VOTE411 Voter Guide

Everything has to focus on achieving the primary goal of everyone in our society being empowered to successfully live the lives they choose as their genuine selves with dignity, prosperity, security, and justice. The main barriers to achieving that goal right now are-

Affordability of basic needs (food security, housing (including utility rates), and healthcare to name a few)

Investment in infrastructure (both hard infrastructure such as roads, power and communication lines, water systems and human infrastructure such as education (including childcare) and healthcare)

Assuring that everyone has a true voice in and can trust that our government will work for them by ensuring that peoples' rights are protected and preserved, all citizens can easily participate and vote in free and fair elections, and that everyone is treated fairly and equally under the law.

These are all interconnected and are the priorities for my service.

Addressing the climate crisis involves ending the behaviors that humans do to increase the rate of temperature increase and putting measures in place to mediate the effects we are already experiencing. Ending use of fossil fuels for energy production and transportation in order to vastly reduce the carbon emissions we generate that are the main contributor to the increased rate of climate change, incentivizing and investing in renewable energy generation and electric vehicle development and use, redesigning our communities to be more walkable and ensure resources such as groceries and healthcare are local, protecting and increasing greenspace (including farmland, wetlands, and "forever wild" forests), and reducing waste sent to landfills are good first steps. We must also ensure that we are investing in flood mitigation infrastructure, getting power and communication lines underground, and ensuring our roads are better able to handle the extreme weather events we experience.

To promote true equity and equality we have to invest in public education, public health, public infrastructure, and ensure that the rights of free speech, free expression, freedom of religion, voting rights, due process, fair treatment under the law to anyone within our borders are guaranteed. Public education needs to be supported by supporting teachers and student needs first and foremost, ensuring that each school has the space and resources necessary to encourage all students to achieve, which can be done with better use of state funding. Ensuring that everyone is covered for healthcare through a single payer system like the New York Health Act enables everyone to address healthcare needs without the worry of cost preventing them from seeking needed care, reducing costs, and enabling a more productive and free society. Every community should have the best energy, communication, water, and other infrastructure in order to promote health, opportunity, and affordability.

To see the Voting Rights Act gutted in the fashion that the Supreme Court just did is an offense that must be answered. The temptation is for NYS to answer in kind with election district maps that utterly dilute the GOP representation in Congress, and that probably will be a necessary reaction for a short term given that many of the so called "GOP controlled" states are changing their maps to restrict people of color from having fair representation (and create districts where only GOP candidates have a good chance of winning). However, the real answer here is to ensure that anyone who can be registered to vote in elections in NYS is registered to vote automatically, are actively encouraged to vote, and are always able to vote. We must fully enshrine mail in voting, early voting, and ensure people can take paid time off to vote on Election Day. We must make running for elected office more accessible in NYS in order to encourage diversity in our representation.

1. Driving affordability that ensures a greater quality of life for New Yorkers, including tackling high energy costs, access to housing, quality healthcare and childcare 2. Protecting our lakes - how go our lakes, go our lives 3. Ensuring New York is a backstop against corruption and destruction coming from Washington 4. Use common sense to support local farmers by bridging the gap between progressive state-level environmental/labor goals and the practical, often slim-margin realities of multi-generational family farms.

1. Aggressive grid Modernization and deployment of public renewables 2. Infrastructure climate resilience and nature-based adaptation, including investment in research to combat Harmful Algal Blooms in the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario 3. Climate-smart agriculture and upstate reforestation, including soil health and forage incentives: and afforestation and conservation easements

Ensuring racial and social justice in our state is a complex and interwoven challenge requiring a range of actions. A few examples include:

Social justice means ensuring every New Yorker, regardless of their zip code, race, or background, has a path to financial independence. I will pursue policies that aggressively expand investments in BOCES and trade apprenticeships, work to streamline our state’s MWBE certification process so local minority- and family-owned small businesses can successfully compete for state contracts.

True equity begins with health. We face severe disparities in healthcare access across the 54th District. I will fight to increase state reimbursement rates for our rural healthcare clinics and hospitals, expand mobile mental health response teams, and incentivize medical professionals to practice in underserved areas, ensuring zip code never dictates a family's quality of care.

Michael is deeply experienced and invested in voter rights having studied civic movements in graduate school (writing a thesis on improving youth voter turnout), launched a nonprofit that drove educated voter turnout in Atlanta, and wrote a book about civic engagement. He is troubled by the increasing erosion of electoral access and will fight to ensure voter protections in New York.

It is important to remember that New York already took proactive, bipartisan steps to protect our electorate. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York ensures a robust, independent safeguard against vote dilution and discrimination. We must ensure this law is fully funded and properly administered to ensure our elections remain fair, secure, and entirely under state control.

We must also stand up against gerrymandering and get money out of politics, including taking waste out of New York's well-intended but poorly managed candidate matching fund program.