Candidate for District 61 wants to help reform Albany

There are too many Republican votes in the State Senate that are holding back important reforms that will move New York forward and Joan Elizabeth Seamans would like to replace one of them.

She's got her eye on the District 61 seat currently occupied by Michael Ranzenhofer.

"It is time that we (Democrats) get another vote in that Senate so we can have sensible laws and things that benefit our community," Seamans told a group of activist women gathered for a political workshop at the Dibble Family Center in Batavia.

"We have high taxes. It's a Republican problem and I'm going to tell you why. As long as we keep having corporate welfare and sending money downstate to luxury developers and not investing in our people we have a problem."

Seamans said she is one of nine children from her family and that they grew up poor. At 13, she had to start earning her own money to buy clothes for school. She has been in business for herself her whole life and has served in various political and civic groups.

The issues she raised today included early voting, the opioid epidemic, health care (she favors single payer), criminal justice reform, and bail reform.

She said New York needs sensible gun laws and criticized Ranzenhofer for voting against bipartisan legislation that would bar people convicted of domestic violence from possessing guns.

"This is is what sensible gun reform is," she said, "yet my opponent voted against this legislation. His no vote is obscene and demonstrates a voting record that is not only out of touch but it is anti-woman."

The biggest reform Albany must tackle, she said, is campaign finance, particularly the LLC loophole, which enables large donors to establish multiple limited liability corporations to make donations to political candidates at the $60,000 limit for each.

She said a "luxury developer" downstate has donated $100,000 to Ranzenhofer.

"That corporation has received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks," she said, and then added, "This is why we need campaign finance reform, because we have corporations supporting candidates who give tax breaks to the wealthiest down state when we when we need those resources back here in Western New York."