Assemblyman Miller challenged by McEvoy in 101st District
Republican state Assemblyman Brian Miller is being challenged by Democrat Chad McEvoy in his bid for reelection in New York’s 101st Assembly District.
Miller, 59, will run on the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform party lines during the Nov. 6 election.
McEvoy, 44, will be on the Democratic, Working Families, and Women’s Equality party lines.
The winner will serve a two-year term.
The long, narrow 101st Assembly District stretches from Oneida to Orange counties and includes the towns of Andes in Delaware County and Hardenburgh, Denning, Wawarsing, and Shawangunk in Ulster County.
A New Hartford resident, Miller is seeking his second term in the Assembly. He received an associate’s degree in drafting technology in 1979 from Mohawk Valley Community College and served eight years as Bridgewater town supervisor and 16 years as an Oneida County legislator. Miller is married and has three children.
Miller said his priorities include ethics reform, repealing the state SAFE Act, repairing and maintaining infrastructure, school safety, and providing alternate pathways to a high school diploma.
Miller said he sponsored the Public Officers Accountability Act, which would put a term limit on committee chairs and legislative leaders, as well as make failure to report corruption a crime, and prevent lawmakers from using campaign donations for legal defense. He said he also supports legislation enacting term limits for all lawmakers and legislation to bring greater transparency to the governor’s process for awarding billions of dollars in lumpsum, state economic development funds.
“In general, I support any measure that brings greater transparency to the operations of the state Legislature, especially budget negotiations, specifically ending the ‘three-men-in-aroom’ scenario,” Miller said in a statement.
Miller said the SAFE Act only punishes law-abiding firearms owners and he supports a full repeal of the measure in Upstate New York, allowing New York City to keep the law. He also said upkeep of local roads is imperative to keeping the economy running. Additionally, Miller said he supports measures that include metal detectors in all schools and school resource officers patrolling hallways. He also said he supports programs that would allow students to gain experience in the trades, and gain apprenticeships in their chosen field.
A Westford resident, McEvoy is a software project manager for SUNY Oneonta. He earned a master’s degree in international public policy from John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 2009. McEvoy is married.
McEvoy said his priorities include improving infrastructure, providing a single-payer health care system, and reforming voting rights in New York. He has also said in a New York Times opinion piece that he would work to get rid of the 101st Assembly District in its current form because it is “a monstrosity of gerrymandering that disenfranchises voters and weakens representative democracy in upstate New York.”
McEvoy said improving rural access to the internet and cell phone service is critical to the economic development of upstate New York. He said the lack of such services is also a public safety issue.
“Companies that are given monopoly status should not be able to cherry-pick their customers while ignoring those in less densely populated areas,” McEvoy said in a statement. McEvoy said the state also needs to preemptively address infrastructure needs, such as water systems, roads, and bridges, to avoid costly problems in the future.
McEvoy also said a single-payer health care system would increase access and provide better outcomes while reducing costs and creating jobs. He also said he supports reforming voting rights to include automatic voter registration, early voting, mail-in voting, and the end of gerrymandering.