The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature. Its sixty-three members represent New York State and its more than 19 million citizens. The legislature’s primary purpose is to draft and approve changes to the laws of New York.These changes are driven by complex public policy issues. To effectively represent the will of the people, senators must gain a deep understanding of those issues and how they impact New Yorkers.New York State s 54th Senate District includes parts of Ontario, Wyoming, Monroe, Livingston, and Wayne.
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Experience and Qualifications
Michael has served on Canandaigua City Council and helped pass legislation over the past 30 years at the local, state and federal level as a nonprofit executive and public relations professional. His work includes serving as Executive Director of the Geneva Business Improvement District and President of the Ontario County Chamber
Community Involvement
Michael has volunteered and served on the board of more than 20 nonprofits ranging from breast cancer awareness to youth dropout prevention, and protecting our environment. He also coaches his son's youth hockey team
Education
Master's of Arts in Communications from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Arts from Hobart College. He also received certification from Brown University as an Excutive Leadership and Performance Coach
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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.
