David Valesky
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David J. Valesky (b. circa 1966) is a member of the New York State Senate.
He is a Democrat representing the mostly rural 49th Senate District, which encompasses the city of Rome in Oneida County, all of Madison County, eastern and southern Onondaga County, including the eastern half of the city of Syracuse, and parts of Cayuga County in upstate New York. He was first elected to the office in 2004.
Valesky, who lives in Oneida, where he was born and raised, is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam and the University of Connecticut.
He served as aide to former New York State Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman from 1989 to 1995. From 1995 to 2004, he served as vice president of communications at Syracuse's public television and radio station WCNY and hosted the local public affairs program, Hour CNY. He resigned from WCNY to pursue the 49th District seat.
Valesky is married to wife Julie, and they have three children. They are Roman Catholics and attend St. Patrick's Parish church in Oneida.[1]
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[edit] Campaigns
[edit] 2004
Valesky defeated longtime incumbent Nancy Larraine Hoffmann (R-Fabius) in a hotly contested, closely watched race. It was one of a handful of bellwether contests (since few State Senate districts typically have competitive races due to gerrymandering or entrenched incumbents) in a year when the Brennan Center for Justice of New York University had released a highly publicized report labeling New York's government as "dysfunctional."
A divisive Republican primary between Hoffmann and more conservative challenger, Tom Dadey, weakened her base of support, resulting in a three-way race after Dadey received the Conservative Party ballot line. This helped to attract donor interest in Valesky.
Valesky received an endorsement from Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and ran using ideas from Suozzi's "Fix Albany" campaign. In 2006, however, Valesky actually endorsed Eliot Spitzer over Suozzi in the Democratic Party primary for Governor.
Hoffmann was seen as out of touch both with the conservative wing of her local party and also with voter anger at the Legislature -- a sentiment which Valesky's campaign skillfully capitalized on with a series of amusing TV ads, while he ran on a platform stressing legislative reform.
Rural areas of the 49th District went heavily for Hoffmann, while Valesky (running on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines) received strong support mainly from urban Syracuse and its surrounding suburbs. He likely benefited from John Kerry and Charles Schumer topping the Democrat ticket; both won Syracuse by comfortable margins. Valesky achieved a 1,060-vote majority on election night, but this lead narrowed to less than 500 as paper and absentee ballots were counted. However, he did not lose the lead, and Hoffmann conceded two weeks later.
[edit] 2006
Valesky was re-elected to the state Senate in November 2006, defeating Assemblyman Jeffrey Brown, the Republican candidate. Although Brown received significantly more funding, outspending Valesky nearly 2 to 1, and also was the son of a long-time Assemblyman in the Syracuse suburbs, Valesky prevailed with 57% of the vote to Brown's 42%, a margin of about 15,000 votes. Democrats also picked up Brown's Assembly seat.
Valesky tied Brown to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, widely criticized in the media for promoting 'business as usual politics.' Bruno had made the seat a target of GOP efforts to maintain control of the State Senate (they still held onto the chamber despite Valesky's reelection). Valesky also cited the endorsement of Eliot Spitzer (who appeared in commercials for Valesky) and teachers' unions; Brown had argued that Valesky's votes favored giving New York City an excessive percentage of the state's expenditure on education.
Again, coattails at the top of the Democrat ticket likely helped, as Spitzer and Hillary Rodham Clinton won landslide elections.
[edit] In the Senate
He took office as a state senator in January 2005. He currently serves as the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. He is a member of the Banks Committee, the Energy and Telecommunications Committee, the Health Committee, the Higher Education Committee, the Tourism, Recreation and Sports Development Committee, and the Transportation Committee. He is a former Ranking Minority Member of the Environmental Conservation Committee.
Because his district covers parts of three Congressional districts, and his home base of Oneida is not in the same district as Democrat-heavy Syracuse, a bid for higher office does not appear to be forthcoming.
[edit] Legislation
[edit] Bills sponsored
Sponsor, S1452: To require the legislature to meet daily if it fails to pass the state budget prior to April 1 (2005)
Sponsor, S1453: To require bills and resolutions to be open to sponsorship by any member of the legislature (2005)
