA payroll tax, and also the 18-A energy tax,” Serino says. “So people just can’t afford this. And he’s saying one thing and his record is showing that he’s doing something else, so I just think that it’s kind of funny that he’s doing that line.”

A Gipson spokesman defends the senator, saying Gipson did not vote to extend the MTA payroll tax, but introduced legislation to repeal it, and points out that Gipson opposed the 18-A home energy tax in Dutchess County. That tax is being phased out.

Serino, who has the Conservative and Independence lines, says that though she has a clear position on Common Core educational standards, and she has let constituents know it, she will not appear on the Stop Common Core ballot line.

“And I’m letting the public know, too, that I want to vote to repeal the Common Core,” says Serino. “But I feel really confident with the three lines that I do have and I didn’t want there to be any confusion.”

Meanwhile, Gipson sums up his tax relief line effort this way.

“If you feel strongly about tax relief and that’s the primary issue for you, then you now have a ballot line and a candidate on that line that gives you an opportunity to vote for that candidate.”

Benjamin adds:

“But this idea of focusing on one constituency or one particular issue is a way politicians use to aggregate or attract and aggregate votes from people who might otherwise not support them.”

Candidates rarely receive more than a few hundred votes on their additional lines. Gipson defeated longtime Republican Senator Steve Saland in 2012.

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