For Immediate Release
April 15, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org   @cpnys

Statement by New York State  Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar

Brooklyn, – NY – “The New York State Conservative Party condemns in the strongest possible terms efforts to expand the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 13 members.

“In attempting to pack the court — a political impulse 75 consecutive Congresses have resisted — progressive Democrats are fiddling with the lock of a Pandora’s Box. If the Democrats succeed, what’s to stop Republicans from further expanding the court to 17 members when they next regain power? What’s to then stop Democrats from going to 21?

“The Supreme Court was never intended to be the plaything of temporary partisan passions, and it should not be now for the benefit of either party. Its role is to interpret the constitutionality of our laws, not advance shortsighted political agendas. We urge level-headed members of Congress from all political backgrounds to stop this ill-conceived bill dead in its tracks. It’s bad for America.

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For Immediate Release
April 6, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org  @cpnys

Statement by State Chairman Gerard Kassar on the NYS Budget

Brooklyn, NY – The democratic-controlled NYS Legislature, along with Governor Andrew Cuomo, are on the verge of passing an historically high spending document that increases spending and taxes to the highest levels ever in New York State.  These significant increases will impact all New Yorker’s, especially New York’s working families.

New York’s proposed budget has gone from bad to unsustainable, while the progressive-left cheers and says it will help working families in New York State.  Nothing could be further from reality.

New York’s working families need jobs to be able to keep working; by adopting new increased taxes on those who are wealthy and on corporations, NYS Government is encouraging an even greater exodus from New York by those who can leave and forcing corporations to escape to states that are tax-friendly, thereby taking New York jobs with them.

New York’s poor fiscal management, by the supermajority of democratic elected officials, is a flawed and erroneous way to uphold their oath to those who put them in office.  Shame on them.

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For Immediate Release
April 1, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys

 Statement from New York State Conservative  Party Chairman Gerard Kassar

“There’s an old admonition about crooked politicians: ‘watch the hands not the mouth.’ It’s exactly what we should be doing with Mr. Cuomo.”  

Brooklyn, NY – “It’s not Mr. Cuomo’s greed for power that we’re learning about now, it’s his greed for cold-hard-cash at the expense of the very people who elected him. Last night’s damning New York Times exposé, revealing that Mr. Cuomo sought and likely received up to $4 million for his book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” confirms what the Conservative Party has long suggested — Gov. Cuomo, using state employees, appears to have buried inconvenient facts about nursing home deaths to publish a book and become a wealthy man. His actions demand additional criminal inquiry.

“There’s an old admonition about crooked politicians: ‘watch the hands not the mouth.’ It’s exactly what we should be doing with Mr. Cuomo.”

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For Immediate Release
March 30, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org   @cpnys

Statement from New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar

Brooklyn, NY – “To say New York is going to pot may be the understatement of the decade. Today’s legislation to create the ‘New York Office of Cannabis Management’ sounds like a bad joke. If only it were funny.

“Democrats in Albany, led by scandal-scarred Gov. Andrew Cuomo, know that legalizing recreational marijuana will come at significant human cost, but all they seem to care about is more tax revenue. Their indifference to human suffering is unconscionable.

“Study after study has shown that marijuana use among teens — make no mistake about it, teen use will go up — can cause significant psychological damage and lead to use of even more dangerous drugs. We also know that traffic injuries and fatalities will increase because of stoned drivers on our roads, and a percentage of first-time marijuana users will become addicts.

“We also know from other states that black-market drug sales actually increase after legalization, and those illicit drug pipelines often include counterfeit prescription pills and deadly narcotics like heroin and fentanyl. The cost of treating the addictions that will ensue from this legislation will likely cost far more than any revenue it would generate. Indeed, for every $1 of tax revenue in alcohol and tobacco tax revenues, society loses $10 in social costs according to SAM-Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

“Mark Twain said the darnedest thing: It’s easier to keep out of something than to get out of something. He was, of course, right, and Twain’s advice is our advice to the New York State Legislature. Keep out of the drug business. It will not end well.”

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Legislative Memo issued to the full NYS Legislature

For Immediate Release
March 25, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys

STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR 

“Governing is About Serving the Public, Not Yourself”

“The aggravating news about Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t letting up.

“Now we learn that New York’s chief executive arranged special privileges for family members and close colleagues in the early days of Covid testing — around the time he was penning a book on Covid leadership (after cooking the books on nursing home deaths under his watch) that has reportedly reaped him more than one million dollars.

“When we hear about arrogance in government — when we hear about naked abuses of power — these are the types of things we are talking about.

“That arrogance, in Mr. Cuomo’s case, has seemingly extended itself into predatory sexual behavior against random New Yorkers and members of his own staff.

“Albany, we have a problem.”

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For Immediate Release
March 15, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org  @cpnys

Despite Infusion of Washington’s Cash; Democrats in NYS Plan Nearly $7 Billion in New Taxes on New Yorkers                                                 Statement by Chairman Gerard Kassar

 Brooklyn, NY — The Democrat controlled New York State Legislature, despite the infusion of fresh federal aid to NY ($12.6 B directly to state coffers) is poised to pass one-house bills that include a massive tax increase on businessmen and the wealthy; a 22.6% increase in spending over last year; 10.5% more than Governor Cuomo’s proposal.

Increasing the taxes on businesses and the wealthy will only further the exodus that has steadily increased over the past 10 years.  New York state cannot afford any additional losses.  This impractical plan will end up costing every New Yorker.  Spending is the problem.  If these Bills are enacted, the Democratic-controlled Legislature is shouting that New York is closed for business and encouraging New Yorkers to move to a state where they have better control over the money they earn.

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For Immediate Release
March 12, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys

STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR

“Lt. Governor Hochul Should Be Included in All Key State Matters to Ensure Continuity of Government”

Brooklyn, NY – “Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as governor could abruptly come to an end, and it’s critically important that Lt. Governor Kathleen Hochul be fully immersed in all state government matters, down to the granular level, in case such an eventuality takes place. Continuity of government in the midst of significant challenges must be ensured. That doesn’t appear to be the case today, based on the Lt. Governor’s public schedule.

“Lt. Governor Hochul should immediately and significantly be included in the state budget negotiations with Senate and Assembly leadership, Covid vaccine rollout planning, federal relief negotiations with the Biden Administration, and other core state operations. Governor Cuomo, whose position as governor appears untenable, should make that happen today. The state must be fully ready for whatever comes next.”

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For Immediate Release
March 5, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys

CONSERVATIVE PARTY CALLS FOR RELEASE OF ALL COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN CROWN PUBLISHING AND GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, HIS AGENTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION

Brooklyn – March 5…The New York State Conservative Party today called for the immediate release of communications between Crown Publishing, Governor Andrew Cuomo, his agents, and members of his administration leading up to the publication of Mr. Cuomo’s New York Times best-seller book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” (Oct. 2020, Crown.)

The core premise of “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” was Mr. Cuomo’s purported successful management of Covid-19 in New York State. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are now reporting that Mr. Cuomo and members of his administration altered an official New York State Department of Health report to falsely embellish Mr. Cuomo’s image as an efficacious governor in the depths of a public health crises at the very same time that Mr. Cuomo was negotiating his book deal.

“Today’s news reports raise an obvious question: Would Crown Publishing have invested in Governor Cuomo’s book had they known the full extent of the nursing home deaths caused by the governor’s misguided policies?,” asked Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar. “And did Governor Cuomo and members of his administration work to bury the true numbers in an effort to seal the book deal? The public needs answers to these questions, and the governor and Crown can begin by releasing the communications between them.”

The Conservative Party has previously asked Governor Cuomo to make immediately public the profits he received from his book, and questioned whether the facts Mr. Cuomo concealed fostered a false narrative required for the book’s publishing. Governor Cuomo has refused to address these questions.

“If the truth had been known about the nursing home deaths in the autumn of 2020, it’s hard to believe that Crown would have moved forward with ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic’” Mr. Kassar continued. “So the question remains: Did Governor Cuomo hide the true nursing home death toll for personal financial benefit, and, if so, exactly how much money did he make from that lie? The public deserves to know.”

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For Immediate Release
March 4, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org  @cpnys

NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY: ‘FOR THE POLITICIANS ACT’ MUST BE DEFEATED IN THE SENATE
Omnibus Democrat Incumbency Protection Bill (HR1/S1) Would Inhibit Free Speech; Partisanize the FEC; Create Welfare-for-Politicians 
“Anyway You Look At This Bill It Screams ‘Big Brother.’”  

Brooklyn – March 4…The New York State Conservative Party today called on members of the U.S Senate to defeat overreaching and unconstitutional legislation pushed through the House of Representatives in a razor thin party-line vote on Wednesday that would usurp the sacrosanct rights of states to control their elections processes, force taxpayers to assume the costs of congressional elections, and strip Americans of their right to confidentiality in furthering political speech, among other things.

“HR1/S1 isn’t about protecting the rights of voters,” Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said, “it’s about seizing control of our time-tested state election processes to benefit the Democratic Party. This massive federal overreach would politically weaponize the Federal Election Commission (FEC), a traditionally bipartisan commission, and force taxpayers to pay for the re-elections of career politicians. It would further discourage Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights by abolishing privacy laws that protect them from the left’s pernicious cancel culture tactics. Anyway you look at this bill it screams ‘Big Brother.’”

Provisions in the massive HR1/S1 bill include:

• Forcing taxpayers to subsidize congressional campaigns;
• Changing the FEC from a six-member, bipartisan commission into a partisan five-member commission controlled by a sitting President and unilaterally capable of creating new regulations without the input of Congress;
• Compelling individuals to disclose what causes they support, subjecting them to potential harassment and thereby reducing political speech;
• Forcing not-for-profits, issue advocacy groups, and organizations they support to publicly declare whether they support or oppose any candidate that appears in their materials, and
• Dramatically increasing the cost of online political speech — aka suppressing it — by eliminating the FEC’s longstanding internet exemption.

“Every time the Democrats seize power in Washington, they attempt a massive federal overreach,” Chairman Kassar continued. “This time they are going after free speech itself — our nation’s First Amendment rights — and the American people will not stand for it. This cynically misnamed omnibus bill, the so-called ‘For the People Act’ is anything but. The proper title for this legislation should be the “For the Politicians Act’, and it must be summarily rejected in the Senate.”

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For Immediate Release
February 23, 2021
Contact:  Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys

 Statement by New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar  “The public deserves to know now how much Gov. Cuomo profited from best-selling COVID-19 book.” 

Brooklyn, NY – “‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (Crown, 2o20), Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (semi-fictional) New York Times best-seller, presumably made the governor a tidy profit. The public deserves to know the exact amount now, as questions about his handling of COVID-19 are squarely in the public eye.

“To profit from such a human catastrophe in the first place — after potentially fatal mistakes were made by him and his administration — raises significant questions about Mr. Cuomo’s judgement. He should report how much he made at the first possible opportunity to the people who gave him his job.

“The governor is currently delaying release of the profit figure until May, when his next financial disclosure statement is due. That’s not good enough. The man who once promised to be the most transparent governor in history needs to be transparent now.”

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