Common Sense: Week of November 1

WENDY LONG

This Tuesday, there will be many names on the ballot ranging from president at the top to assemblymember at the bottom. The candidate that you may not have read or heard much about, but who deserves the award for most underappreciated effort, is Conservative-Republican U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long.

Wendy Long has waged a spirited, albeit severely underfunded campaign since first announcing her intent in early March. During that time, she handily won a Republican primary, issued detailed statements on numerous issues, criss-crossed the state, meeting with literally hundreds of groups, and debated Kirsten Gillibrand.

Wendy Long is a serious, highly articulate candidate with something to say. She is very much worth giving a listen or look during these last days leading up to Election Day.

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Conservative Party leader Fran Vella-Marrone became a bit of a statewide celebrity recently when a robocall for Wendy Long from her was delivered to 1.2 million households in New York State. The message began “This is Fran calling from New York State Conservative Party headquarters….”

There were a number of media requests asking who this person is named Fran, to be told that she is the vice chairperson of the Brooklyn Conservative Party and treasurer of the State Conservative Party. Of course, Fran is much more than simply an important political leader, having been a major community activist for many years.

While 4,000 phone lines were being used to complete this project in less than eight hours, Fran was in her office doing her usual good job as Congressmember Michael Grimm’s Brooklyn district manager.

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Now, Andrew, could you get it straight at least once? State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes and his supporters have been inaccurately criticizing Senator Marty Golden’s record in Albany. They have him voting against bills in committees he was not on at the time of the vote and actually voting against bills that he authored that were signed into law by the governor. Now, really, Andrew, what is your problem?

A prime example is a bill (S3914b) the senator authored to address the issue of human trafficking. Not only did Senator Golden author the bill, he held well-publicized hearings and it passed the Senate. A website run by Andrew’s supporters says Senator Golden voted against it. How ridiculous.

At a candidate’s forum in Manhattan Beach, Senator Golden on several occasions called Andrew to task for his inaccuracies. And on a New York One televised debate, Senator Golden chastised Andrew for his lack of understanding of the legislative process.

Having served as Senator Golden’s chief of staff for a number of years, I find these misrepresentations of his legislative record to be particularly disturbing.

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I have written a number of times in the past few months about what I consider to be a truly seminal moment in American history — the election of 2102. Certainly, the two presidential candidates offer significantly different visions for our nation.

It now comes down to your vote. The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6. You should have received a card from the Board of Elections telling you your site. This is important because many sites have changed. If you are not sure where you vote, you should call the Board of Elections at 866-868-3692.