Mathylde Frontus is the Assembly Member for District 46. Elected in 2018, Frontus’ legislative focus has primarily centered on community inclusion, mental health support, and issues specific to her district such as caring for the Coney Island Creek. Her campaign issues include an economic mobility COVID-19 recovery plan to assist saving, investing, entrepreneurship, and home ownership, passing ‘Jeanne’s Law’ to address the rise of hit and run accidents, addressing safety concerns and allocating funding for security measures in NYCHA housing, and more. Frontus has sponsored and supported a variety of bills on reform and transparency issues, including bills to further increase early voting days, to create public databases on government spending, and to require local government meetings to be live-streamed and recorded for public access. However, Frontus did oppose two items on the Citizens Union questionnaire: limiting outside compensation of legislators to 25% of their income and moving the state campaign finance matching system to an independent body. In her interview, she clarified that her position on campaign finance has to do with a lack of hard data on best practices – she agrees that the current system ought to be reformed, but she does not believe that the ideal solution is to move the commission outside of the Board of Elections’ jurisdiction. In reference to the recent proposed redistricting amendment, Frontus took issue with the minority party being shut out of the process, although she did vote in favor of the amendment. Citizens Union was impressed by Frontus’ candid manner when discussing the lessons she has learned in her first term in office, particularly regarding her approach to building coalitions and pushing her platform goals in the legislature. Citizens Union found her to be highly knowledgeable regarding the practical functions of the legislature, and and to have a good grasp of the social issues affecting her constituents. For these reasons, as well as her reform record and agenda, Citizens Union endorses Mathylde Frontus in this race.

Mark Szuskiewicz is a financial services representative and an executive producer of a sports talk TV show who is running for Assembly District 46. Szuszkiewicz encourages voters to consider “the person, not the party” and focuses on a few specific goals related to local concerns, namely introducing life skills and financial literacy classes in public schools, expanding after school programs, funding affordable housing with municipal bonds, introducing a drug testing and outpatient addiction treatment program for those applying for government benefits, and limiting the size of overdraft fees charged by banks. Szuskiewicz supports most of Citizens Union’s questionnaire items. He stated his opposition to same day voter registration, because as a former poll coordinator, he believes this would not leave enough time to confirm the voter’s qualifications. He also opposed permanent mayoral control of city schools, although he suggested he may support it if given more information on a governance system. Additionally, he advocates for introducing a form of voter ID, which he says would facilitate voting for people with limited English proficiency. Citizens Union found Szuszkiewicz to be engaging and knowledgeable about the practicalities of his own campaign goals, and appreciates his ongoing interest in government reform.