This year, voters in the the 110th District have a choice on Tuesday, Nov. 4, between incumbent Phil Steck, a Democrat, or Republican challenger Tom Jasiewicz to represent them in the State Assembly.
Although both candidates based their campaigns on the issues surrounding Common Core, the Safe Act and tax breaks for local businesses, their views on the subjects diverged.
Included are profiles of each candidate and where they stand on certain hot-button issues.
Phil Steck
Albany Academy graduate Phil Steck entered politics in 1999 after getting his diploma from Harvard and earning his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
He spent several years as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan before returning to Colonie. When there was an opening in the county Legislature following a retirement, Steck was asked to step in.
“Obviously I was a government major,” said Steck, “and I felt that rather than being a professor of political science or something of that nature, it would be better to get involved.”
When elections for state Assembly approached in 2012, Steck said he felt the endorsed candidate did not have the community experience for the 110th District that he did.
“I was also looking forward to the challenge. I thought I had done everything I could do in [county] Legislature,” Steck said.
He based his Assembly campaign on the county Legislature policies he felt needed to be fixed at the state level.
Steck is strongly opposed to tax free zones, believing they are unfair to local businesses that have been established in the community. He is also a steadfast supporter of the Safe Act, which he believes will be a leading factor in preventing mass shootings.
“My No. 1 policy has been increasing aid to local schools. … I’m a big believer, as is my father, in public education,” said Steck.
To close the budget gap, teachers were laid off and the state withdrew aid from schools, causing property taxes to rise, Steck said, which is why he fought, and succeeded, to increase state aid to schools.
As for Common Core, a major talking point in recent campaigns, Steck said, “My position hasn’t changed. … I think we’re going to get better achievement if we give our kids more to strive for, but I think that the state has failed to properly implement the curriculum.”
Steck said that a love of learning is what makes a good student.
“What destroys the love of learning is testing,” he said. “Standards are a good idea. The implementation method was abysmal, and the testing has to be abandoned.”
Tom Jasiewicz
Republican Tom Jasiewicz said he is strongly opposed to Common Core and that Steck is wronging residents by not fully opposing the policy.
Jasiewicz has a history in local business as the founder of two technology information companies.
While his college degree is in engineering, he said business was where he wanted to be. In 2006, he sold his first company, Communication Technologies Solution, before opening a second company, Tri-Lateral Technologies, which he still owns.
Jasiewicz entered politics two years ago when schools first implemented Common Core into the curriculum, and he saw his own children struggling.
“I got into politics because my daughter struggled with third grade math. After talking to the school about it, I realized it was something the school couldn’t control and was something at the state level,” Jasiewicz said.
Now, Common Core is a major platform in Jasiewicz’s campaign for Assemblyman. He believes the problem is not with the program’s rollout, but with the state’s standards.
“Obviously I think schools need local control,” said Jasiewicz. “If some schools are struggling, then they should go to schools that are struggling. If it works, then all the schools will want it.”
He pointed to Niskayuna as one of the districts that gets things right.
“Niskayuna has been building itself for decades to be one of the top schools. … What they’re doing in Niskayuna should be what they’re doing everywhere else. That should be the standard. We shouldn’t mess with that,” he said.
Along with Common Core, Jasiewicz’s campaign outlines his disagreement with the Safe Act, stating his belief that the act is “a second amendment issue” and has taken rights away from the public.
“I feel that it was an egregious overstep of our government that they took our freedoms away from us in the middle of the night without debate. The public did not get a voice,” Jasiewicz said. “We the people were trampled in the passing of the law.”
There is one thing, though, Jasiewicz said he and Steck agree on, and that is how tax-free zones were put into effect. Like Steck, Jasiewicz believes the zones are unfair to local businesses, but unlike Steck, he believes businesses should get some kind of break.
