Brandon Williams is Really, Really Bad at His Job
Brandon Williams: He Really Is the Worst NY22 Rep Ever (It's in Print)
Kudos to the Syracuse Post/Syracuse.com for their lengthy and detailed reporting this week in a piece headlined "Rep. Brandon Williams is absent on Central NY issues while fighting ‘progressive fantasies’" If you hit a paywall trying to view the article on Syracuse.com, we have prepared a text only viewable google doc for you. We also have an alternate link here.
Very little of what is reported will come as a surprise to those of us who've carefully observed William's first 14 months in office. He and his staff are mostly AWOL. He shows little interest in advocating on behalf of the district and almost no care and concern for the needs of constituents. He started flying around the country to promote MAGA and Christian Nationalist talking points and promote his own pet project (one of his main business ventures): the construction of small nuclear energy reactors. Williams has stopped holding town halls, but he has made frequent appearances on Fox News. His most proud achievement in Congress was pushing back on President Biden's climate policies by flying to a conservative climate conference in Dubai.
Perhaps the biggest news here is the number of elected officials in Oneida County IN HIS OWN REPUBLICAN PARTY who have gone out of their way to get on the record with their assessment that he is doing a terrible job representing us here in Oneida County and central NY. That includes County Executive Anthony Picente and majority leader of the Oneida County Board of Legislators, George Joseph. According to Picente, “I just don’t know that Williams is engaged anywhere locally. There hasn’t been a lot of presence.” Joseph says, "He never really reached out. As one of the leaders of the same party, I have to question whether we’ve lost our representation. It’s very disappointing. It takes a long time to get acquainted with people, but he’s already had more than a year to do it.”
It's a big piece, full of revelations about the absolute failure of Brandon Williams to do any consequential work at all on behalf of NY22 and quotes that we're going to want to make sure voters see as we near the election in November. Billboards and postcards anyone?
Primer on New York State’s Public Campaign Finance Program
This is a new program, enacted by the NYS legislature in 2022. It allows candidates running for office to receive matching funds for their campaigns. The program empowers small dollar donations, and so helps to get “big money” out of politics.
Eligibility: any candidate running for statewide and state legislative offices can participate. Candidates for the Governor, Lt Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, Assembly Member, and Senator are eligible. The candidate must have a valid opponent.
Which candidates qualify for matching funds? Candidates must meet certain threshold requirements of total money raised and a minimum number of donations from in-district donors. For low-income districts, which includes much of Upstate, the threshold is $8,000 for Senate, $4,000 for Assembly. Candidates must also raise qualified donations from at least 150 donors for State Senate and 75 donors for Assembly candidates.
Which donations are qualified? Donations in the amount of $5-$250 from individual donors who live in-district can have their donations matched. (Any donations above $250 in aggregate will simply not be matched at all and the contributor will not be counted toward the required number of donors.)
How much is the match? Qualified contributions are matched at a rate of 6:1 for statewide offices. For state legislative offices, contributions are matched on the following tiered basis: the first $5-50 of a donation is matched 12:1, the next $100 is matched 9:1, and the next $100 is matched at 8:1. (Small dollar donations receive more matching funds.)
An example: Susie Q is running for State Assembly in Upstate NY and decides to participate in this program. She has an opponent, and is not self-funding her campaign, so she qualifies. As soon as she receives donations from 75 people in her district, she qualifies to have those donations matched. You live in her district and you donate $100 to her campaign. The first $50 of your donation is matched by an additional $600, and the rest of your donation is matched by an additional $450. So you give her $100, and the state matches that by a total of $1,050. So altogether, your $100 donation adds up to $1,150. Pretty cool, huh? Thank you, Democrats! (Thanks to Celeste Friend for writing this primer!)
Can You Make a $5 or $10 donation to the James Meyers for State Senate Campaign?
Now that you know all about the great new "small dollar donation multiplier" that we have in New York thanks to our Democratic legislators in Albany, can you help James Meyers for State Senate (53rd) secure the state match? James has been at our IMV meetings in January and February and we are so excited that he is running as the first Democrat to challenge Joe Griffo at the polls in 14 years! Voters deserve a choice, and James is a great choice.
All you need to do to make a huge impact is to make a donation between $5 and $250 to his campaign. You can make a donation all at once or spread it out ($5-10 per month) over the course of the campaign. Remember, the first $5-50 is matched at the highest level, so $5 is actually worth $60 to him.
We also encourage everyone while you are checking out James' website, to click to subscribe for campaign updates and volunteer.
But the main thing today is to make a $5 (or more) donation. There are enough people reading this email today to get him over the line of 150 individual donations to qualify for the match. Let's get it done!
Climate Crisis Working Group Updates
1. Please join us for our next meeting! Monday, March 11th, 7:00-8:30 pm at the Kirkland Town Library, 55 1/2 College Street, Clinton. Come and get updated on the latest climate legislation and actions and help us plan for the year.
2. Packaging Reduction Bill and Bottle Bill
Packaging Reduction is currently in Senate Finance and Assembly Codes committees.
Bottle Bill: we are waiting for an amendment in the Assembly and then it will need to pass out of Environmental Conservation in both houses.
Our impression for Packaging Reduction is that it needs some encouragement from Assembly Speaker Heastie to come up in Codes committee. That's why our focus for grassroots action needs to be on Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Here's 4 things to do in the next week:
Write a Letter to the Editor. This is our customizable template letter (call on Heastie and Stewart-Cousins to pass it this year.)
3. NY Renews: Sign Up for the Call Relay
We’re expecting to see one-house budget proposals from the Senate and Assembly early next week, and there’s a good chance two Climate Jobs, and Justice priority bills–the NY HEAT Act and Climate Change Superfund Act–will be in play. This is a huge opportunity for our movement to address unaffordable utility bills and really take real steps towards holding polluters accountable–thanks for all your work organizing to get us here!
To respond, we’re holding a 3-day call relay Wednesday the 13th through Friday the 15th targeting Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins. We’re hoping getting lots of calls can help us build the momentum needed to get these critical bills across the finish line in the budget!
Please sign up for next week’s call relay: Here is the sign up spreadsheet
4. NY HEAT Act: March 13th Albany Mobilization
We're going back to Albany on March 13th. That's right around when the Assembly and Senate budgets will be coming out and we'll be rallying to get the best possible version of the NY HEAT Act into the final budget bill. Please join us once more in Albany! Here is the link to sign up.
Please let Maggie Reilly, Margaret_reilly@mac.com or Jennifer Geiger, jgeiger777@gmail.com know if you are going to attend so we can plan transportation.
Take Action to Protect Local Journalism
We've all complained at some point about the loss of local news coverage, especially the Utica OD, which doesn't have a full local staff to cover events and meetings and no longer publishes Guest Views or Letters to the Editor. except occasionally on Sundays. At this point, The Daily Sentinel, a family owned company in Rome, is our primary print news source and was voted the official paper of record for the city of Utica. The Daily Sentinel has joined a coalition of local newspapers across New York to lobby for support to allow their papers to survive in the current media environment In an editorial this week, the Sentinel's editorial says:
"Only local news outlets — with boots-on-the-ground journalists — can deliver the hyperlocal updates and investigations necessary to sustain a community’s civic and financial well-being. Imagine no stories about the village board meeting or the school budget debate. No pictures of your granddaughter’s first soccer goal. No obituary of your friendly (and eccentric) neighbor. No investigative reporting to hold public officials to account. And no trusted institution to convene the community around a family in need. We need your help to save local news in New York."
"To get the Local Journalism Sustainability Act across the finish line, lawmakers need to hear from you about why our newspaper matters and why this bill is important to you. If you would like to help, reach out to Governor Hochul and your local representatives to let them know you stand with local news." The message is simple:
"Support the New York Local Journalism Sustainability Act."
Contact Gov. Kathy Hochul: 518-474-8390;
State Senate — Joseph A. Griffo, R-53, Rome, 315-793-9072; griffo@nysenate.gov;
State Assembly — Marianne Buttenschon, D-119, Marcy, 315-732-1055, buttenschonm@nyassembly.gov; Brian Miller, R-122, New Hartford, 315-736-3879, millerb@nyassembly.gov; Robert Smullen, R-118, Meco, 315-866-1632, smullenr@nyassembly.gov
The Daily Sentinel is a proud member of the Empire State Local News Coalition: support the coalition at SaveNYLocalNews.com.
It should only take 5-8 minutes for you to make your three calls today as a member of IMV, a local political activism group. Thanks!
Petitioning Check In
How is your month of petitioning going so far? Hopefully it has been good for you to connect with voters in your neighborhood and voters in your party. Some people who petition make appointments with those they know personally. Others drive for miles into rural areas to find the few WFP members in a town filled with Republican voters (Diane Berry!) If you haven't had a chance to get started, there is still time to petition onto your local Democratic Committee if you're a registered Dem, or fill up those pages with signatures for judicial delegates and state and congressional candidates. Most Americans probably think candidates get on ballots by magic; we know different.
What I say at the doors about the congressional primary plus some petitioning tips (by Jen DeWeerth)
I petitioned in the more rural parts of the town of Kirkland (outside of the village of Clinton) last weekend.
People were very excited to learn about Adrianne Martini challenging Brian Miller for the 122nd Assembly district. If your Assembly Member is Marianne Buttenschon, you have a great selling point, which is that she is currently the only Democrat representing our region in Albany, and she is able to bring home more resources than any of the Republicans (who are in the minority of the legislature).
Petition signers are especially excited that Joe Griffo will have an opponent for the first time in 14 years in his race for state senate. Even if someone says that they have no problem with Griffo, almost everyone will sign for James Meyers, a young retired army officer and current army reservist, if you just ask, "Isn't it important that voters have a choice when they go to vote?"
In our part of upstate NY, we are still not really used to competitive Democratic congressional primaries. 2022 was the first in a long time. If you are wondering about the best way to handle getting support for your favorite candidate, this is what I say: "Democrats are really lucky this year to have three excellent candidates running in our congressional primary. Voters get to choose in June who will be on the ballot in November. In Oneida County, Democrats also get to choose who we carry petitions for, and I chose Sarah Klee Hood (you can put John Mannion or Clemmie Harris here) and so I hope you'll sign to get her on the ballot. But the most important thing is that whoever wins the primary in June, we'll all support that candidate and make sure that they defeat Brandon Williams in November. "
In almost every case this ending about defeating Williams prompts a response of "I'm with you there. That guy is terrible!" Whenever it seems like a good time, you can talk about why you support the Dem candidate you do, but try not to speak against the other Democratic congressional candidates as it will make our work harder in the general election if Democratic voters think that any one of our candidates is not desirable for any reason.
Remember that some election districts are harder to petition in than others. If you have one of those (rural, not many Dems, transitory population, lots of apartment buildings, etc.) it could take 4-5 hours to get a few signatures. Just focus on getting a couple more than the number you need to get or keep your seat on the county committee.
If you have time and energy to get more petition signatures for judicial delegates (the hardest challenge for hitting the numbers required) and state and congressional candidates, try asking for Dem voter lists in areas that are more likely to yield more signatures per hour of door-knocking. Your city or town chairs may be able to provide those lists. Alternatively, you can approach a candidate's campaign and ask them for "walk lists" that may yield many more signatures.
Hang in there, friends! Check out the calendar below for ways to connect with IMV members and other Indivisibles. We look forward to seeing you at our short IMV meeting on Zoom near the end of the month ( Wednesday, March 27th, 7-8 pm)
Random Piece of Good News: Former Utica City School District Superintendent Plead Guilty to a Felony Count in court yesterday. Thank you to all the IMV members who knocked doors and supported campaigns for school board candidates over the years as Uticans tried to gain enough Board of Education seats to bring about accountability. Thanks to James Paul and the other school board members who courageously put Karam on leave and the whistleblowers in the district who got the ball rolling. For thousands of schoolchildren and their parents and teachers in the UCSD, there is finally hope for a changed culture of caring about children and learning instead of district officials focused on lining their own pockets and handing out jobs to their families and friends.
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