By Morrisville State College Journalism Students
Editor’s note: This piece was submitted by Imani Hall on behalf of the Morrisville State College Journalism Program students. Co-Publisher Martha E. Conway is working for the Salka campaign; therefore, the staff of the Courier asked the Journalism Department at Morrisville State College to interview for endorsement the candidates for New York’s 121st Assembly District. We agreed to relinquish our control of the editorial content of Our Voice for this purpose; however, Hall wrote that the students “…chose not to endorse anybody. Instead we decided to write about both candidates. We concluded that the interviews we conducted didn’t provide us with enough to endorse one candidate over another.” The Courier offered to extend the deadline to allow students to make follow-up calls to candidates Bill Magee and John Salka; however, Marti Cecilia Howell-Collins, Ph.D., advising the group responded, “The students asked me prior to the interviews if they were required to endorse one candidate or the other. I told them they did not have to render an endorsement if they, in good conscience, could not make a reasoned argument to support one over the other. Given the time restraints on this project, I feel the students did as thorough a job as possible.”
(Morrisville, NY -Oct. 2014) Assemblyman Bill Magee will find himself competing for reelection to the 121st Assembly District this November. His competition this year is Republican John Salka, former vice president of the Madison County Board of Health. Magee attended Mohawk Valley Community college in 1980 and attended Utica College to study biology.
“I know what it’s like to work in factories, I know what it’s like to run my own business,” Salka said, when asked why he’s the right candidate for the office. “There are many things that I had the fortunate opportunity in my life to experience, and I can take those experiences to Albany.”
Salka also made clear that he knows his opponent, Magee, has lots of experience.
“You can’t get in with the same kind of experience obviously that my opponent has—he’s been in public office now for 44 years,” Salka said.
Magee has indeed been in public office for many years. Before his time as an assemblyman, he attended Cornell University and served on the Madison County Board of Supervisors for 19 years. When asked about a plan to cut taxes in New York, Magee said he has one, though it is not a new one.
“I’ve worked on it before this pass year,” he said. “We’ve passed budgets that filled deficit gaps and that cut taxes.”
If elected, Salka also has plans of his own to lower taxes for New Yorkers.
“New York state has the highest taxes in the country,” Salka said.
“I would work very, very hard on any issue that I have influence over to lower people’s cost of living,” he added.
Magee and Salka may have different amounts of experience and different methods for carrying out their plans for Madison County, yet they do share some views. When asked about the SAFE Act, the gun-control law passed in New York in 2013 as a response to the Sandy Hooks shooting, both candidates expressed distaste.
“You see signs with people that say ‘repeal’ and I support that idea 100 percent,” Magee said.
“I voted against the safe act by the way,” he added.
Salka thinks the law is unfair to people who legally obtain and own guns.
“What it does is it applies laws to law-abiding firearms owners and puts them in a very precarious position on whether or not they want to comply with this law,” Salka said. “We need to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have guns.”
Both candidates also share a commitment to their community. They are both passionate about accurately representing the people within their district.
“I work hard to represent the people,” Magee said.
“I try to do things according to what the majority of my district would,” he added.
Salka expressed his desire to represent his community entirely, as well.
“The best experience is having been there, and having done that,” Salka said. “I will take that enthusiasm and compassion about the people that I represent to Albany and I will fight tirelessly for these people.”
Polls will open for the 121th Assembly District Nov. 4.
Authors’ note: All quotes are attributed to interviews taken by students in the Morrisville State College Journalism Program.