Our Tough Choice In New York's 42nd State Senate District

A corrupt Democrat, a Republican who lies compulsively, and a political unknown walk into a bar ...

Hi. Just a short post today. There’s a lot of stories that need follow-ups and I can’t do that and write long essays like this one.

I’ll be back tomorrow (or Friday) with actual reporting. But for now, let’s talk briefly about the 2024 New York State Senate race between Dorey Houle, Tim Mitts (maybe!), and the incumbent, State Senator Skoufis.

Mr. Mitts is running for the Conservative ballot line.

This is a huge deal, because the previous 2022 showdown between Senator Skoufis and Dorey Houle was decided by 1,170 votes.

5,004 votes for Dorey Houle came from the Conservative Ballot line.

So, if Mitts knocks Dorey off the Conservative Ballot line on June 25th, when the primary is held, she stands no chance of defeating Skoufis during the general election in November.

Of course, Dorey is now suing to block Mr. Mitts from getting on the upcoming primary ballot. The Orange County Conservative Party does not support Mr. Mitt’s campaign, having already endorsed Mrs. Houle months ago. So, they’re not happy with this situation to put it mildly. I’ve reached out to them for comment.

Dorey previously sued the Orange County Board of Elections to prevent absentee ballots from being counted during her senate campaign in 2022.

Keep in mind, we were still in pandemic mode in 2022, so there were A LOT of absentee ballots / mail-in ballots sent in 2022.

Houle continues to lie to the public at every possible opportunity about virtually everything. It’s almost like a compulsion. (She also, unsurprisingly, refuses to answer any questions from the media about those lies and other claims, instead telling her supporters that the media is out to get her.)

And I just gotta say, at least as far as The Monroe Gazette is concerned, if we’re out to get anyone, it ain’t Dorey.

So, you can imagine my frustration when I have a recording of Mrs. Houle telling me she’s happy to answer any questions I have and then proceeds not to do so.

ce la vie.

But here’s the problem …

Let’s put Mr. Mitts and Mrs. Houle aside for a moment.

Senator Skoufis isn’t someone any of us should be jumping up and down about.

If you live in South Blooming Grove, aside from writing an angry letter to the Attorney General over the sale of Mayor Kalaj’s home, he’s been mostly invisible. For example, a surrogate spoke for him during the recent DEC hearings for Clovewood, not the Senator himself.

You figure with something so important as Clovewood to the Orange County region, he’d be on that call.

I’d argue that Clovewood’s approval by the DEC, if it were to happen, would be the biggest thing to happen to New York’s 42nd District.

So, you figure he’d be way, way louder on the issue. But that hasn’t been the case.

Instead, it’s like the bare minimum.

The Senator has also absolutely refused to answer questions concerning whether or not the committee he chairs, The Investigations and Government Operations Committee, has the power to investigator Attorney General Letitia James’s lack of action concerning obvious and verifiable crimes committed by Keen Equities LLC.

The answer is, yes, the committee can investigate the AG’s dereliction of duty, but the Senator will not act.

The Senator has also received at least $30,000 from people directly connected to Keen Equities, including Joel Stern and Isaak Ekstein. The founders of a local hate group, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, suing the Washingtonville School District.

If you live in Woodbury, Senator Skoufis made a whole lot of noise about pushing Simon Property Group to pay for a train station at Woodbury Common, but then suddenly went quiet on the topic.

Now that Woodbury Common is looking to expand, he is nowhere to be seen.

In fact, he’s actively pushing for policies that would harm New York State’s ability to raise the $277M it needs to make the Port Jervis line useful.

MTA Representative Joanna Flores told me that $140M of that $277M would come from funds generated via the Congestion Tax.

But Skoufis is obstructing the Congestion Tax and not identifying alternative measures to fund those upgrades.

Given that Simon Property Group just announced a $2B stock buy back program, it’s fair to say they have more than enough to fund a train station as part of their expansion. And it’s something they can do without the need for the congestion tax money.

Now. Before anyone freaks out and says it’s crazy to make a private company pay for an MTA station, you should know it happens more than you think.

When the new arena was built for the New York Islanders, UBS Arena, the Arena paid for the new train station there.

At one point, the Woodbury Common train station was estimated to be about $20M.

The MTA’s Mrs. Flores told me, after I asked if it was possible to figure out how much the train station at Woodbury Common would cost in 2024 dollars …

The LIRR Elmont-UBS Arena station is the most recent commuter railroad station built -- $0 paid for by the MTA, and a total construction of cost of $105 million which was paid for mostly by the arena and with the remainder filled in by the State of New York. However, this price tag of $105 million also includes some track work and other work as it was a part of the LIRR’s Third Track project, so it is not a good indicator of what a station project would cost.

She added:

Additionally, the station features two 12-car-long, high-level platforms with canopies, a snow melting system embedded in the concrete of the platforms and a wide pedestrian overpass designed to accommodate large crowds and two elevators, one for each platform. You can read more about the station in this release. This type of design may not be necessary for the station [Woodbury Common] in question. This is definitely out of my realm of expertise so I can’t really say that it is or isn’t but worth pointing out for consideration.

So, I’d like to ask you all: Where is the senator on pushing Simon Property Group to pay for the train station we badly need to reduce the congestion created by the commons?

He’s nowhere to be found.

He’s just doing the bare minimum, like most Democrats. And that’s sad to say as a Democrat. But it’s the truth.

These days, most Democrats try to coast by on issues because their opponents are mostly crazy.

Put another way, when your opponent is Dorey Houle, it’s easy to look like a genius.

Because that means your choices in November are:

A. A political unknown with baggage of his own.

B. A Republican that’s a compulsive liar.

C. A Democrat who’s corrupt and looking to do the minimum.

If we even stand the *slightest* chance against Hanhallh … This is not the field of candidates we need.

And that’s a huge problem for everyone who lives in New York’s 42nd State Senate District.