“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it”-Ronald Reagan
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR ON SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARIES
March 4, 2020
Brooklyn, NY — “Tuesday was a super day for President Donald Trump who’s watching the American political left devour itself.
“The latest narrative Democrats have been trying to sell — a socialist vs. moderate primary — couldn’t be more false or desperate: There are no more moderates in today’s Democratic Party leadership; Joe Biden’s radical plans are just as reckless as Bernie Sanders’. Either of the candidates would drive the American economy off a cliff, and each of them would raise taxes, reduce our individual liberties, and massively expand the size of the federal government.
“The clear winner on Tuesday was President Donald Trump. The Democratic Party is spinning out of control.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.comStatement from Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Shooting of NYPD Officers
February 9, 2020
“Elected leaders who fire up crowds with anti-police rhetoric in the name of ‘progressivism’ may as well have armed accused cop shooter Robert Williams. They have created a dangerous hair-trigger environment for anti-police crackpots, and shouldn’t act surprised when shootings like these occur. We pray for the officers wounded this weekend — and for serious reflection from those stirring the rage. There’s nothing progressive about blind hatred.”
TOO UNSAFE FOR GLOBAL ENTRY PROGRAMS, THANKS TO NEW ‘PROGRESSIVE’ LAW
Conservative Party Calls for Restoration of Common Sense, Urgent Fix
New York-Feb. 6…Global Entry and other Trusted Travel programs, including NEXUS, SENTRI, and FAST, can no longer be used by New Yorkers or New York businesses, thanks to the new, pro-illegal-immigrant “Green Light Law” passed by the Democrat-controlled State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The New York State Conservative Party today demanded immediate repeal of the law, which gives New York driver licenses to illegal immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security yesterday announced its suspension of renewals and enrollments for New Yorkers using or seeking to use these expedited entry programs.
“Liberalism is one thing, but this is madness,” State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said. “Thousands of New Yorkers were killed by terrorists a blink of an eye ago, and New York’s political leaders are proactively making our citizenry less safe. Governor Cuomo needs to view this Department of Homeland Security decision as a jarring wake-up call, and get busy restoring common sense security measures in our identification document and reporting systems. This is a matter of public safety.”
The 19 9/11 terrorists obtained dozens of state-issued driver licenses in advance of the attacks to help them operate freely and unnoticed on U.S. soil. Those licenses were used for, among things, the wiring of funds internationally and the Florida flight lessons that taught them how to pilot the planes.
Following the attacks, a major national effort was undertaken, culminating in the federal Real ID Act of 2005, to establish minimum security protocols for state-issued licenses. These biometric and other safeguards were developed to ensure that a license holder is who he says he is.
“The ‘Green Light Law’ flies in the face of two decades of homeland security efforts,” Mr. Kassar said, “and it makes New Yorkers more vulnerable. The Department of Homeland Security clearly agrees.”
For Immediate Release
February 5, 2020
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ACQUITTAL
February 5, 2020
“After wasting millions of dollars on a senseless show trial to divide the nation even further for political gain, Democrats in Congress have predictably come up empty. We congratulate President Trump on his acquittal today, and urge all in Washington to get back to work. These past three months have been nothing but a waste of time and money.”
For Immediate Release
February 4, 2020
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
Statement from New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar
February 4, 2020
“President Donald Trump again delivered in his State of the Union Address because he has a great story to tell. This is a President who has kept his word to the American People – to put us first and above all other things – and his unquestionable accomplishments on our behalf are resonating throughout the economy and American spirit. America is, indeed, first again. With the nonsense of last week’s Democratic Party meltdown behind us, President Trump has a clear and deserved path to reelection. The New York State Conservative Party is proud to stand by his side.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2020
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
PRESIDENT TRUMP, VICE PRESIDENT PENCE UNANIMOUSLY ENDORSED BY NYS CONSERVATIVE PARTY’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
New York-Jan. 29…The executive committee of the New York State Conservative Party has unanimously endorsed President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for re-election, it announced today. The endorsement follows a vote this week of the Party’s Executive Committee which met at the 53rd Annual Conservative Party conference, held this year in Latham, NY.
“President Trump and Vice President Pence are keeping the promises they made to the American People, and our party is proud to endorse each of them for re-election,” said State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar. “Candidate Trump promised that America would start winning again, and indeed it is, with one of the greatest economic expansions in history, a successful and overdo trade show-down with China, and with the virtual eradication of ISIS, the most pernicious threat in the world when Mr. Trump was elected. We are also delighted with his steadfast support of Israel, our chief democratic ally in a region of considerable strategic importance. President Trump has shown that ‘America First’ was not just a campaign pledge, it is a governing philosophy that the Conservative Party has long championed.”
President Trump personally called Chairman Kassar earlier this month to ask about the Conservative Party endorsement, demonstrating just how hands-on this President can be. Chairman Kassar ensured the President that no call was necessary. The Party stands firmly behind him.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.comSenator Daphne Jordan, Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay Join Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar at Budget Reform News Conference
CALL FOR SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO A STATE BUDGET PROCESS GONE OFF-KILTER DURING ANDREW CUOMO YEARS
Latham, NY – Jan. 27…Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay (R,C,I,Ref-Pulaski), State Senator Daphne Jordan (R,C,I,Ref-Halfmoon), and New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar today called for substantial reforms to the New York State budget process which has been significantly perverted under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s three terms in the Executive Chamber.
The Senator, Assembly Leader, and Chairman called for immediate consideration of two powerful legislative reform measures that would: a. protect taxpayers against ever-escalating tax increases; b. safeguard the traditional budget process, and c. guarantee the proper parsing of legislative items that don’t belong in budget bills. Governor Cuomo has made folding legislative initiatives into budget bills to avoid debate and maximize leverage over state legislators, who must vote up or down on massive budget bills, his signature governing tactic, however inappropriate.
“Once again, Governor Cuomo is misusing the budget process to push through radical legislation that might never see the light of day through regular legislative processes,” Senator Jordan said. “The Executive Chambers’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ position smacks of an authoritarianism that has no place in a constitutional democracy. These bills would restore spending and budgetary sanity to a state in desperate need of both.”
“New York’s budget process has been hijacked to serve as a vehicle for policy initiatives
that rightfully should be debated during regular legislative sessions,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R, C – Pulaski) said. “These initiatives can have a significant impact on the lives of New Yorkers and they must be vetted by the State Legislature, as they were intended to be, one bill at a time.”
“There are three branches of State government — not two — but you wouldn’t know it the way Governor Cuomo has been running roughshod over the State Legislature,” Chairman Kassar said. “His practice of ramming through radical initiatives by attaching them to budget bills is dangerous and Constitutionally inappropriate. New Yorkers have a right to be heard on matters of great importance; it’s why they elect the senators and assembly members who must, now, reassert their authority.”
The bills advocated are:
(A.6018-Barclay): An Act to set parameters for the content of budget bills, ensuring that budget negotiations are focused on financial, not policy issues, and
(A. 3538-Palmesano): Creating a constitutional amendment requiring 2/3 vote for any bill that raises taxes or creates a new tax.
Senator Jordan announced at the news conference that she will be sponsoring companion bills to these measures in the State Senate in the coming weeks. Senator Jordan has already introduced a bill (S.3373) that would amend the State Constitution to restrict the ability of the executive to make laws via the budget.
Recent examples of Governor Cuomo improperly ramming through policy initiatives using the state budget process include the introduction of Cashless Bail in New York — a measure he now admits is problematic — granting undocumented immigrants taxpayer-paid college funds; sports betting in casinos, and the creation of a commission seeking to finance state elections with public dollars and eliminate Democratic Party political competition. (The Conservative Party has challenged the constitutionality of the latter in New York State Supreme Court, and is currently awaiting the court’s decision.)
This year, the Governor is seeking, among other things, to legalize paid gestational surrogacy — an illegal practice in many European countries that was expressly outlawed by Governor Mario M. Cuomo — and to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. By submitting these and other legislative items in the budget process, the Senator, Assembly Leader, and Conservative Chairman argued, the Governor is attempting an end-around the State Legislature, stifling debate on the measures that common sense demands.
Today’s news conference was held at the 53rd-Annual State Conservative Party “CPPAC” gathering which was held in Latham, NY.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O’Reilly, 212-396-9117
Bill@NovemberTeam.com
Statement by New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget Address
January 21, 2020
“After 10 years as governor, in his 11th budget address, Governor Andrew Cuomo finally admitted that high tax-and-spend government harms New Yorkers.
“Conservatives could have told him that on day one. So could the more than one million former New Yorkers who have fled the state under his stewardship.
“Now the Governor is facing a $10 billion budget deficit — while the national economy soars — and his nebulous solutions and utter lack of detail in this address show the same leadership deficit that created the giant hole in the first place.
“All we got today was more empty talk. It will be up to a Democrat-led legislature to fill in the blanks. Hold onto your wallets.”
Statement by New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State Address
“Families are leaving New York in droves because it’s too hard to get ahead here, and everybody knows it. That’s the indisputable state of the State in January 2020 — I dare Governor Cuomo to deny it.
“His perennial window dressing ignores that, for much of New York, there’s nothing left in the store. We’ve been hollowed out by taxes, regulation, bureaucratic mismanagement, and government corruption.
“New York needs to move in a bold new direction, but Governor Cuomo and the Democratic Senate and Assembly are driving us ever deeper into the hole they’ve created. The State faces a $6 billion budget deficit, and the Governor is proposing billions in new spending. That’s not serious leadership.
“We pay the highest taxes in America — we’re watching whole swaths of the population fleeing — and Democrats in the Legislature are again proposing new taxes. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers need safe, affordable housing, and the Democrat-led Legislature is making it near impossible for small landlords and developers to improve existing properties or build additional ones. In whose mind is that rational?
“We see the loss of common sense in criminal justice, too, with vicious criminals and anti-Semites being released onto the streets without bail — as violent crime soars in our cities. We shudder at the moral decay of a governor who, against the will of his own father, wants to commercialize child bearing.
“New York is a rudderless ship taking on water under total Democratic leadership. Mark my words: a mutiny of common sense is coming.”
Brooklyn, NY –“New York has lost all touch with reality: An illegal immigrant, illegally behind the wheel of a car, illegally flees the scene of a crime after killing a 35-year-old Rockland County mother of three on Christmas Eve with a car he shouldn’t have been driving, and, then, after finally being arrested, he is released — without bail!
“How is that remotely possible?
“The person who committed this horrendous crime, is by definition a risk of flight. Laws clearly mean nothing to him. He should be in a federal lockup right now. Isn’t that screamingly obvious?
“New Yorkers should pray for the victim and her children — and start questioning representatives in Albany who allowed this to happen. In fact, New Yorkers should demand that cashless bail be repealed; it is utter madness, that the person who killed an innocent mother of three be released because the democrat controlled legislature passed cashless bail. ”
For immediate release December 18, 2019 Contact: Shaun Marie 518-356-7882 www.cpnys.org @cpnys
STATEMENT BY NEW YORK CONSERVATIVE PARTY CHAIRMAN GERARD KASSAR
“Every single Democratic Member of New York’s Congressional delegation just wasted tens of millions of dollars trying to subvert the will of the American voter, knowing full well that President Trump will be acquitted a few weeks hence. This after Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear that an impeachment vote without bipartisan support would be needlessly divisive.
“Freshman New York Reps. Anthony Brindisi, Antonio Delgado, and Max Rose, who represent districts that overwhelmingly supported President Trump’s election, will have a lot of explaining to do between now and next November. Tonight they voted to negate the presidential choice of their own constituencies, and there’s nothing they can do now to erase that black mark.
“New Yorkers send officials to Congress to represent their interests. These Democrats did just the opposite. There will be a dear price to pay.”
For immediate release
December 5, 2019
Contact: Shaun Marie
518-356-7882
www.cpnys.org @cpnys
CONSERVATIVE PARTY RATES 2019 LEGISLATIVE SESSION; THREE SENATORS AND TWO ASSEMBLYMEMBERS HAVE A PERFECT SCORE
Brooklyn, NY – The Conservative Party released their ratings for the past legislative session today to keep the voters of New York informed and knowledgeable of how their state legislators voted on 25 key bills passed in the 2019 session.
Keeping with tradition, the Conservative Party tracked legislation throughout the session, issued support and opposition memos, and determined, at an executive committee meeting, which key issues would be used. The Bills considered comprise a variety of issues including, but not limited to economics, crime, health, education, and pro-life issues that affect the lives of New Yorkers. “We believe that it is necessary to keep the public informed of key votes and let the taxpayers be aware of how elected officials spend our hard-earned money. Every Bill is considered, and then we narrow the number to give voters a fair assessment of what transpires in Albany,” said Gerard Kassar, State Chairman. “A review of the Bills used this year will show New Yorkers how out of touch the legislature is with the average citizen; many are costly and others will show how they help New Yorkers.” said Kassar.
Senators Daphne Jordan (43rd SD), Thomas F. O’Mara (58th SD), and Robert G. Ortt (62nd SD) each scored a perfect 100%; in the Assembly, David J. DiPietro (147th AD) and Kieran Michael Lalor (105th AD) also had a perfect score of 100%.
The overall Senate ratings dropped 15% from the 2018 average of 55%, to a new low of 40%. The Senate, now under full democratic control, explains the dramatic drop. In 2018 the democratic average was 41%, this year the democratic average plummeted to 14%. Conservative endorsed legislators in the Senate averaged 86%, up from 69% in 2018. The Assembly’s overall rating was 36%, down from their 2018 rating of 42%. The democrats averaged 17%, down from their 28% rating in 2018. Conservative endorsed Assembly members averaged 79%, up 1% from 2018.
We encourage voters to review the ratings and contact their legislators to remind them that conservative fiscal policy and principles make New York business friendly and encourages entrepreneurs to open businesses and most importantly to provide jobs to those who want to stay in New York State. The current rush for progressive ideology will only increase the exodus of families and further decline the opportunities that made New York the beacon to those who sought hope and prosperity.
(Ratings are online here. If you have a problem downloading, please call 718-921-2158 or 518-356-7882 for a copy. Thank you.)
