The state’s only Independence Party Assembly member says this year’s campaign against Conservative Steve McLaughlin may be a little different because he’s used to being the underdog, but he’s not resting on his laurels.
This will be my fourth campaign, and I was always an underdog, said Assemblyman Tim Gordon. `So not being an underdog is different, but we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re taking it really seriously and doing the right things.`
Gordon, I-Bethlehem, is finishing his first two-year term in the state Assembly after coming from the Bethlehem Town Board, and he is running for re-election on his record in office. He is Bethlehem’s Independence Party chairman and is running on both the Independence and Democratic lines.
Gordon lost his first political race for Bethlehem town supervisor before being elected twice to the Bethlehem Town Board and then to the state Assembly. He said he wants to continue his platform of state reform and wants to help tackle the problems facing New York, such as rising energy costs, costs of living and a statewide population drain.
`I’ve developed a lot of great working relationships with officials and businesses. Now I’m asking the people to recognize that it has been productive for the past two years,` Gordon said. `With the challenges we are facing now, I would ask them to renew my lease and ask for their support because my No. 1 priority is represent them and be their voice in the New York State assembly.`
In his first term, Gordon has authored and sponsored 12 bills that passed both the Assembly and the Senate before being signed into law by the governor. He also penned five other bills that passed the Assembly but did not make it out of the Senate. Among those bills turned into law was a Jonathan’s Law Amendment.
The assemblyman also netted $3 million for the Vista Technology Campus in Bethlehem and an unrestricted $500,000 for the Bethlehem School District.
Gordon is the founder of Albany Media Group, an advertising and public relations firm, and has been a community volunteer for many years. As a firefighter in North Bethlehem, he was awarded the Heroic Effort Award in 2004.
Gordon lives with his wife, Christine, and four children in Slingerlands and is a 1978 Shaker High School graduate and a 1982 SUNY Brockport graduate.
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