Tim Gordon is going back to the state Assembly for another two years after besting Republican challenger Steve McLaughlin on Election Day.
Gordon, who is the state’s only Independence Party assemblyman and Bethlehem’s Independence Party chairman, got 34,289 votes to McLaughlin’s 22,610 votes. Gordon, who is finishing up his first term in office, campaigned on his record and said there was more work to be done with his Democratic caucus.
I feel the people have given me a mandate for the next two years, Gordon said. `We won by 12,000 votes, I consider to be significant.`
On McLaughlin’s first run for public office, he netted roughly 40 percent of the vote. McLaughlin said he was proud of his campaign, which he ran on very little money.
His campaign was highly critical of Gordon, citing taxpayer waste and the dysfunctional Democratic Assembly majority that Gordon sided with. But it wasn’t enough to sway the majority of voters in a district that covers four counties and was the former seat of Republican Pat Casale, who endorsed McLaughlin.
`Public corruption has run rampant in state government in recent years. Both former Gov. (Eliot) Spitzer and former state Comptroller (Alan) Hevesi had to resign in disgrace because of their actions, along with a slew of Democrat assemblymen. These are Assemblyman Tim Gordon’s colleagues, and he has done nothing to stop the habitual corruption from reoccurring,` McLaughlin said while campaigning in October.
McLaughlin campaigned to ease the burden of skyrocketing property taxes through a tax cap, eliminating backdoor borrowing, putting an end to unfunded mandates that drive up the cost of local taxes and make health care more accessible and affordable to businesses and residents.
When asked about the 40 percent of the voters who picked McLaughlin, Gordon responded, `My job is to represent everyone in the district so it really doesn’t matter.`
The state Assembly will remain heavily Democratic, but for the first time since 1964, the state Senate will shift to a Democratic majority, which will give New York a Democratic governor and legislature, which is a first since the Great Depression.
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 first-term assemblyman also authored a bill to allow non-residential electricity producers to use a meter on their wind power to sell back to the grid and netted $3 million for the Vista Technology Campus in Bethlehem as well as an unrestricted $500,000 for the Bethlehem School District.
Now that the Senate has a new Democratic majority, bills penned in the Assembly by Gordon and his Democratic colleagues have a much better chance of passing the other house.
`As we introduce new legislation, we’ll be seeking to partner with senators in the majority,` Gordon said. `We will also be looking to re-introduce a number of bills from last year.`
State Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, is now the only ranking majority senator in Gordon’s district, compared to the three Republican senators in the 108th District, which contains Columbia, Rensselaer, Greene and Albany counties.
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.
He 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.
`During the next two years, we’ve got to fight to bring relief to homeowners who are being crushed by property taxes,` Gordon said. `And we have to prepare for the transition to energy independence.`
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