Race for 37th Senate District seat illustrates sharp differences

In his opening statement, Mr. Murtha noted he is not a politician, saying his background is in psychology, education and business. “I have a doctorate from SUNY Buffalo in counseling psychology and for the last two decades I specialized working with psychology of personal finance,” he said. He claimed being trained as a psychologist teaches one to listen with empathy, which he called a valuable framework for representing constituents. “My priorities are simple,” he said, “Your safety. Your wallet. And your kids’ education.”

Ms. Mayer spoke about her record of accomplishment in Albany, noting for the last four years she has chaired the state Senate Education Committee. She said under her leadership, funding was finally delivered to every school district in the state; that she has worked to combat gun violence, address flooding and climate change, and expand voting rights; ensure an economy with good jobs; and protect the right to abortion. 

While the candidates agreed on a number of issues, their responses revealed some fundamental philosophical differences. 

Asked to name the one thing they most wanted to accomplish as elected representatives, the candidates highlighted different priorities.

Ms. Mayer again stressed her role as chair of the education committee, saying she wants to continue to fight for the education of every child, “and that is the full panoply of what education means, from child care to full-day pre-K to quality education including mental health services, arts, music, after school, and moving on to post 12th grade education.” She said there were changes needed post-COVID, and she was committed to “working with every teacher, superintendent, and every parent to achieve a result that is worth the investment we are making. We are putting lots of money in, but we need to make sure that we are both hearing from people in the field and delivering real results.”

Mr. Murtha took a different approach. “I would focus on public safety,” he said. “And I think that Albany has taken their eye off the ball on this issue.” He spoke about a friend who owns a hardware store, who “has never seen shoplifting and crime like this in his life.” Mr. Murtha placed the blame on cashless bail, which he described as “releasing dangerous criminals and creating a revolving door of crime.” He asked, “If people don’t feel safe leaving their home, going to the store, doing the basic things, what kind of quality of life do you have?” He maintained that fear over public safety is “one of the issues that are driving people out of the state in record numbers.”

Ms. Mayer said in rebuttal that the two candidates could have a longer discussion about “the changes we made in bail and discovery to reflect fundamental inequities in the system that were based on wealth,” and noting that lawmakers have made two substantive changes, including addressing shoplifting in the bail law. “But to simply say the bail law changes that we made for nonviolent and low-level crimes is the cause of all the crime that we clearly have a problem with, is inaccurate and does not make sense.”

Addressing the economy and high inflation, both candidates agreed inflation was an international problem. Ms. Mayer pointed to efforts made by the state legislature to reduce impacts of higher prices, such as approving a gas tax holiday and raising exemptions for property taxes. Mr. Murtha said he would like to make the gas tax holiday permanent. To get people to stay in Westchester, he added, “We do have to come up with solutions to reduce taxes and the cost of living.”

One question not raised in other LWV forums asked the candidates how they would vote on the state constitution Equal Rights Amendment, “which adds ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex — including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression — to the list of classes protected against discrimination.” The measure completed its first passage in the legislature this summer.

Mr. Murtha said the bill “does not do what it purports to,” he said. He called it “a very radical overhaul of the way our legal system works and our relationship with the government.” He said while diversity, equity and inclusion are important principles, “when it comes to the law, we need to have a different standard” that should be “equality before the law.” He added, while the state amendment intends to protect against only intentional discrimination, “if you assume an outcome is evidence of discrimination de facto, then you basically radically overhauled a relationship with the government.”

Ms. Meyer said she strongly disagreed with his position. She said, “I was a proud co-sponsor of this amendment which passed the legislature once, needs to pass again and go to the people for a vote. She said New York has to protect the right to an abortion, because, though that was done in the Reproductive Health Act, “a different legislature and perhaps a different governor … could change what is in the law. But the Constitution is the ultimate protection.”

Mr. Murtha responded, “I don’t remember seeing the word abortion in the bill.” He called it “a rather cynical attempt on people on the other side of the aisle to frighten people to believe their rights are under attack, using something that is very emotional.” 

The candidates were asked about the role of the legislature in addressing the phenomenon of mass shootings and what measures they would support. 

Mr. Murtha disputed the premise, saying mass shootings get the most headlines, but are not the most harmful in terms of everyday impact. “Most shootings are gang related and tend to involve mental illness and addiction,” he said, “so, you know, there are common sense things we can do,” such as “appropriate background checks.” He said his focus was gun violence on the streets of New York City and people getting assaulted on the subway or on their way to the subway.

“I respectfully think my opponent has totally missed the boat,” said Ms. Mayer. “There is a crisis of gun violence. We saw people shot in a supermarket in the middle of the day in Buffalo,” she said, “not in our district but in our state,” noting the person was under 21 with a semiautomatic rifle. She also referenced the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and said, “We have a responsibility as elected officials, not just what happens in our district and legitimate concerns about crime in New York City and elsewhere. We have to tackle gun violence and we have done a very good job.” After citing actions the legislature had taken on guns, Ms. Mayer noted, “unfortunately the Supreme Court struck down the concealed carry law in New York that has been in place for 100 years.” 

Mr. Murtha used another rebuttal, saying, “I'm not missing the boat. The incident in Buffalo is tragic, and we have people shot every day in Westchester or New York City and it’s much closer to home and not getting the attention and affecting our people every day when they go in and out of the city.  If she wants to focus on Uvalde, Texas and other states that is fine; my focus is on the people who live in District 37.” 

A related question asked about the role of state government in reducing crime, particularly in urban settings. Mr. Murtha repeated his strong criticisms of cashless bail, which he argued has caused great harm. “When you release violent people over and over again, they are going to do bad things,” he said. “I think that we have promoted a culture of lawlessness frankly.”

Ms. Mayer concurred that people are legitimately concerned about the New York City subway, which she called “a problem in and of itself,” and commended the mayor and governor for allocating additional money for overtime. She said she supporting adding plainclothes officers in the subway, as well as additional resources for those who are mentally ill and live in the subway. But, she said, bail “somehow has become the whipping child of all forms of increased criminal activity,” and again said she had supported two significant changes dealing with repeat offenders. “I think we should make additional changes in restoring certain crimes to a list that a judge can not only set bail, but remand, which is really the issue.” She cited her endorsements from “every major police union in Westchester as well as at the state level,” and said, “I insist that the police be part of the conversation,” as well as court administration and district attorneys. Another question that drew out distinct differences addressed shortages in affordable child care. Mr. Murtha initially said he did not have a lot of thoughts on the matter, but wanted to give families and both parents an opportunity to get in the workforce, and “earn a better living so they can bring in the income to lead a better life.” He said he would be supportive “particularly in the case of people who have very disadvantaged homes” and single parents, “subsidizing types of child care and that includes pre-K education.” However, he added, “I want to be careful about this issue though, because if you look at the research on this, the research is very mixed and there is actually a real downside to child care.” He said, as someone with a background in psychology, there are “a lot of studies that indicate that child care at an early age is something that leads to poor outcomes in terms of aggression and anxiety later in life.”

Ms. Mayer immediately disagreed. “I’ve been fighting on this issue since the 1980s and I take issue with this theory that child care leads to aggression, or whatever the data that my opponent wants to cite,” she said, noting that working parents, particularly working mothers, both during COVID and post-COVID, “without affordable, accessible, high quality child care they simply cannot go to work, and they need to.” She said the legislature had invested $7 billion over four years to expand child care, including providing those who work in child care “a living wage and a wage that reflects the value of their work.” Ms. Mayer said she will “continue to be a champion for child care, because honestly, child care in the rest of the world is a given.”

A final question asked about the most important political lesson to be learned from the past two years. Mr. Murtha said it was the need for balance in the legislature. He noted that Republicans used to hold a majority in the state Senate, “and that was really, really important because it helped add some moderation to the legislature. It helped dull some of the sharper edges. It mitigated more extreme policies.” He said when the Republican majority became a super minority, “we lost all checks, balances and accountability for our government.” Mr. Murtha contended that his view was nonpartisan, urging the need for “guardrails” to keep policy from veering too far in either direction. 

Ms. Mayer chose to rebut Mr. Murtha’s remarks before providing her own answer. “Let’s talk about what happened when the Republicans were in charge of the Senate,” she said. “The Reproductive Health Act, simply moving the right to abortion from the penal law to the public health law, was blocked. Marriage equality, blocked. The ability to expand voting to have early voting, to have absentee voting, blocked.” She cited climate change legislation that was blocked as well. “So, I don’t think they were a bulwark against extremism,” she said. “They were a block against good progressive legislation.”

Answering the question that was posed, Ms. Mayer turned to the state’s response on COVID-19, saying, “We need to remind ourselves that it was a period of unknown science, and people were doing the best they could, particularly in government, relying on scientists that had the expertise and the judgment that we felt confident with.” She said the state government relied largely on the CDC, and she and others did not always agree with everything, but she understood decisions were made in good faith, not for evil purposes. 

“A lesson to be learned in my opinion is that people turned their frustration and understandable upset with the length of the virus and the length of the COVID shut down to become uglier, angrier, intolerant, less empathetic of those who are older, those who are sicker, those who needed additional care, those for whom we should put aside our own views sometimes to make sure they are safe."