46th District senator faces challenge
Republican Amedore, seeking third term, up against Democrat Strong next week
Republican state Sen. George Amedore is being challenged in his re-election bid by Democrat Pat Courtney Strong in New York’s 46th District.
Amedore, 49, will appear on the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform lines in the Nov. 6 election. Strong, 63, will appear on the Democratic, Working Families and Women’s Equality lines. The winner will serve a two-year term.
The 46th Senate District includes part of Ulster County, all of Greene and Montgomery counties, and part of Albany and Schenectady counties. In Ulster County, the district includes the city of Kingston and the towns of Saugerties, Woodstock, Hurley, Kingston, Ulster, Marbletown, Esopus and Lloyd.
Amedore is seeking his third term in the Senate and previously served in the state Assembly from 2007 through 2012. A 1987 graduate of Schalmont High School, the Rotterdam resident is the second-generation owner of Amedore Homes, a home-building company. He is married and has three adult children.
Amedore said issues that deserve priority in the district in-
clude education funding, the property tax burden, developing a skilled workforce and continuing to address the opioid epidemic.
“The property tax burden is crushing our families, seniors and small businesses,” Amedore said in a prepared statement. “While the [property] tax cap has been successful, we need to couple it with significant mandate relief to reduce the crushing tax burden.”
Amedore said that, as a senator, he has been able to deliver “record school aid funding” and that fully funding public education would continue to be a top priority. He also said employers in the area have been faced with a lack of workers.
“We need to invest in more vocational education and job-training opportunities to develop a skilled workforce and match them with employers in their own communities,” Amedore said.
He also said he wants to build on what he already has accomplished to help people struggling with addiction and make sure there is adequate prevention, treatment and recovery services, as well as enforcement.
Strong, a Kingston resident, is an environmental consultant and owner of Courtney Strong Inc. In the early 1990s, she worked as a district coordinator for state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston.
Strong received a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in 1977. Strong is married and has five adult children and one grandson.
Among her priorities, if elected, are to ensure fair and equitable funding for rural and urban schools, and holding the line on taxes and providing mandate relief, Strong said.
“We need our fair share of Foundation Aid from New York state,” she said in a prepared statement. She added that the state must hold the line on taxes, especially property taxes, which she said are overburdening seniors.
Regarding mandate relief, Strong said the state should consolidate the federal and state primaries to save counties money and decouple teacher evaluations from student performance to return local control to schools.
Strong said she also would fight for universal, affordable health care by working to pass the New York Health Act and would fight climate change by passing the Climate and Community Protection Act, which would require accountability from polluters.
She also said New York should codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, because New York’s statute is out of date. If the high court ruling is overturned, there needs to be a fully protective state law in place, Strong said.
Strong additionally said she favors voting reform, starting with early voting, and would bring ethics reform to Albany by starting with the passage of a bill that closes the limited liability corporation loophole.
“A limited liability corporation can funnel dark money into politics because donors can remain anonymous if they donate through an LLC,” she said.
Strong also said the state should pass a “red flag” law, which would allow for the temporary removal of firearms from someone who is deemed to be under duress.