Candidates for State Assembly and Senate sit down with Times Review editors

Editors at Times Review asked candidates running for State Assembly and State Senate in Election 2024 for their views on the most important issues of the day.

FOR STATE ASSEMBLY

Republican/Conservative Stephen Kiely

The Mattituck resident is currently the Shelter Island Town Attorney and previously served as an assistant town attorney for Southampton, Southold and Brookhaven. In 2016, he left the Southold position to focus on his private practice. He spent three years as a deputy county clerk for Suffolk County.

This is Mr. Kiely’s fourth run for elected office. In 2018 he lost a bid for Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice. The  following year he mounted a campaign against former Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, but withdrew from the race prior to the election. In 2023, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Southold Town Board.

Affordable housing and development: When Mr. Kiely learned about Gov. Hochul’s (D) New York Housing Compact — a controversial 2023 proposal to build 800,000 new affordable homes and apartments throughout the state over the next decade — he decided to run for state office to fight it. He argued the housing mandate violated “home rule” and, if approved, would exacerbate environmental issues on the East End, by putting pressure on aquifers, disrupting water quality and adding to traffic and congestion problems. The governor’s plan was ultimately scrapped following overwhelming disapproval from Long Island lawmakers. “I don’t believe we have a housing crisis on the East End,” Mr. Kiely said. “We have an affordability crisis … and we can’t build our way out of it.” 

Mr. Kiely said the ideal blueprint State and local officials should use to address the affordability crisis in the region is the Shelter Island Community Housing Plan. He also supports the development of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on residential parcels and re-purposing existing commercial structures for housing rather than creating new developments. 

Open space, environment and water quality: Mr. Kiely wholeheartedly supports the Community Preservation Fund, a key resource on the East End for decades. If elected, Mr. Kiely said he would champion the CPF, but would like to push for 50% of the funds to be used for water quality improvements.

Transportation and road safety: Transportation is essential to local economies, which is why more adequate train service is needed, Mr. Kiely said. If elected, he would advocate for better train service across the East End, and call for better management and increased accountability from the MTA. With traffic accidents and DWI-related incidents on the rise, Mr. Kiely advocates for updating criminal laws to address impaired driving, specifically due to marijuana use. He also believes there is a need for better education and enforcement.

Bail reform and immigration: Touching on the increase in crime he has seen through his work as an attorney, Mr. Kiely argued that New York’s bail reform laws are making communities less safe and need to be either drastically reformed or repealed entirely. With regard to immigration, Mr. Kiely argued that a significant chunk of the State budget is used to fund New York’s sanctuary status, which was created to provide legal protections for asylum seekers. He said the policy needs to be repealed because it primarily benefits “criminal migrants.”

Democrat Tommy John Schiavoni

A retired educator who currently serves as a member of the Southampton Town Board, Mr. Schiavoni was elected to the North Haven Village Board in 2014. Before entering politics, Mr. Schiavoni was a high school social studies teacher for 32 years. He is also a member of a multi-generation family plumbing and heating business in Sag Harbor. Additionally, he was a trustee on the Sag Harbor Board of Education for three years.

If elected to the Assembly, he said, he will commit himself to instilling an “open-door policy” with district constituents to better understand their concerns.

Education: During his teaching career, Mr. Schiavoni recalled going to Albany to lobby for better State funding for public schools. “I patently reject and will not vote for any budget that takes away funding from the schools out here,” Mr. Schiavoni said. 

On the topic of armed school resource officers, which were reintroduced to Riverhead schools this year and are being considered in other districts, Mr. Schiavoni said he believes there is a need for these officers — provided they are properly trained.

“I know there was some talk about arming teachers, which is a bad idea,” Mr. Schiavoni said. “We have more guns in our country than people, over 43,000 Americans died by guns last year alone, which is an incredible amount, and I believe that’s really where we need to be focusing our efforts.”

Open space preservation: Another priority for Mr. Schiavoni, if elected, would be to support open space preservation across the district. As an Assembly member he would continue to champion the CPF initiative, he said.

Water quality and the environment: Mr. Schiavoni believes another key use of the CPF is to protect the region’s drinking water, groundwater and the water quality of local bays, harbors and estuaries, and spoke about the harmful effects of climate change on the Peconic Estuary, the region’s coastlines and Peconic Bay scallops and oyster farming businesses.

“Climate change is real. The only thing that climatologists got wrong out here was the speed at which it’s happening,” Mr. Schiavoni said.

Affordable housing: Mr. Schiavoni discussed the need for more mixed-use housing to address high demand. He supported the Community Housing Fund referendum and is currently working on housing initiatives with his fellow Southampton council members.

He backs the governor’s Pro-Housing Community Program — a policy designed to reward local governments making an effort to address New York’s housing crisis — and agrees that the State should work closely with local officials to develop cohesive housing plans specific to the needs of each municipality.

FOR STATE SENATE

Democrat Sarah Anker

The Mt. Sinai resident has served as a Suffolk County legislator from 2011 until she was term-limited in 2023. She previously worked as the first director of the energy department for Brookhaven Town, where she launched the Green Homes Go Solar program, which she said created enhanced renewable energy opportunities for the town’s 500,000 residents.

Ms. Anker worked with the Mt. Sinai Civic Association, which led her to spearhead creation of the Community Health and Environment Coalition, a nonprofit devoted to combating the region’s historically high cancer rates.

Affordable housing and community development: Ms. Anker spoke about creating more affordable housing opportunities for young working families, including the development of residential and commercial districts near colleges and transportation hubs. “[Gov. Hochul] didn’t have a lot of luck when she was trying to move forward doing more of this type of housing near transportation hubs, because she left out the component of including local government oversight. I love community projects,” she said, “because not only do they enhance the quality of life, they also support the local economy and create safer spaces.”

Climate change and sustainability: Ms. Anker spoke of the need to protect safe drinking water, improve water quality and enhance coastal resiliency across the East End. She noted her role as chair of the Coastal Erosion Advisory Board, a special task force created to combat beach erosion following Super Storm Sandy.

Ms. Anker also called for the release of more data from the State’s Coastal Erosion Hazard Area mapping program, which defines high-risk areas to allow local municipalities to implement effective zoning regulations.

The opioid crisis and public health: Ms. Anker addressed the need for more initiatives to educate youth on the dangers of opioids and the increased risks from fentanyl. She signaled support for Chelsey’s Law, which empowers law enforcement officials to charge drug dealers convicted of selling fentanyl-laced narcotics linked to fatal overdoses with manslaughter.

She further suggested that more funding should be put toward drug enforcement and misuse prevention.“Enough is enough,” Ms. Anker said. “More people have died from the opioid epidemic than the combination of our major world wars. This should not be happening.”

Fiscal spending and government accountability: Ms. Anker expressed her commitment to fiscal responsibility, streamlining government and consolidating departments. She said that when she came to the Legislature, Suffolk County was operating with a $500 million deficit, and when she left office more than a decade later, “We had a surplus with a higher bond rating.” She also pointed to the advantages of serving in the legislative majority when it comes to serving the needs of local constituents.

“The New York State Senate has 63 senators, 41 of those are in the Democratic majority. When you’re in the majority, as I learned as a County legislator, you can get so much done. You can get funding. You can get the resources from the different agencies and departments. I want to do that for our area.” She also noted that on some issues, “I can differentiate myself from my party because I’ve represented a fiscally conservative area, and I can do that in Albany.”

Republican State Sen. Anthony Palumbo

Republican incumbent Sen. Anthony Palumbo is seeking his third term in the State Senate. The New Suffolk resident first won the seat in 2020, replacing Ken La Valle, New York’s longest-serving State representative.

Before his election to the State Senate in 2020, he had served in the State Assembly since 2013. A practicing lawyer, he previously worked as an assistant Suffolk County district attorney before starting a private practice on the North Fork.

Affordability and local control: Mr. Palumbo noted his sponsorship in the senate of the Community Housing Fund, the initiative to add a .5% fee to all home purchases on the East End to support affordable housing development, which was approved by voter referendum in 2022 in all East End Towns except Riverhead.

He also commented on Gov. Hochul’s efforts to mandate the creation of high-density residential development near transportation hubs. “Her proposal did not go over well and never came to be,” Mr. Palumbo said, noting the unified opposition to the proposal from State lawmakers across Long Island. “You can’t preserve all of it,” he said, adding that “when the density is right, the location is right,” individual communities need to make decisions on the best path forward.

Open space and protecting water quality: Mr. Palumbo pointed to the success of the Community Preservation Fund, which he said had so far garnered more than $2.5 billion from area real estate transactions to help East End municipalities preserve open space.

He noted his support for recent amendments to that program allowing up to 20% of those funds to be used for water quality improvements and measures to protect local waterways. “We need to make sure we get both of those programs funded every year,” he said.

Workforce retention and transportation: Mr. Palumbo spoke of the challenges facing many local businesses — including large employers such as hospitals — to retain talent due to the challenges of finding adequate housing in the area.

He highlighted the importance of the LIRR’s South Fork Commuter Connection, which provides added train service from Speonk to Montauk during peak travel times and the need to find ways to expand train service on the North Fork, including electrifying trains east of Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma.

Fiscal responsibility and bipartisan cooperation: Mr. Palumbo pointed to his record of success in getting bills passed in the Legislature. “I think that the amount of bills I pass is more than most members on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “So I think that shows I can get it done when something is a priority.” He added that overspending has historically been a problem, regardless of which party is in the majority. “We have more of a spending problem than a revenue problem,” Mr. Palumbo said. “Our budget is gigantic, larger than Texas and Florida combined, and both states have more people.”

Shelter Island Early Voting 2024

• Saturday, Oct. 26, Sunday, Oct. 27, and Monday, Oct. 28, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Tuesday, Oct. 29, and Wednesday, Oct. 30, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Thursday, Oct. 31, and Friday, Nov. 1, Noon to 8 p.m.

• Saturday, Nov. 2 and Sunday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Early voting takes place at the Community Center