Senate Candidate Launches Campaign of New Ideas
By Michael Boyajian
Didi Barrett will make it official as she declares her candidacy against State Senator Stephen Saland in the Hudson Valley’s 41st Senate District on this sunny Wednesday in April.
She made her decision after an extensive six week listening tour that took her from one end of the district to the other. She heard voters voice their embarrassment over the antics in Albany, anxieties over jobs, frustration with schools and anger over taxes. As a long term resident of the district she can certainly relate to the problems facing voters in the area.
At the start of her tour she declared her support for same sex marriage in direct opposition to Saland who has stated that he opposes the measure on religious grounds to which Ron Zacchi of Marriage Equality NY responded, “We are seeking civil ceremonies, not religious ones.”
I once walked into a district library and standing over the reference desk was a larger than life portrait of Saland reminiscent of some long gone Soviet era super hero of the Politburo. He is not much of a hero to gays living in the district who just want to marry their loving partner and live life the way married heterosexual couples do. Gays are not only denied their equal right to marital bliss but they are also denied up to 1,300 rights that heterosexual couples freely enjoy.
Rumors continue to fly about Saland’s desire to retire from the senate leaving many to wonder if he will complete his term if he should happen to win the election. No easy task with an anti-incumbent electorate this year.
Didi Barrett brings fresh new ideas to the table that shine a spotlight on the secretive ways of the old guard in the senate. Many people hope she can ride these ideas to victory this November.
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