The Cornwall Democrat
There is no bottom.
From the article in The Atlantic: “Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Do you know any servicemembers or veterans? If they don’t already know, now is the time to show them who Donald Trump really is.
As of today, New York State’s absentee ballot request portal is online. If you haven’t already requested one & plan to vote absentee, request your ballot now.
Senator James Skoufis is well known to most Cornwall voters. First elected to represent us in the Assembly in 2012 our senator is completing his first term in the state senate. The senator may be best known for his outstanding constituent service, often getting personally involved. He and his staff assisted over 4000 individuals with unemployment claims during the pandemic.
Senator Skoufis is also known for his independence, often butting heads with fellow Democrat, Governor Cuomo. It is that independent streak, no doubt, that earned him the leadership of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee in his first term.
Our senator is also known as someone that gets things done for us in Cornwall. For starters we can look at the long-awaited repairs to the 9w bridges. Your editor was told at a public hearing that those projects were not expected to begin for at least another five years – if the money was still available at that time.
In Albany Senator Skoufis introduced about 280 bills since starting in the Senate. In his first year, he passed more bills than any other freshman senator in New York history. Meanwhile James’ successor in the 99th Assembly District has been totally ineffective as assemblyman.
The Colin-oscopy: An Examination of Colin Schmitt’s Record
In keeping with this month’s voting rights theme, we look at Colin Schmitt’s votes on voting. Since 2019, as the Assembly’s leader in voter suppression, Colin has consistently voted against bills which make voter registration more accessible and the process of voting safer and easier.
Colin voted no on each of these key bills:
A120 clarifies a court’s ability to take sworn testimony from a voter about the authenticity of his or her own signature.
A774 authorizes pre-registration for individuals at least 16 years of age and required the adoption of policies to encourage student voter registration.
A775 requires that the Board of Elections transfer the registration and enrollment of a voter who has moved to their new residence within New York State.
A779 consolidates primary election dates and ensures the timely transmission of ballots to military voters stationed overseas.
A780 extends the voter registration cutoff date.
A10807 allows local Boards of Election to expand the timeframe for voters to submit absentee ballots. Colin was the ONLY “no” vote, ensuring his place as the legislature’s leader in voter suppression.
A8280/S8806 is a comprehensive automatic voter registration bill ensuring that all New Yorkers are registered to vote. Schmit's comments about the bill’s lack of safeguards followed the false Republican narrative that more voters means more fraud.
There is also Colin’s “No” vote on the budget that included funds for early voting, electronic poll books, and online voter registration.
No bill that ensures greater access to the polls can ever be a danger to any democratic process. Restricting the vote is characteristic of autocracies. Any politician with a vested interest in suppressing the vote of the people they govern should not be governing those people in the first place.
Fortunately, all of these bills passed despite Colin’s efforts to ensure otherwise. Another example of his ineffectiveness in Albany.
Cornwall's own, attorney and Assembly candidate Sarita Bhandarkar.
Sarita Bhandarkar is running to represent the 99th Assembly District, seeking the seat seat formerly held by James Skoufis.
Sarita, as she prefers to be known, is “running for Assembly because residents of the Hudson Valley deserve a real advocate in Albany.
“In the Assembly I pledge to stand up against special interests, and fight for a fair shake for our neighbors who need lower taxes, affordable health care coverage, help with the opioid crisis, and better schools.”
Sarita is an attorney and a small business owner with an office on Main Street. Her specialty is elder law, giving her a unique perspective on issues connected with aging including Medicare and Medicaid. As a first generation American Sarita has “been standing up for what's right all my life; now, I'm ready to stand up where it matters most.”
The Orange County Board of Elections is currently seeking registered voters who wish to work as Election Inspectors—the poll workers who identify voters and help you cast your ballot. “We depend on the election workers to help us conduct fair and secure elections each year,” stated Deputy Commissioner Courtney Canfield Greene.
Any registered voter or any seventeen-year-old who pre-registers with the Orange County Board of Elections is eligible. A seventeen-year-old would be required to pre-register to vote, turn eighteen by the General Election and have their parent or guardian’s written permission to work election day. Election workers would be assigned to a polling location in their community or in a neighboring area if they are willing to travel.
Election Workers are compensated for their training and can earn $250 on Election Day. Training will be available in early fall and will accommodate any schedule. Learn more here, or call the Orange County Board of Elections at (845) 360-6515 for Democratic inquiries or email them: elections@orangecountygov.com.
With the passing of John Lewis on July 17, the nation and the world lost more than a civil rights icon. John Lewis was also a legendary Human Being. Congressman Lewis was an advocate, a fighter for the rights of the disenfranchised.
A protégé of Martin Luther King, Jr, John Lewis was the last surviving speaker at the watershed March on Washington in 1963. John Lewis was present when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act two years later.
With all that is going on in the wake of George Floyd’s murder it may be difficult to see the changes that have taken place since “Bloody Sunday.” The country was witness to that change as the Alabama State Troopers saluted the Congressman's funeral caisson as it crossed the bridge, named for a confederate general and grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, where he was nearly beaten to death by their predecessors. Even more poignant was the image of a white trooper named Bubba (seriously) lifting a little black girl onto his shoulders so she too could see John Lewis cross that bridge one last time.
John Lewis shed blood for the right to vote, as surely as any veteran of any foreign war. It is to John Lewis that this edition of The Cornwall Democrat is dedicated. Rest in Power, Congressman Lewis.
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This election season, Congressman Lewis’s legacy is on the line. Learn what you can do to beat back the Republicans’ attacks on civil rights.
As America enters the final hundred days before the 2020 presidential election, the right to vote has become more tenuous than ever. Since Shelby County v. Holder gutted the 1965 Civil Rights Act in 2013, voter suppression tactics have proliferated across the nation, primarily sabotaging would-be Democratic voting blocs. Voter ID laws, registration restrictions, closing polling sites in historically blue districts, felony disenfranchisement, and egregious gerrymandering have all contributed to a voting system rigged in favor of the Republican Party that crushes marginalized dissent under its heel.
These concerns have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. As common sense public health guidelines warn that in-person voting would be detrimental to the nation’s coronavirus response, Republicans are staging coordinated attacks on the solvency of the USPS—the only agency with the power to ensure free and fair balloting in the largest mail-in election in US history. In addition, millions of Americans are faced with an eviction crisis of historic proportions, threatened with not only the loss of safe and secure housing but their right to vote. Statistically, those most vulnerable to homelessness are more likely to be people of color, and to cast a blue ballot.
Voter suppression is the lynchpin of the Republican machine. They cling to it so staunchly because they know their power depends upon it. Assemblyman Colin Schmitt’s vocal opposition to the redrawing of gerrymandered district lines and the automatic voter registration bill stems from his fear that extending accessible enfranchisement to all New Yorkers will lead to his, and his party’s, electoral demise.
Times Herald-Record: “Local Democrats, Organizers Praise Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's VP Pick”
New York Times: “The Trump Campaign Accepted Russian Help to Win in 2016. Case Closed.”
Times Herald-Record: Schumer, in Middletown: Stop slowing down USPS, give mail-in ballots First Priority treatment
Associated Press: “Trump campaign’s Russia contacts ‘grave’ threat, Senate says”
Times Herald-Record: “Local Officials Brace for Flood of Absentee Ballots”
Remember: Vote in person if you feel safe doing so—early voting begins October 24. If you vote absentee, request your ballot immediately and mail it back the day you receive it.
Tonight’s lineup features Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and our next Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Dive into the 2020 Democratic Convention this week—live coverage begins each evening at 9pm. Tonight, Rosalind and Jimmy Carter, Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, Bill Clinton and other luminaries will take the stage as the evening’s theme of Leadership plays out.
Interestingly, a few Republicans who realize how their party and their president has failed the United States will also appear, demonstrating the breadth of regret, disgust, and resolve of our nation to rid itself of the criminal enterprise in the White House, and replace it with a steady, dedicated, patriotic leader in Joe Biden.
Tune in now!
New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer addressed the Convention from Brooklyn, the Statue of Liberty behind him.
Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Sarita Bhandarkar, candidate for 99th Assembly District, delivered greeting cards and chocolates to residents at Valley View Nursing Home and at Braemar at Wallkill Assisted Living Facility, just two of the many facilities in the county which were hit by COVID-19. Sarita spoke with caregivers, as well as with the families of resi-dents. She said, "We commend and thank the essential workers and care-givers who worked long hours caring for these residents during this pandemic.”
In a statement on the ongoing protests Sarita said, “I saw on the news that protests were planned in NYC over George Floyd’s death. My first reaction was, I think, the normal reaction of many black and brown Americans. I texted my brother and said, ‘Please don’t go. I want you to be safe.’ Safe. The right to be safe. That is what we want in America.
“When protesters say Black Lives Matter, it does not mean Blue Lives Don’t. It means we need to recognize that we live in a country which has not yet lived up to its ideals. It means we need to recognize systemic injustice and systemic racism-- we need to acknowledge they exist if we are going to progress as a people.”
And Sarita could be seen at rallies and vigils, not just talking but listening and adding to her own perspective.
Senator Skoufis, while being busy in Albany, has found time on weekends to volunteer at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley and Newburgh Mutual Aid to Feed Neighbors. All the while he and his staff assisted over 4,000 individual constituents with unemployment claims. The Senator slowed down only to take time to fight off and recover from a bout with the deadly Coronavirus himself.
In Albany, the Senator and his Democratic colleagues passed two bills in early June. One bill requires New York State Police to wear body cameras. Another repeals section 50-a of the Civil Rights law, which currently shields police personnel records. Both bills promote police accountability. The Sena-tor’s work is not done there either. The legislature will reconvene later this month.
Here, in Cornwall, the Democratic majority on the Town Board have been working to ensure Cornwall’s safety and viability during the pandemic, working with local small businesses on the reopening. Councilman Josh Wojehowski used his expertise in the hospitality trade to work with Cornwall’s restaurants and the Town to ensure a safe and successful phased reopening. As a result, restaurants have expanded outdoor seating with permission from the Town. Reliable sources revealed new businesses are coming to Main Street, one being called “a game changer.”
Councilman Wojehowski informed this publication that the Main Street Revitalization is still moving forward, too. The renovation of bridge street and traffic circle beautification are on track. According to Supervisor Randazzo both projects should be completed this year.
Additionally, the Town Board passed a resolution on equality for all on July 13th. Councilwoman Virginia Scott added, “If I could share one message to our community it would be that your Town Board has the responsibility to effectively address issues that are raised by the community with respect. Our responses must be well thought out and we did take a mindful approach in order to develop a resolution to assert our position as local leaders that we will not condone or tolerate discriminatory behavior.”
The board also passed a resolution against the Danskammer Plant after receiving feedback from community.
Just as New Yorkers were looking to put the worst of the pandemic behind us, just as we prepared for Governor Cuomo’s daily briefings to finally tell us that it was safe to reopen parts of the economy, we were made witness to an absolutely horrific eight minutes and 46 seconds. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, following as it did on the heels of the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, galvanized white America in a way not seen before, even during the struggle for Civil Rights in the 1960s. It was an America that was already being made aware of the price of systemic racism in the higher COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death rates of African-Americans; their higher rates of job loss; and the continual harassment of People of Color who were doing nothing more than jogging or bird-watching.
The Republican responses to these crises have been anemic, insensitive, or outrageous. The Trump White House, as has been its custom, denies and obscures the true nature of the nation’s miseries with conspiracy theories and outright nonsense. The pandemic is either a “Democratic hoax” or a “Chinese virus.” The same is alleged to be true of the economic slowdown that followed. The peaceful protests for justice are the result of “anarchists, socialists, or terrorists”, rather than the consequence of centuries of injustice and systemic racism. Instead of offering real solutions, the President chooses to fan the flames. Then, in classic Republican fashion, the talking points from Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have been repeated by local Republican officials who have been stubbornly distracting from and downplaying the serious nature of these issues.
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than saluting Governor Cuomo for his groundbreaking leadership in formulating a science-based plan to control the earliest and, by far, most severe outbreak in the nation, what did Assemblyman Colin Schmitt do? Like too many short-sighted Republicans, he wanted to re-open in May.
He risked spreading infection by going door-to-door with petitions demanding in-person graduation ceremonies, and he introduced a bill seeking to limit Governor Cuomo's power. In other words, while Democratic candidate Sarita Bhandarkar was making wellness calls to vulnerable citizens, Colin Schmitt, like so many Republicans, got COVID completely wrong.
Schmitt, instead of realizing—as the rest of the civilized world has—that a healthy populace is necessary to a thriving economy, like his fellow Republicans locally and nationally, treats the economic catastrophe as if it is separate from the pandemic and has been focused on reopening without regard for the potential consequences. Schmitt was pushing for the reopening in mid-May.
We are seeing the results of such policy decisions in states that reopened too soon. Those states that followed President Trump’s advice rather than the CDC’s are seeing the worst spike in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Governor Cuomo’s approach worked; the results are clear.
Orange County Executive, Republican Steve Neuhaus, managed to encapsulate what appears to be his party's misguided reply to these growing crises. Comparing the protests against police violence and the protests against Corona-mitigation measures he said, “It sounds crazy but in reality, that is what we are looking at here, #doublestandard.” What's “crazy” is the Republican idea that being “forced” to wear a mask equates with the long and often violent denial of “inalienable rights” to a large segment of Americans: no nation can thrive if any part of it doesn't feel secure.
This week the nation bids farewell to one of its bravest patriots: Representative John Lewis, who relentlessly defied hatred and violence to stand up (and sit down) for the right of Black Americans to vote and gain equality. Possessed perhaps equally of physical bravery and moral courage, Mr. Lewis served the United States as a Freedom Rider, organizer, marcher, speaker, and politician for decades. We in Cornwall—like people of good faith across the country—mourn his loss, celebrate his example, and hope to emulate in some measure his profound impact on justice. May he rest in power.
Obituary: The New York Times, “John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80”
Book: John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America
Book: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, March
Book: John Lewis and Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
