Paloma Capanna Walking and Talking

Lansing Star: Why are you running did you walk?

Paloma Capanna: I'm running because I want a better future then the one we have on our present course.  We need certain issues to be addressed and addressed now.  They should have been worked on across the last three decades, they weren't.  This is not what I want to pass on to my step-son which means I have about 20 years to work very hard to turn this situation around particularly four things like toxic waste clean-up or open space preservation, using Seneca army depot for example as a conservation site instead of carving it up into small private interests.

We really have our work cut out for us and to some degree the campaign will be hard but not only is it worth the fight but the bigger fight lies ahead if I can get to Albany to get our fair share of money, our fair share of program funding, so that we can make that change happen.

LS: My impression has been that that's something that Senator Nozzolio has done.  He shows up with those giant Ed McMahan checks every so often in Lansing.  I know it's good press for him, but are you saying that that's all it is?

PC: Being a public servant is not about photo opportunities for your personal self.  He is not a leader on member item money in fact he is not even a leader in this region.  Senator Alesi and Senator Roback also Republican leaders in our region bring back several more million dollars per year than he does.

Another example the Governor of the State of New York just invested $297 million dollars in funding for future energies research.  Not one dollar of that money came to Senate 54.  $300 million dollars and the way that I look at this district we are the perfect region to support that research.  We have water resource, we have topography, we have wind, we have beautiful farmland with possibilities for the bio diesel and the ethanol and yet none of it came here.

The only reason the public doesn't know about these things is because he hasn't had an opponent so that natural democratic process, democratic with a little D of the issues being fully vented and debated and the facts being brought to light hasn't happened.  So he's been able to smile for the camera but we haven't been taken care of.

LS: Do you have a top item or items that you would want to land on first if you get to Albany?

PC: I think healthcare and environmental issues would really be the two categories.  The healthcare issue has just reached the boiling point.  It really is desperate out there.  We have heard of so many testimonials in the last eight days from farmers who are not able to participate in any of the state offered systems.  Small business owners who want to have one or two employees but then can't afford to have them.  It really is a problem that the New York State Senate is not even discussing, and it really speaks to the level of dysfunction in Albany and how far removed from us the people, the incumbents, have become.

LS: Let me ask you about the walk now.  Why did you choose a walk?  You've done things like this before haven't you?

PC: I am certainly a take the campaign out to the people sort of a candidate.  I did quite a bit of biking during my congressional race.

And I think I will indeed resort to peddling more frequently (laughs). 

The question came up for me as I came off of two years of running for congress, what is it going to take for people to get excited on the federal issues we have a war in Iraq.  Regardless of which side of the issue you're on why isn't that being discussed and debated more.  I pondered this question and literally said well what am I going to have to do?  Cartwheels from one end of the district to the other?  That's what suddenly struck my mind -- well let me walk, maybe that will be enough.

LS: I know you had stops where people came to meet you, but what happened between the stops?

PC: We have been campaigning since last Saturday morning.  The yellow t-shirts helped because it immediately had people curious about what was going on.  But every single person that I approached I said, ,I'm Paloma, I'm running for New York State Senate,' no particular reaction to that.  That's nothing too ordinary, but then I say, ‘I'm walking 150 miles to get people excited about democracy,' it was a show stopper.  It gave those 10 seconds necessary to make a connection to find out what mattered to people and to ask them if they were ready for change.

LS: It was a good icebreaker...

PC: Yes and the further we got along in the week, people actually started recognizing us and honking and waving.  So today we never had a minute of break because even when we had our stops every single person that we were walking into would say, ‘oh are you that woman running for senate?'  It was really heart-warming that people are that ready to get on board and lend support and make a difference.

LS: Senator Nozzolio makes an effort to travel the region quite a bit.  Will you do that as a senator or spend more time in Albany.  Do you have a game plan for that?

PC: Sure, myself as a person I'm very much grounded to here and the nature that's here and to the people that are here, so I will always be somebody who is out and involved in community events in a very hands on way.  If there is a swim across the lake to raise awareness for breast cancer for example, I'm going swimming.  That's the type of involvement that I want to bring and the type of energy I want to bring not only to this campaign, but to being in office. 

A big part of the reason for that is I think people have forgotten what it is the State Senate actually does.  It's been dysfunctional for so long that people talk about the federal government and they talk about their local government and they kind of skip that mid layer.  And so we actually have to re-educate process that needs to be undertaken to say this is what Albany can do for you.  Lots of town meetings in my agenda including during my campaign but I think really the heart of it is exactly what we were just doing.  Have a cup of coffee at the diner and sit down with people. 

Again, it's not to take a photograph that you can mail to them with your signature on it as if you're a rock star.  You're a public servant.  It's about sitting down and listening and figuring out how you can help.


LS: Lansing has been in a kind of tax revolt for a couple of years now.  Part of the problem was that there were a lot of initiatives happening at the same time here, and voters have been voting everything down.  Enough is enough, and it starts with New York State taxes being among the highest in the country. 

How do you stand on taxes, especially property taxes, and what do you think can or should be done about it?

PC: Well I believe in a balanced budget both at the federal and at the state level.  I think that the financial philosophy of the ‘50's and ‘60's Republicans claim was appropriate in its rational approach to growth and to spending.  It needed to be balanced of course by different concerns such as taking care of our seniors, taking care of our veterans, taking care that the education system is properly funded.  But somewhere along the way from the mid ‘70's to certainly currently President Bush neither party seems to have a financial philosophy to how they govern.

We need to sit down as a region through a series of town hall meetings and really discuss our priorities and decide how we want to apportion our taxes on them.  I'm not at any point going to sell somebody a line that we will cut property taxes over here and that's easy to do, why?  Because unless we want to stop funding schools and funding municipal programs that property tax I cut is then an increase somewhere else.  So what we need to think about is a budget with our priorities in it, not downstate priorities, we need to get our fair share of New York State taxes that are collected and then we need to grow our economy.   That is truly the critical piece that seems to be forgotten these days. 

We talk about how everything is so difficult but where we really need to be is focusing on small business owners and making it simple to do business in New York and also securing the research and development for the green energies for the future so that we become the next Atlanta.  There's no reason we can't accomplish both of those.  As a small business owner, and I grew up with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring at my bedside table, we can do this if we put our mind to it and we have the right representative in the senate we can do this.