Reformer Running for New York State Senate Promises Change
By Michael Boyajian
Millbrook Democrat Didi Barrett is running for the New York State senate in a Hudson Valley district that includes Dutchess and Columbia counties. She is running against an entrenched incumbent who symbolizes all that is wrong with Albany and she is calling for change.
Didi Barrett felt compelled to run for the senate because of the partisan mess up in Albany. She says “you cannot fix Main Street until you fix State Street.”
Didi wants to bring sustainable jobs to the region helping the 15,000 unemployed workers in the senate district. She begins by saying that farming is the “past, present and future of the Hudson Valley.” The region is also a hotspot for the arts, historical sites and great estates all making for excellent farming, cultural and historical tourism.
She worries about overdevelopment. She calls for “smart development” that does not threaten local communities and especially the region’s pure water supply. Didi also wants to diffuse upstate and downstate tensions believing that politicians too often play up the differences of these two regions for political gain. She is a strong advocate for marriage equality for all New Yorkers.
She has a message for young people calling on them to get involved with the process and become a catalyst for change. This was President Obama’s formula for success in his historic run for the presidency. Didi lives and breathes the Hudson Valley even calling it her favorite travel destination in the entire world.
Didi brings a breath of fresh air to New York State’s insular politics that will surely work to clean up the mess that Albany now finds itself in.
End