Nixon: Gov. Cuomo “has decimated our state and its infrastructure”
KINGSTON – Television and film actress Cynthia Nixon was in Kingston Saturday, stumping for her 2018 gubernatorial bid to unseat incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the September Democratic primary. The Citizen Action rally drew several hundred to the Old Dutch Church community room.
Known best for her role in “Sex and the City,” Nixon declared
her candidacy last April, and quickly won the Working Families Party endorsement.
Her politics take a more liberal stand against the mainstream positions
of Governor Cuomo, much like Bernie Sanders did, compared to Hillary Clinton,
during the 2016 presidential election race.
Nixon slammed Cuomo, pulling no punches in her criticism of the two-term New York governor.
“I voted for Cuomo eight years ago. I remembered his dad, and I believed that he was what he said he was – a Democrat. But since taking office, he has governed like a Republican, and given massive amounts of power over to the Republican Party.”
She cited excessive tax cuts and the Independent Democratic Conference, as examples of Cuomo’s wrongdoing. “He has cut $25 billion, cumulatively, out of our state budget. He has decimated our state and its infrastructure, and robbed our cities, towns and rural areas of our most basic services,” Nixon said.
“His two percent austerity budget, in a time of relative prosperity, had been passed on the backs of our children, and our elderly, and our economically disadvantaged – in other words, our most vulnerable,” Nixon said. “I am sick and tired of the corruption and the dysfunction of our New York State government, and I am running, because I am sick and tired of fake corporate Democrats, who won’t lift a finger to make change, unless their donors say it’s okay.”
Vowing to fight for universal health care, education, tenants rights, campaign finance reform, environmentalism, and marijuana legalization, Nixon said she would help pay for reforms with a pollution tax, which she estimates would raise $7 billion. She also promised benefits and driver licenses to undocumented aliens.
Among the local leaders introducing Nixon, were Ulster County Legislator Lynn Eckert, City of Hudson Majority Leader Tiffany Garriga, and Citizen Action member Shalawn Brown. Other attendees included Ulster County Legislature Minority Leader Hector Rodriguez, and former legislator Jennifer Berky.
“It takes a lot of courage and integrity,” Eckert said. “She is running against a guy who is an entrenched politician with a lot of money, who is perfectly comfortable with back-room deal-making, and bullying.”
