If you are a resident of the Town of North Hempstead, there is a good chance you are getting bombarded with election mailings claiming that New York State Senator Elaine Phillips is a “bipartisan leader.”
Perhaps you find it disingenuous that, although these mailings are from the New York State Republican Committee, they do not mention that Elaine Phillips is a Republican.
The truth is that Republican Elaine Phillips won by just 2 percent two years ago by posing as a bipartisan moderate for a constituency that is mostly Democratic.
One of the problems with this bipartisan claim is that policies in Albany are not decided by individual legislators, but by “three men in a room:” the governor, the head of the Senate and the head of the Assembly.
Another problem is that Elaine Phillips is beholden to her party because she relies on it to provide stipends from two leadership positions to supplement her base salary of $79,500. She also relies on her party for funding because 72 percent ($927,570) of the money raised for her last election campaign came directly from the New York State Senate Republican Committee.
Here are two recent examples of how Elaine Phillips stood up for her party as opposed to her constituents to make sure that popular initiatives from Democrats were not passed. This past winter Democrats attached gun control measures onto an existing bill in order to get Republicans to address banning the possession of bump stocks and requiring longer background checks.
Elaine Phillips, and every other Republicans in the state Senate, opposed these measures in lockstep and killed them by not voting on them before proposing their own watered down measures.
As a result, it is still legal to purchase and possess bump stocks in New York State.
This past spring the state Assembly passed the popular Child Victims Act for the fifth time which would have raised the age limit for victims seeking criminal charges against child molesters from 23 to 28 and those seeking civil charges from 23 to 50.
With Elaine Phillips’ help the Republican majority leader in the state Senate prevented this act from coming up for a vote. Now the age limit for victims of child molestation to press criminal or civil charges in New York State remains at just 23.
Don’t be fooled by the “bipartisan” claim in the mailings from the New York State Republican State Committee.
If you are still supporting the Republican Party in this upcoming election then, by all means, vote for Elaine Phillips.
But if you don’t agree with the Republican agenda, vote for the Democratic candidate: Anna Kaplan.
Charles S. Maass
Manhasset
