October 19, 2020
From Democrat State Senate Candidate Leslie Danks Burke:
It’s been 19 days since WENY invited Senator Tom O’Mara and Leslie Danks Burke to set up a debate, there has been no response from Senator Tom O’Mara, preventing voters from hearing viewpoints and ideas from the two candidates. There have only been two debates between Senator Tom O’Mara and Leslie Danks Burke this election cycle, a striking departure from the 2016 election where eight debates gave voters across the huge district opportunity to evaluate the candidates.
“Even if he won’t face me in front of a camera, Mr. O’Mara still has to face the voting public with his indefensible record of higher taxes, job loss, and Albany cronyism and corruption. We pay his salary — well one of them anyway, while the other is paid by his corporate clients,” Danks Burke pointed out. “Senator O’Mara was first elected the same year the movie Dodgeball was released, and the phrase is, ‘If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.’ It’s not, ‘If I can dodge my opponent, I can dodge the voters.’ O’Mara’s dodging skills aren’t on par with the Globo Gym of Dodgeball lore, and this district will hold him accountable for why he’s failed to lower taxes, failed to bring in jobs, and is now dodging his own record.”
Leslie Danks Burke is also calling out Senator Tom O’Mara for being part of Albany’s notorious “incumbent protection plan,” wrongly using government resources for self-promotion while trying to restrict overtaxed, fed-up voters’ ability to cast their ballots.
O’Mara has voted to undermine the founding principles of a government by we-the-people, and to jeopardize the health and safety of New Yorkers, by trying to restrict voters’ access to absentee ballots and voting information during the COVID-19 pandemic. He voted against:
• S8783: Authorizing Voters to Request Absentee Ballots
• S8799: Authorizing Ballots to be Postmarked on Election Day
• S5073: Establishing a School Voter Registration Access Program
• S6532: Extending Voter Registration
• S1590: Requiring Candidate and Contest Information to be Posted on the Board of Elections Website
“Now 16 years into falling down on the job, until 2018 in the majority, Mr. O’Mara is now trying to prevent voters from getting to the polls to vote him out instead of fixing his own corruption,” said Danks Burke. “Whether because of COVID-19 or because someone has to work two or three jobs to get by because our Senator couldn’t deliver for our region, it’s un-American to cut off voting and information, and we the people won’t stand for it.”
