Letter to the editor Jane Schanberg

The Ulster County legislature had a tantrum on December 18 when they voted to override County Executive Mike Hein’s veto of a term limits referendum bill.


Speaking in favor of the singular and historic override, the bill’s sponsor, Republican-turned-Democrat Legislator Joseph Maloney (Saugerties), accused Hein of “fear mongering” and said he found Hein’s reasons for the veto “scary” and was sorry this issue “wasn’t written about.”


The issues around this bill have indeed been written about. I am writing about it now after explaining my strong objections during public comments before the Legislature in July (when it was tabled) and publicly urging Mr. Hein to veto it in September, when it passed by a slim margin. I was joined in my opposition by representatives from the highly respected League of Women voters among others.

Then and now, I feel this bill has been tainted by the initial sponsorship of Reclaim NY — a fake-non-partisan group whose president and treasurer is listed on the group’s website as Rebekah Mercer, and whose secretary is her sister Jennifer Mercer. Both women are members of the far-right Mercer family whose financial activism brought us Cambridge Analytica, former Presidential strategist Steve Bannon in the White House, and the alt-right, pro-white supremacist, anti-semitic Breitbart News.

The Mercer Family are leading proponents of dark money in politics.


I also feel obligated to call out misrepresentations by Legislator Maloney who outrageously characterized Reclaim NY in his December 18 remarks to the Legislature as “some not-for-profit Libertarian group out there that apparently likes term limits.”


Mr. Maloney does not appear to have a working relationship with Google.


As an informed voter, I twice voiced my opposition to this bill in front of the Legislature, which chose to ignore multiple public comments. In contrast, Legislator Maloney complained about the veto: “One man said no.” Indeed he did. That’s Hein’s job. The Executive doesn’t work for the legislature. He works for us. And he listened to what we had to say.


Perhaps the most scary element of this issue is Legislator Maloney’s role and his relationship with Reclaim NY which had invited their supporters to a June 19 [sic] dinner in Kingston with sponsor Maloney as the principal speaker. That invitation asked members to “Join Reclaim New York Initiative and legislation sponsor Leg. Joe Maloney for a discussion on why the term limits bill should be passed, and how you can help ensure it is approved. Dinner will be served. We will go to the public hearing directly following dinner.”


When the bill was hurriedly tabled in July, Mr. Maloney assured his fellow Democrats that he didn’t know much about Reclaim NY and only learned of his association with it during a late-night call from his mother.


But seriously: what group issues an invitation to a dinner with a keynote speaker who has not agreed in advance to appear? Or, perhaps the dog ate Mr. Maloney’s invitation.


Sadly, the Legislature has decided to ignore the tainted history of the bill. So now they and the County Executive will spar over the legality of the override, which appears to clash with the Municipal Home Rule Law in the NYS Constitution.


Such a fight will surely cost taxpayer money and could have been avoided if the legislature simply listened to those of us who took time and effort to express our opposition instead of trying to manipulate our interests for their purposes.


Ironically Legislator Dave Donaldson (D-Kingston), who seconded the override motion, confessed to his fellow lawmakers following the successful vote that “we have term limits each time we run and can be easily voted out of office” — exactly why I and others believe a referendum was, and is, unnecessary.


That makes the legislature’s actions suspect. Why didn’t they simply pass a local law and avoid an unnecessary public and legal fight? This smells much like an inside baseball power play masquerading as a principled stand.



Jane Schanberg
Publishing history:

New Paltz Times

"Loser's Sabotage" letter to the editor Tom Denton

Loser’s Sabotage

            Donald Trump has been the lead actor in our national tragicomedy of the past two years, but his theatrics have stolen attention from what might be an even more corrosive attack on our country.  Trump will pass, but the Republican party’s assault on American democracy has been grinding away for years, and its brutal reality is staring us in the face, post-November election.  With the Supreme Court in 2013 setting the stage with its evisceration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the GOP has conjured the bogeyman of fraudulent voting to justify voter purges, strict new voter ID laws, and other measures to make voting more difficult.  The theft of Merrick Garland’s seat in 2016 sealed the deal.

            How have Republicans responded after their resounding November defeats?  GOP legislatures in Wisconsin and Michigan are using their lame duck sessions to quack very loudly.  Having been thumped at the ballot box, including their governor’s races, members have passed legislation that will severely handicap their new Democratic governors’ ability to move forward with the platforms on which they ran and won.  “Sore losers” and “sour grapes” don’t adequately describe the Republicans’ actions.  These saboteurs are asserting a new method of attacking voting rights:  ignore the results of elections; in fact, taunt voters by claiming a superior legitimacy over the electoral process. 

            Can they get away with it?  Perhaps worst of all, they’ve practically assured that when positions are reversed and Democrats have full control, the GOP will get the same treatment.  When norms codified by custom rather than statute are dismantled, we fall into a cycle of eroding democracy.  Eventually, one side, unshackled, will show us the face of an authoritarian American state.  It will be embodied in a leader more efficient than Trump.

publishing history:

New Paltz Times 12/20/18

Poughkeepsie Journal 12/20/18