• Candidate Questionnaire

    Local Candidates Committee NYS Legislative Election - General Election 2022
  • Dear Candidate,

    Congratulations on your decision to run for a seat on the New York Legislature!

    Citizens Union appreciates your commitment to serve the public. 

    In the following pages, you will find questions regarding your positions on various reform issues and your plans for office.

    Responses to these questions will be one of several factors Citizens Union uses to evaluate candidates running for office, and to issue our endorsement for the November general election. Read more about the method, principles, and criteria of the candidate evalatuion process here.

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    If you wish to be considered, please submit the questionnaire by September 16, 2022.

    If you seek our support, we will need to schedule an interview with you as part of the evaluation process. Given time constraints and the limited capacity of a member-based organization, we may not be able to evaluate all contests or candidates in this election cycle. 

    **

    If you cannot complete the questionnaire in one sitting, you can click Save at the bottom of every page. 

    Once you submit the questionnaire, you will receive a confirmation email with your responses. Citizens Union will not be able to see your answers unless you submit the form. We plan to make responses to this questionnaire public on our website, printed voters directory, and other appropriate venues (your contact information will not be published).  

    For any questions, please email candidates@citizensunion.org

    We thank you very much for your response.

  • GENERAL INFORMATION

  • Campaign Contact Information

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  • Affirmations

  • (Please note: interviews are prerequisites for Citizens Union preferences and endorsements)

  • ETHICS

    Citizens Union believes New York needs a sweeping overhaul of our ethics system to restore the public’s faith in government. JCOPE, the agency charged with enforcing state laws regarding ethics, has been structurally burdened since its inception a decade ago. The major flaw of ethics oversight is the lack of independence from the Governor and political parties in the Legislature. Citizens Union supports a constitutionally established, independent ethics agency that would deter corruption in the legislative and executive branches.
  • ELECTIONS AND VOTING

  • Election Administration

    In the last few years, this legislature has made immense strides in making New York’s election laws more open and fair. But in one fundamental way, our state has remained in the 1800s – the party-based control of elections through Boards of Elections. This broken system has resulted in the continued use of patronage instead of merit in hiring, gridlock in decision-making, a complete lack of accountability, exclusion of representation of minor parties, and impediments to primary challengers. Most importantly, it has damaged New Yorkers’ trust in their election system. Voters experience the impact of New York's broken election administration system every year. Citizens Union supports removing the control of county political parties over election administration, professionalizing election offices and staff, and standardizing election administration across the state.
  • Voting Rights

  • Open and Competitive Elections

  • CAMPAIGN FINANCE


  • COURT REFORM

  • GOALS, PLANS, AND REPRESENTATION

    In addition to evaluating stances on the issues above, Citizens Union considers the campaign goals articulated to voters, issues specific to the district, and the ability propose thoughtful solutions to represent constituents’ interests.
  • PATH TO VICTORY

  • ADDITIONAL INFO

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  • Please review your answers by clicking PREVIEW ANSWERS below. You can submit the questionnaire at the bottom of the preview page by clicking SUBMIT.  

    Once you click SUBMIT, you will receive a confirmation email with a PDF file containing your responses. If you don't see the email, please check your spam box.

    If you have any further questions, you may contact us at candidates@citizensunion.org 

    Responses to the questionnaire will be one of several factors Citizens Union uses to evaluate candidates running for office, and to issue our preference for the Primary and endorsement for the General Election. 

    If you seek our support, we will also need to schedule an interview with you as part of the evaluation process.  Please contact us if you wish to be interviewed.  


    We plan to make responses to this questionnaire public on our website, printed voters directory, and other appropriate venues. 

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