A Democratic incumbent is facing off against a political newcomer in New York’s 128th Assembly district race.
The district encompasses parts of the city of Syracuse and the towns of DeWitt, Onondaga, and Salina.
Assemblywoman Pam Hunter said she has worked hard to get things done during her time in state government, but she said she’s just getting started. If she wins another term, her goals include passing more legislation to help veterans and making sure enough affordable housing is available with the impending arrival of tech giant Micron.
"I want to make sure that especially as we're going into kind of this new decade with this big industry that's coming to our area, that we need to make sure we're not leaving behind the people who are here,” said Hunter.
Her Republican challenger Dominick Ciciarelli is working to convince voters that he can bring new energy and ideas to the seat. Ciciarelli, a political newcomer who lives in the town of Salina, is an entrepreneur who owns a real estate company.
"I'm not about politics. I'm about solutions,” said Ciciarelli. “What I mean by that is, I want to go to the community and ask the community, 'What do you think we should do? What do you think we need? What do you think would benefit us?'"
One of the issues at the top of Ciciarelli’s list is working to curb state spending. He said he wants to approach the state budget from a business perspective.
"Take more of a fixed operations approach to it, right?” he said. “Let's break it down. Let's see. Maybe there's resources that we're overspending on that haven't really gotten the results that we need, so we can take that and put it toward something that has been beneficial to the community."
But Hunter said, it’s not that easy, and New York state has a big budget in part because it provides a lot of services to the people who live there.
"If we want to talk about curbing state spending, I would say, 'What are you going to cut? Are you going to cut education? Do we want to cut money for law enforcement? Are we going to cut money to not-for-profits? What about money to hospitals?’”
Another priority for Ciciarelli is criminal justice reform, including analyzing New York’s controversial bail laws.
"If you have that non-violent crime, you can't necessarily afford bail, I understand where they're coming from when they do that,” Ciciarelli said. “But the thing is though…I don't think you deserve two, three, four chances before they finally say, 'OK, this is an issue.'"
Hunter said bail is not meant to be punitive. It’s meant to get defendants to show up in court, and she says reducing the crime rate is more complicated than just bail reform.
"It's easier to just say lock them up and throw away the key, than, 'You know something? Let's really tackle the problem of why is all of this crime happening? Instead of looking at all of the symptoms, let's take care of the sickness,'" said Hunter.
Ciciarelli also points to infrastructure issues in the district and if elected, he said he plans to make improvements a priority.
"I just feel that it would essentially have a trickle up effect because now when you're building up the community and people see that around you, again it makes them want to be a part of the community and also help build it up as well to be a part of that."
Hunter points to her record, saying she has been able to advocate for central New York and plans to continue.
"I have brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into different items into the community, relative to sidewalks in Salina and capital improvements that we've seen in libraries in my district," said Hunter.
And despite an often divisive political climate, both candidates say they plan to work together with colleagues in Albany to find solutions during a time when many central New Yorkers are struggling.
