Senator Stewart-Cousins Bid for Re-election Is Not Quite Uncontested
Andrea Stewart Cousins is seeking re-election to the 35th NYS Senate District seat, representing Greenburgh, Scarsdale, most of White Plains, New Rochelle, and Yonkers, where she resides. She was first elected to the state senate in 2006. In December 2012 she was elected to serve as Leader of the Senate Democratic Conference, becoming the first female leader of a legislative conference in New York State history.
During the 2014 election Senator Stewart-Cousins is running on the Democratic, Working Families and Independence party lines. While she has a challenger, Robert Lopez Foti, endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties, he has been absent during the campaign giving the appearance that Stewart-Cousins is running uncontested.
With a long history of fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised, Stewart-Cousins is an advocate for the health and equality of women in New York State. Two important steps she intends to follow through on after the election include passage of the entire 10-point Women’s Equality Act and ensuring Paid Family Leave becomes law in New York State.
“The unfortunate reality is that women’s lives in our state are much different than men: women make 70 cents to the dollar that a man makes and are more likely to be victims of domestic violence or face gender discrimination,” Stewart-Cousins says.
Promoting the economy, increasing jobs and the environment are other key issues on the Senator’s agenda. “I am completely for a moratorium on fracking until scientifically it is proven one way or the other that it is or is not safe,” she said.
This year, the Senate Democratic Conference led by Senator Stewart-Cousins introduced and advocated reform of New York’s Ethics Laws. Stewart-Cousins says she does not believe in term limits. “Voters know how to vote,” she explained. “I want to ensure that they all get a chance to vote.” Having once lost an election by a mere 18 votes, Stewart-Cousins said she is very aware of the value of each vote cast.
“We have to be respectful of and responsible with how we spend tax dollars. I support regional symmetry and balance in the state and relationships between government and the private sector when it is necessary,” she concludes.
“I served on the governor’s Mandate Relief Task Force and sponsored legislation for municipalities to share services,” she said at a recent candidates debate in White Plains. “We made this part of New York State Policy to help lower taxes. I don’t understand why school taxes have to be the exclusive burden of property owners. We are all benefitting from our school systems,” she said, adding: “We have to look for ways to get people to share services and incentivize it.”
The Senator voted for a five-year plan to implement universal pre-kindergarten throughout the state. Stewart-Cousins also recognizes the constraints placed on school districts by the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and fought this year for $602 million of GEA restorations. Moving forward, she is committed to continue chipping away at the GEA until it is fully eliminated.
Deeply distressed with the implementation of the Common Core this year, Stewart-Cousins says she recognizes the need for change and voted on reforms to the Common Core implementation including limiting the amount of time spent on testing and the number of tests administered to students. She also fought and voted for a moratorium on the Common Core testing component of teacher evaluations. She also voted to protect student privacy by prohibiting private contractors from harvesting mass student data.
