SENATE DISTRICT 11
DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY
No Preference
Tony Avella – Dem
Candidate has returned a questionnaire
Age: 66
Occupation: New York State Senator Education: Hunter College, B.A.
Tony Avella was elected to the state Senate in 2010, after serving in the New York City Council for nine years. His top priorities are to pass legislation to protect the environment, reform the tax code, ethics and election laws, and reestablishing a school zone speed camera program in New York City. Avella supports most of Citizens Union’s issues, but he has reservations about permanent mayoral control of city schools, automatic and election day voter registration, and opposes making police disciplinary records publicly accessible. He supports a public campaign finance system at the state level and greater transparency in the state budget process. Citizens Union does not support Sen. Avella in this race because of his opposition to several good government reforms.
John Liu – Dem
Candidate Has returned a questionnaire
Age: 51
Occupation: Former New York City Comptroller Education: Binghamton University, B.S.
John Liu was the New York City Comptroller from 2010-2013, served in the New York City Council prior to that, and is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Liu’s priorities are to pursue educational equity and fair funding, pass the Reproductive Health Act, spur job creation and wage growth, and provide high-quality constituent services. Liu supports Citizens Union’s entire reform agenda. He spoke to Citizens Union emphatically about the need to repeal Civil Rights Law, Section 50-a, to ensure greater police accountability, as well as for campaign finance reform and restricting legislators’ outside income. Citizens Union commends John Liu’s previous good work in government, but issues no preference in this race because of the campaign finance misconduct of his 2013 mayoral campaign.
REPUBLICAN PARTY PRIMARY
No Preference
Simon Minching – Rep
Candidate has returned a questionnaire
Age: 31
Occupation: Business Development at Palantir Technologies Education: St. John’s University, B.A.; University of Chicago, M.P.P.
Simon Minching works in business development for Palantir Technologies, a big data analytics company. His top priorities are property tax reform, investing in early childhood education programs, making higher education applications anonymous, clarifying laws on public corruption, and enacting term limits. Minching is opposed to a number of Citizens Union’s goals including limiting legislator’s outside compensation, allowing election day voter registration, automatically reenfranchising New Yorkers on parole, repealing Civil Rights Law, Section 50-a, and reforming the state Board of Elections. Minching supports closing the LLC loophole for campaign contributions and a number of other voting reforms. Citizens Union does not support Minching in this race because of his opposition to a number of key reforms.
Vickie Paladino – Rep
Candidate has returned a questionnaire
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired Small Business Owner Education: High School
Vickie Paladino is a retired small business owner of thirty years. She told Citizens Union that her top priorities are to protect her community from the actions of what she views as a hostile city administration and radical Democratic policies. She supports lowering taxes and reducing regulations on small businesses. While Paladino supported some of Citizens Union’s ethics reforms she opposed almost the entire voting, campaign finance, and police reform agenda. In an interview with Citizens Union, Paladino expressed support for term limits and increased transparency in government. Like her opponent, Vickie Paladino oppose a large number of important reforms to state government and Citizens Union has no preference in this race.