Retired Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, who surprised many with his announcement in June that he was stepping down, previously held the 43rd State Senate seat. If the longtime politician were running again, the race would likely be an open and shut affair, but voters must now choose a successor.
The 43rd District encompasses Rensselaer County and much of Saratoga County, including Clifton Park, Halfmoon, Saratoga Springs, Malta and Milton. Registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats roughly 77,000 to 59,000, with about 20,000 unaffiliated or third party registered voters at last count.
Roy McDonald
Roy McDonald is what some would call the hand-picked successor to Bruno, and the Republican nominee did take the outgoing Senator’s endorsement early on. He will also be appearing on the Independence and Conservative Party lines.
A father of three, he currently resides in the Town of Saratoga. McDonald has a long record of holding elected office, serving as the Town of Wilton Supervisor before being elected to the Assembly in 2002. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Reducing the tax burden on New Yorkers ranks high on McDonald’s priority list. His campaign often points to the fact the Town of Wilton has been without a town tax for two decades, and that under his purview the local economy grew and the number of jobs increased.
He does not present a specific plan for reducing property taxes, however.
In a debate earlier in October, McDonald made much of the upstate/downstate funding disparity, saying, `We have been robbed of our past and our future by the Big Apple.` He insinuated that removing wasteful spending in the city would mean fewer taxes for the rest of New York.
McDonald places special needs education and advancement of autism treatment and research higher on his agenda than most. Two of his grandsons have been diagnosed with autism, and he has worked from his Assembly seat to secure funding for programs and research in the area.
McDonald has presented a plan for restoring economic prosperity to rural areas of the state that would chiefly involve cutting taxes, including a 50 percent cut on the state gas tax, and extending benefits, including boosts in the STAR program, for those in rural zones.
Mike Russo
Mike Russo, like many vying for the Democratic nomination in the 43rd, snuck into the primary at the last moment due to Bruno’s late-breaking announcement. He left his senior post at Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand’s, D-Greenport, office to take a stab at holding office himself. Prior to that, he was an elected union representative.
He resides in Saratoga with his wife, two sons and mother.
Much of Russo’s campaigning has revolved around the need for an outsider at the Capitol to stimulate change and end what he called a `three men in a room` system of government.
`State government is broken,` he said in a debate earlier in October. `It’s not really helping us here.`
He supports a circuit breaker approach to property tax relief, saying that a tax cap would put undue restrictions on schools. Russo has brought up the possibility of reworking the way schools are funded altogether, saying that using income or sales tax should be considered.
In addition, Russo suggests that wasteful government spending must be combated through widespread audits and the elimination of `political appointees` who offer little value at the Capitol.
Job growth is also on his agenda, and Russo argues that the area must set its sights on careers in alternative energy, saying that the area’s schools should make that task easier.
Home heating is a hot topic for Russo, just as it is for his former boss, Gillibrand. He says he helped draft the Home Energy Assistance Program while on her staff, and that it can be used as a tool to decide who should receive emergency heating assistance this winter.
Christopher Consuello
Running on the Working Families Party line is Christopher Consuello, who is employed by the Troy Department of Works. He did not attend any candidate debates, has done no campaigning, is effectively unreachable by phone and is thought by many to be a GOP operative. The Capital District chapter of the Working Families Party is endorsing Russo.“