Orange County, NY – Pulling no punches in his victory speech, Senate-elect Assemblyman James Skoufis took aim squarely at both the Village of Kiryas Joel and Governor Andrew Cuomo, telling a crowd of cheering supporters that they were the only ones he owed anything to, after a race that he categorized as “long and acrimonious.”
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Skoufis, a Democrat, said that he and his family had been personally attacked over the course of the campaign to take over the 39th District Senate seat being vacated by Republican Bill Larkin.
Kiryas Joel’s main voting bloc had publicly endorsed Skoufis’ opponent, Republican Tom Basile prior to the election, but Skoufis beat out his opponent by nearly 6,000 votes according to unofficial results as reported by the Poughkeepsie Journal (http://bit.ly/2OwVk1I).
“We overcame the Village of Kiryas Joel bloc vote,” said Skoufis amidst thunderous applause. “While we’re at it, we were the only Democratic campaign in a competitive State Senate campaign anywhere in New York that the governor did not make a campaign contribution to. So guess what? When we go to the State Senate in January, we will not owe anything to any of them. Not the governor. Not KJ. Not any of the special interests that operate in Albany. The only, the only people I will happily be indebted to are all of you.”
Basile conceded in a statement last night, saying he had called his opponent to offer his congratulations.
“I am proud of the campaign we ran together with the help of so many wonderful people, to drive a conversation about the reforms we need to make our communities more affordable,” said Basile.
I wish to donate to this man.
ah just listen to the love pure out
Good to see Larkin finally gone. His staff kept him hidden the past 4 years due to his ‘problem’. But this guy Skoufis is a total empty suit.
If KJ are his constituents then he has lost all legitimacy by his speech. In a democracy the person voted into office owes as much to those who did NOT vote for him nor contribute to his campaign as he owes to those who did. He sounds close to Obama’s “take revenge” on the alleged “enemies”. It is one thing to carry out a platform. But to point out (especially identifiable) groups and implicitly threaten them for nothing more than backing the opposing political party is the opposite of the meaning of a modern democracy. It smacks of totalitarianism.
Money talks and everything else walks….!
a true anti-semite
Notwithstanding pre-election acrimony, once a representative is elected he must represent ALL his constituencies.
This is something the Democrats do not understand.
Burn your bridges FOOL and see how far it gets you !!!!!
I live in the Village of Kiryas Joel and I cast my vote for Basile. In my opinion Skoufis is not antisemitic. He is just a little too young. It’s definitely improper to single out voters based on culture or the area they live.
Imagine If Basile would say like this: ‘We overcame the special intrest Newburgh voters. So we will not owe anything to any of them.The only, the only people I will happily be indebted to are all of you.”
And BDW why should not any candidate put a photo on his web page showing Hasidic faces like any other diverse culture? Are we not constituents? Hmmm..