POUGHKEEPSIE – Karen Smythe made it official; she is taking another stab at the State Senate post in the 41st district.
The race is Democrat Smythe’s second attempt to unseat incumbent Republican Susan Serino. The 2018 race was the Democrat’s first foray into politics and out of the approximate 118,000 votes cast, newcomer Smythe came within less than 700 votes of victory.
Smythe has vowed to run on the same issues that voters embraced in 2018 including job growth, the environment, women’s rights, and education.
Smythe’s experience as a business owner has provided insight to the need for jobs that pay a “living wage.” She believes there are a number of important issues that need to be addressed.
“One is education, making sure we have equitable education funding from the state. I also think it is economic development. It is making sure we are doing things that we need to do to mitigate the issues with climate change and that we also working towards expanding access to health care.”
That sentiment was echoed by Dutchess County Democratic Committee Vice-chair Michael Dupree, who said that Smythe has developed “an aggressive plan to bring sustainable wages here – jobs that you can actually raise a family, build a life, and put down roots.”
Smythe’s first run for office benefitted from a groundswell of volunteers and supporters that worked diligently in an effort to send the Democrat to Albany. Dupree is confident that the near success of 2018’s race has built momentum among the party faithful, leading to additional support for the upcoming race.
“Because of the close race last time, even more people are interested in helping on the new campaign,” said Dupree. Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D, Newburgh) attended the campaign launch and was excited about Smythe’s commitment to run again. Asked about the importance of getting Smythe elected, Jacobson said, “To have a state senator that shares my values, from Dutchess County, will go a long ways towards accomplishing our agenda.” Jacobson’s district includes the cities of Beacon and Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County.
Smythe told the audience that the campaign will once again call to create a more equitable distribution of state funding for education. In addition to developing a more balanced funding stream, Smythe is taking issue with testing requirements for students. She supports reducing test burdens and allowing parents to opt children out of certain common core standards. She staunchly believes that student test scores should be decoupled from teacher evaluations so that teachers can teach students, and not teach to the test. Smythe also pledged to fight to bring more technical trade skills to our classrooms, because “one size doesn’t fit all” – and students deserve the option to follow different pathways to success.
The 41st senate district encompasses a majority of Dutchess County and a portion of Putnam County.
