Traveling back in time to 2014, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R) of Upstate New York’s North Country region made so many lofty promises in her commercials that year during her first campaign, as she pledged to be a “fresh voice” for this area by supporting equal pay for women, creating jobs, and stating numerous times that legislators should be held accountable and not act as though they’re above the laws themselves. In addition, Stefanik also pledged transparency by promising to provide a traveling mobile office to promptly address concerns from constituents across the massive, sprawling district which stretches from the Saratoga Springs area to the Canadian border and from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario.
Fast forward three and a half years later, did Congresswoman Stefanik actually follow through with any of her promises or commitments? (After conducting extensive research, for the most part, the answer is no.)
1.) Equal Pay for Women
During her first campaign in 2014, Elise Stefanik sounded like a big champion for women’s causes, stating multiple times throughout commercials and debates that she would actually buck the national Republican Party platform which she helped to draft in 2012, and be a voice in support of equal pay for women. Since being elected to Congress, though, Stefanik has actually voted twice in favor of two pieces of legislation that had clauses blocking any consideration of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would mandate pay equity for women (HR 189, 4/14/15, HR 200, 4/15/15).
Not exactly the champion of women that she claimed to be.
2.) Creating Jobs and Spurring Economic Development In The North Country
Elise Stefanik also promised during her first campaign to spur job growth and “create economic opportunity” across the North Country. But if you go for a drive around the struggling small farms of Washington County and the Champlain Valley outside of Ticonderoga, or take a stroll through the many former industrialized towns that dot the North Country, such as Fort Edward, Hudson Falls and Gloversville, it’s quite obvious that almost nothing has changed for the better since November 4, 2014, the day Elise Stefanik was elected and the Republicans took total control of Congress. In fact, in many places things only appear to be going downhill and getting worse since Stefanik and the GOP have been in power. Jefferson County (Watertown), the most heavily populated county that is entirely encompassed within the 21st Congressional District, experienced the second-highest population decline in the United States from 2015 to 2016. In addition, according to Census Bureau statistics, 11 out of the 12 counties within the 21st District have seen population loss from 2010 through 2016, and the trend only continued and accelerated throughout 2014 through 2016 after Stefanik took office. From 2015 through 2016, during Stefanik’s first term, Warren and Saratoga Counties were the only two North Country counties that didn’t lose population, and the bulk of the portion of Saratoga County that saw population gains were the northern Albany suburbs that lie in Democrat Paul Tonko’s neighboring district.
But perhaps, most importantly, the bulk of the North Country region has continued to see a steady erosion of jobs and a continued loss of major industries for the last couple of years since Stefanik was elected to office. Since 2015, Alcoa’s remaining aluminum operations in Massena (St. Lawrence County) have had multiple rounds of layoffs and General Electric has closed its Fort Edward capacitor plant, which had operated in that community for more than 70 years. In April of 2016, Volvo Group’s Nova Bus/Prevost plant in Plattsburgh had a major round of layoffs, and the Climax packaging facility in Lowville (Lewis County) closed its doors forever. According to data from the New York State Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the combined counties within the 21st Congressional District had the highest unemployment rate in the entire state in November 2017, as well as throughout the entire Northeastern U.S. during that same month.
How many more years (or decades) can we really afford to give Elise Stefanik and the congressional Republicans their magical chance to create new “economic opportunities” in the North Country, when it’s quite clear that so far what they’ve done so far hasn’t exactly worked? To me, it seems pretty obvious that Stefanik and the GOP have had their time in power, there have been almost no results, and now we need to try something new. Most of us just don’t have the time to sit around and wait for the rest of our lives hoping that Elise Stefanik can dream up another new magical economic experiment as we continue to see things deteriorate around us.
3.) Members of Congress Should Have To Live By The Laws Themselves
For the last couple of years, Elise Stefanik has continued to insist that members of Congress should have to live by the rules themselves and are not above the law. But has she exactly been practicing what she’s preaching? Since her first campaign in 2014, Stefanik faced extensive criticism from her one-time rivals (Democrats Mike Derrick and Aaron Woolf, as well as Republican Matt Doheny) for residing full-time at a Washington D.C. townhouse and not actually living, renting or owning property in the 21st District or anywhere else in the State of New York. For those of you who don’t know, Stefanik continues to claim her “residency” at her parents’ vacation home at Willsboro Point on Lake Champlain in Essex County, which lies directly across the lake from Burlington, Vermont.
According to New York State Ballot Access Laws, in order to be eligible to run for Congress in the State of New York, although you don’t have to actually physically reside in the district that you’re running for, you do have to be a full-time resident of New York State at the time you are elected to be eligible to serve in office.
And perhaps this begs another question; why should we continue to hand over so much power and control over our lives to an individual that has absolutely no tangible commitment or vested interest in this region’s economy or wellbeing? (If Elise Stefanik and her husband, Matt Manda, want to live and raise a family in Washington D.C., then she should find an office to run for in Washington D.C.)
Furthermore, Daily Kos diarist jmcaldaro has stated on numerous occasions that back in 2014 during the Republican primary, Elise Stefanik ignored election laws and campaigned actively on-site at a polling place in Milton, outside of Saratoga Springs, even after she was repeatedly asked to leave by local election officials:
Elise Stefanik is a self centered person who is out for herself and no one else. Here is a little incident from her first campaign that I witnessed. In Milton, NY there is a voting place where 8-10 districts are voting in the same facility. She shows up with TV cameras and at first talks to voters. Then she starts electioneering. My wife, who is an election official who was working at the facility, let her know this was not allowed and she had to exit the premises. Although perturbed she does but only outside the door. She continues the electioneering with TV cameras rolling. My wife again lets her know that this is not allowed and shows her the 100ft position that is marked indicating there is no electioneering any closer to the voting facility.
She does not do open town halls. She makes sure that she will not be confronted by people who do not agree with her voting record. She is someone who has not spent a lot of time in the district prior to her becoming the representative. I hope there is a major challenge to her in 2018!
4.) Promoting Transparency By Providing a Traveling, Mobile Office and Posting an Online Schedule of All Major Events and Activities
Elise Stefanik also continually insisted back in 2014 that she would be a “transparent” representative, promising to conduct regular traveling mobile office sessions throughout the enormous district in order to provide area residents with the ability to easily address their concerns with her. Did she actually follow through? Only temporarily during her first term.
For the most part, it now seems like Stefanik’s whole concept of providing mobile office sessions was basically nothing more than just a ceremonial gesture to get elected. To make matters even worse, Democratic congressional candidate Don Boyajian stated recently on a diary here at the Daily Kos that Elise Stefanik didn’t hold a single in-person town hall meeting during the entire year of 2017. Not one. By comparison, every other congressperson from this region held at least one town hall meeting last year, including Paul Tonko (D-Albany area), Claudia Tenney (R-Utica area), John Faso (R-Hudson Valley), and Peter Welch (D-Burlington, VT).
On multiple occassions, Stefanik even threatened peaceful activists that were demonstrating outside of her offices with law enforcement. The activists were largely protesting her continued refusal to hold town hall meetings and her lack of any visible presence in the district.
It’s also been revealed that Elise Stefanik has also somewhat wavered on her initial commitment to maintaining an online schedule of the events and activities that she holds that are related to her office. According to a recent tweet from NY21Watchdog, Stefanik often waits until as many as two weeks after the events have already occurred to post them to her online schedule. Wouldn’t true transparency be to let us know ahead of time about the events that she’s planning to hold?
In addition, there’s also plenty of reason to speculate that because Elise Stefanik is not legally required to maintain an online schedule that she may actually be omitting certain events from the schedule that she has no interest in letting the public ever become aware of. I’ll give you a perfect example; Elise Stefanik held a fundraiser at the Saratoga National Golf Course in Saratoga Springs on Friday, March 3, 2017 with disgraced former Congressman John Sweeney (R). Nowhere was that event listed on her schedule for that week. Perhaps it would have been nice if we could have known who else was in attendance at that fundraiser besides Sweeney. It almost makes you wonder how many other events, fundraisers and potential meetings with lobbyists or operatives that she hasn’t been posting to her schedule over the past few years.
In addition, Stefanik often uses very vague terminology to describe some of the events on her schedule. For instance, when Elise Stefanik held an event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Lake Placid on Thursday, February 9, 2017, which gathered protesters, she only described the event as a “Staff Planning Session in Lake Placid, NY.” One could only guess as to what Stefanik was doing at a “Staff Planning Session.”
Click here to donate to the ActBlue Congressional Fund for New York’s 21st Congressional District.