Jo Anne Simon has represented this Assembly District for the past ten years, and now faces her first primary challenger. She serves as chair of the Committee on Ethics and Guidance and the Legislative Ethics Commission. Before entering politics, Simon founded a disability civil rights law firm in Downtown Brooklyn. She has a long record in advocating for voting rights, government and police transparency, and has authored important reform legislation, including bills to close the LLC loophole (passed in 2019), move NYPD disciplinary hearings to OATH, and limit last-minute changes to the location of poll sites. However, Simon differed from CU on several issues. She opposed replacing the current Legislative Ethics Commission – which she co-chairs – with an independent ethics agency, was against removing the map-making power from the legislature, and defended the campaign finance bill passed by the legislature last year, which CU strongly opposed. During her interview, Citizens Union was impressed by Simon’s knowledge of the issues and the clarity of thought put into her objections, which often included support for broader reform issues even when the details did not align with Citizens Union’s proposals. Citizens Union encourages Simon to reconsider her positions on these issues, but given her record and effectiveness as a legislator, and the years of skillful service for her district, we prefer her in this race.

Scott Budow is an associate at Kauff McGuire & Margolis’ Labor and Employment Group. Born and raised in New York City, he had previously been a union organizer and Adjunct Law Professor at Fordham. Budow supported all of CU’s questionnaire policy items, and his campaign also proposes to restore the vote for incarcerated individuals, move to an open primary system, and give the CCRB more power to investigate misconduct within the police department. Citizens Union was impressed by Budow’s in-depth, detailed responses and his understanding of local and state government, and we encourage him to remain in electoral politics.