The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/new-york-state-assembly/)
On Dec. 23, the New York State Senate passed new law backed by Cornell research establishing the Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act, the Soil Health Program and the Climate Resilient Farming Initiative.
UPDATE: As of 12:50 a.m. Wednesday, Tompkins County Legislator and assembly candidate Anna Kelles and D.A. challenger Ed Kopko lead election night returns. And downstate in New York’s 17th Congressional District, two Cornell alumni running for Congress are trailing behind a progressive favorite.
Seph Murtagh ’09 is a member of the Common Council of the City of Ithaca and currently works as an aide to Assemblyperson Barbara Lifton. But, more than that, he is a person who grew up in Tompkins County and who wants to make our community and our state a place where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, to have an excellent public education, to live in a safe home and to share in the benefits of our society. I support Seph because I know he gets work done calmly and effectively, with intelligence and persistence. I know he is both intelligent and persistent because he earned a Ph.D. in 2009 from Cornell University. Please join me in voting for Seph Murtagh in the 125th Assembly District Democratic Primary.
To the Editor:
I encourage my neighbors and all voters in the 125th to choose Jason Leifer for State Assembly in the election June 23. We have plenty of credible candidates running, but Jason has accomplished some amazing things. He was the Dryden town board member who advocated using zoning and local control to ban fracking, a decision that was the beginning of the end of fracking in New York State. He has fought corporate control from Anschutz Exploration to Spectrum, deciding that his town would make its own decisions on what to allow and whom to serve — first by banning fracking and now by exploring municipal broadband. As town supervisor, he fought for community solar, and for the past several years he has required all new developments to use green building techniques.
To the Editor:
The June 23 primary features seven candidates for New York State Assembly. For many reasons, I support Jason Leifer for this critical position. I admire Jason for his stance against fracking and for the hard work he and his fellow town board members put in to keep it out of Dryden and eventually out of the state. I respect Jason’s support of working people and unions, which is exemplified by his pro bono legal work as well as in his encouragement of a resolution calling for a countywide living wage. I appreciate Jason’s decision to move toward municipal broadband so that we are no longer held hostage by Spectrum or forced to live with no internet at all.