Skoufis Sticks It To Kiryas Joel Block Vote, And Cuomo In Victory Speech
Channel: VINnews
Date: 2018-11-07

Pulling no punches in his victory speech, Senate-elect Assemblyman James Skoufis took aim squarely at both the Village of Kiryas Joel and Governor Andrew Cuomo, telling a crowd of cheering supporters that they were the only ones he owed anything to, after a race that he categorized as “long and acrimonious.”

Skoufis, a Democrat, said that he and his family had been personally attacked over the course of the campaign to take over the 39th District Senate seat being vacated by Republican Bill Larkin.

Kiryas Joel’s main voting bloc had publicly endorsed Skoufis’ opponent, Republican Tom Basile prior to the election, but Skoufis beat out his opponent by nearly 6,000 votes according to unofficial results as reported by the Poughkeepsie Journal (http://bit.ly/2OwVk1I).

“We overcame the Village of Kiryas Joel bloc vote,” said Skoufis amidst thunderous applause.  “While we’re at it, we were the only Democratic campaign in a competitive State Senate campaign anywhere in New York that the governor did not make a campaign contribution to. So guess what? When we go to the State Senate in January, we will not owe anything to any of them.  Not the governor. Not KJ. Not any of the special interests that operate in Albany.  The only, the only people I will happily be indebted to are all of you.”

Basile conceded in a statement last night, saying he had called his opponent to offer his congratulations.

“I am proud of the campaign we ran together with the help of so many wonderful people, to drive a conversation about the reforms we need to make our communities more affordable,” said Basile.