Aubertine: Long Islanders Flock to Barclay's Side to Protect Their School Funding at the Expense of Northern & Central New York 

Media Release

WATERTOWN, N.Y., Feb. 24  —  Scores of Long Island political operatives have headed to the 48th Senate District in an effort to help Will Barclay's campaign and ensure that millions in additional state education funds will once again be taken from our Upstate schools and given to wealthy Long Island districts.

According to a report in the Long Island-based Newsday, the Barclay campaign has bused in scores of volunteers from Nassau and Suffolk Counties to try and shore up Barclay's fading campaign in Jefferson, Oswego and St. Lawrence Counties.

"I would just tell all our school officials to lock up the safe for the next few days, because the same people who have taken our school funding away for years are here to help Will Barclay," said Aubertine for State Senate campaign manager Cathy Calhoun. "These Long Islanders owe the Senate Republicans for the millions more they sent to their schools. Will Barclay wants to keep that spigot open and running. He should know that those millions came at the expense of our children, and that we aren't going to let it happen again."

The article reports that the Long Island volunteer corps is in town as payback to the Republican Senate leadership, which has "championed the interests of Nassau and Suffolk counties." These interests included funneling more than $220 million in new school funding to Long Island schools last year. This funding came at the expense of rural and small city school districts in the 48th Senate District and across Upstate New York. 

"What we did, what the Republican senators did, was to drive aid to suburban school districts," Senator Dean Skelos, leader of Long Island's Senate Republican Delegation, gleefully told the New York Times in the weeks after last year's budget was passed.

Skelos has also given the maximum allowable contribution to Will Barclay's campaign.

Despite this strategy, the Newsday article quoted one "volunteer," Rose Marie Walker - an elected official in Nassau County, mother of a Long Island Assemblyman, and a card carrying member of Nassau County's infamous machine cynically stating that Long Islanders and residents in the 48th Senate District "share a common bond" and should "stick together." 

"The only common bond is that we're both paying taxes to support wealthy Long Island school districts," said Calhoun. "Central and Northern New York schools have been shortchanged for too long. Darrel Aubertine will fight to make sure we get our fair share." 

Official: ElectAubertine.com