NYLCVEF Hosts Congressional Candidate Forums for Districts 7 and 12

On June 23, New York’s primary elections will determine which candidates run in the midterms this November, when New York will send twenty-six officials to the US House of Representatives.

Each year, NYLCVEF helps to ensure that the environment and climate change are front and center on the campaign trail and that voters know where the candidates stand on these issues. Our Environmental Candidate Forums are central to that mission. NYLCVEF hosted two environmental forums in March, for Congressional Districts (CD) 7 and 12 in New York City.

While environmental issues matter every election, we’re at an especially urgent moment right now with the federal government rolling back decades of bipartisan environmental protections and doing everything in their power to delay the clean energy transition.

“Remember, Congress is the first branch of government,” NYLCVEF President Julie Tighe told the audience. “By reasserting its constitutional role – including the power of the purse and oversight of federal agencies – they can begin to push back against these harmful policies.”

Environmental Candidate Forum for Congressional District 12

The 12th Congressional District covers Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Upper East Side and the Chelsea, Flatiron, and Gramercy neighborhoods.

On March 17, NYLCVEF welcomed candidates running in New York’s 12th Congressional District. The forum was at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College (CUNY), and the participating candidates were Assemblymember Alex Bores, Assemblymember Micah Lasher, and writer and writer and political commentator Jack Schlossberg. The forum was moderated by NY1 Political Reporter Dan Rivoli.

Here, key issues again included transport – including how congestion pricing could be installed in cities beyond NYC, and how New York will meet our mandate of an all-electric school bus fleet by 2035. Other topics included candidates’ positions on the SPEED Act and the revival of nuclear energy; what environmental justice means in CD12; and the debate around gerrymandering and how to protect our democracy. They also discussed policies to clean up the Hudson and East Rivers, and what climate-resilient building and shoreline infrastructure should look like post-Hurricane Sandy.

All three candidates “agreed that congestion pricing has been a smashing success,” reported City & State NY. “They’re all open to nuclear energy as being part of the equation to reduce carbon emissions, if not particularly enthusiastic about it in comparison to renewables like wind and solar. And they all – in defiance of Schlossberg’s cousin and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wishes – think fluoride should be in drinking water.”

Assemblymember Alex Bores

Assemblymember Micah Lasher

Jack Schlossberg

“I’m running for Congress because I still believe in politics… if we’re going to solve our climate crisis, we’re going to need government help. The private sector cannot do this alone. What we’re facing is no less than an all-out assault on the federal government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases.”

Special thanks to our co-sponsors: Common Cause New York, Riders Alliance, Rebuild by Design, Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program, Transportation Alternatives, and the Waterfront Alliance.

Thank you also to Harold Holzer, the Jonathan Fanton Executive Director of Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. The forum’s setting — the former townhome of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt House — was fitting. It was there, noted Holzer, that President Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps was born.

President Roosevelt also created national parks, signed soil conservation measures to protect the Dust Bowl, and built sustainable power projects across the United States. As Eleanor Roosevelt — a true environmental champion — said:

“To bring the people to an understanding of how important it is to preserve wildlife, to guard the soil of a nation as well as its waters and forests – this requires legislation and very often education, to appreciate the natural environment so we will not endanger it by our actions.”

Photos: here (Credit: Matt Capowski/Roosevelt House/NYLCVEF)
Watch a recording of the forum here:

Environmental Candidate Forum for Congressional District 7

CD7 includes Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Woodhaven, in Queens, and Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, East New York, East Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, in Brooklyn.

The week prior, on March 10, NYLCVEF welcomed candidates running in New York’s 7th Congressional District. On one of NYC’s first warm days of the year, voters gathered in a packed room at Pratt Institute’s historic library in Brooklyn to hear the candidates’ positions on New York’s environmental policy.

The participating candidates were Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Assemblymember Claire Valdez, and Councilmember Julie Won. The forum was moderated by City and State New York’s Editor-in-Chief Jeff Coltin.

The first key issue was transportation – the questions of securing more federal funding for New York’s public transit, and protecting congestion pricing from federal attack. Then, candidates shared how they’d resist the federal assault on clean energy, and prioritize solar, wind and the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in New York.

Other key topics were candidates’ views on reviving nuclear power in New York; how they’d prioritize environmental justice and a just transition in their district; and proposed strategies to get lead out of New York City’s drinking water. Protecting voting rights and reforming campaign finance were also central themes.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso

Assemblymember Julie Won

Assemblymember Claire Valdez

Special thanks to our co-sponsors: Common Cause New York, Rebuild by Design, Riders Alliance, Transportation Alternatives, Trust for Public Land, and the Waterfront Alliance.

Photos: here (Credit: Georgia Good/NYLCVEF)

Watch a recording of the forum here:

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Early voting for the primaries runs from June 13 to June 21. Primary Election Day is June 23.