On May 18, 2018 the Long Island Chapter of NYSARA held its Spring Conference at the NYSUT Office in Hauppauge. Chapter President, Stan Bergman opened the meeting with a welcome to an audience of members of the many union locals from Long Island. He then introduced seven potential candidates for the New York Primary hoping to unseat Congressman Lee Zeldin from NY’s 1st Congressional District and Congressman Peter King from NY’s 2nd Congressional District.
In no special order, the speakers were Kate Browning, Elaine DiMasi, Perry Gershon, David Pechefsky and Vivian Viloria-Fisher opposing Lee Zeldin, with DuWayne Gregory and Liuba Grechen Shirley opposing Peter King.
The topic for the conference was “The Choices We Face in the United States Congress,” and each speaker presented issues they viewed as important with strategies they planned to use.
The issues addressed were:
- quality affordable child care for all Americans
- renewable energy for clean energy and jobs
- universal health care
- gun control
- climate change
- better paying jobs
- protection of Social Security
- improving vote for African-American candidates
- concern for the shrinking middle class
- Medicare for all and Medicaid
- affordable housing
A question and answer period followed the presentations and the enthusiasm of the attendees was quite evident. The conference closed about 1:30 pm when participants had the opportunity to meet personally with the candidates.