Candidates for State Senate District 37 square off at League of Women Voters forum
By JEFF MORRIS
Fundamental differences between incumbent state Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Democrat, and challenger Tricia Lindsay, a Republican, were underscored at an Oct. 22 League of Women Voters candidate forum for Senate District 37.
But it was a question about vaccine mandates that nearly brought the forum to a halt.
The forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale, was held at White Plains Public Library. District 37, which includes Pound Ridge, stretches all the way down Westchester County’s eastern border with Connecticut and encompasses villages, towns and cities from North Castle to portions of New Rochelle and Yonkers.
Mayer has represented the district since 2018 and is chair of the senate’s Education Committee.
Lindsay has a family law practice and is a former schoolteacher and administrator in the New York City and Yonkers Public School districts.
Obvious conflicts between the candidates came out in response to a number of questions, most notably in reference to crime and bail reform. The first question framed it this way: “There are conflicting beliefs on reported crime rates in SD 37. Do you subscribe to the data being provided as accurate, and crime is going down, or the data provided on crime is inaccurate, and crime has actually increased in the district?” Lindsay replied that crime in the state has gone up by 25 percent since 2019. She said the FBI had to correct its report last week that stated crime across the country had gone down by 2.1 percent, but in actuality “they have reported that it has increased by 4.5 percent under the Biden-Harris administration.”
She said that because New York is a sanctuary state, “if illegal immigrants come into our state and they commit a crime, we really can’t do anything about it.” She blamed “the soft-on-crime laws that my opponent has voted for and put in place” for making the criminal justice system a revolving door in New York, and said she does not believe data showing crime is down.
Mayer cited a recent report by County Executive George Latimer.
“He did a detailed analysis of the crime statistics by every police department in our county, and the county police,” she said. “It showed that serious crimes and misdemeanors went down by 10 percent from last year to this year,” and the governor has shown those crimes in the state are down by 6 percent. “My view is when data is produced that is submitted to the FBI by our police departments, that is what we rely on to make decisions,” Mayer said. “The basis for making good policy decisions is to use the data that is reported to agencies, not to have our own opinion based on something we may see in the (New York) Post or some other place.”
She added that, contrary to what her opponent said, the bail reform law has been amended three times “in direct response to issues raised by law enforcement and municipalities about how to be more effective at reaching repeat offenders.”
Lindsay asked for a rebuttal, and said data can be skewed.
“All data and crime is not reported,” she said. “Carjackings are up. Burglaries are up.” She presented anecdotal evidence of crimes, coming from people she has talked to in various neighborhoods.
The question that led to disruption of the forum was, “Do you support school vaccine mandates, including MMR — measles, mumps and rubella — and other childhood diseases?”
“Absolutely not,” replied Lindsay. “I’m a civil rights and constitutional law attorney. I believe in bodily autonomy. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution says that we have the right to be secure in our persons. It’s interesting because my opponent and her colleagues push for vaccine mandates, which in essence is the government telling families what to do with their children and what to do with their bodies, but yet on the other side they say that the government doesn’t get to tell a woman what to do with her body. So either we have Fourth Amendment protections on the body or we don’t.”
Lindsay said there are children that have adverse reactions to vaccines.
“People know what they need, children know what they need, and if there is someone in the school that is vaccinated, you are protected, so it doesn›t even matter; and I know this because I’m a science teacher and my first degree is in nursing,” she commented.
She does not believe in mandates of any kind, she said, adding that people should be given the information and decide what is best for their family. These comments were met with a smattering of applause in the audience.
Mayer responded with a passionate defense of vaccine mandates, recalling a time when there was no vaccine for polio.
“We are incredibly fortunate that we have vaccines that cure or eliminate some of the diseases that plagued and caused children to die for so many years,” she said. The fact there is an MMR requirement for children to go to school, she said, is scientifically legitimate, because it ensures sufficient immunity across the board. “You need enough people to be vaccinated. You can’t leave it up to people. It has been a very effective way of keeping disease out of our schools,” she said, noting that there is a medical exemption available if one’s child is not able to take a vaccine.
At this point, someone in the audience began shouting at Mayer, leading to further shouting from those calling for the moderators to act. Audience members were advised they were not to make comments or hand gestures. Mayer resumed her response, talking about the positive impact of Covid vaccines and how many lives would have been saved if there were vaccine mandates among adults. That led to further interruptions, with Mayer requesting that the moderators ask people to leave if they continued to disrupt.
The forum continued without further incident.
Questions covered a variety of topics, including climate change, flooding, electricity rates and school taxes. The candidates’ responses were largely reflective of their party allegiances. Lindsay attacked Mayer as being responsible for massive spending in the state budget, particularly with regard to billions of dollars she said were being sent to New York City because of illegal immigration. Mayer defended the state’s response to a migrant crisis that was not of its creation, saying it is a national problem that is not under the control of the state. Lindsay repeated her blaming New York’s status as a sanctuary state and insisted that funding the migrants was driving up costs for everybody else. Mayer said the state budget was balanced, and denied funds for migrants were being diverted from other programs.
A final question on mandating composting of food scraps resulted in the same pattern of responses.
Lindsay said she was opposed to all mandates, though she acknowledged that composting works and is something that should be put in place where appropriate. Mayer agreed it should be used where appropriate, but felt it was the legislature’s job to encourage municipalities that might be resistant to change by offering incentives.
In closing, Lindsay reiterated that crime is on the rise even though it is not reported; taxes are increasing; billions of dollars are going to New York City for migrant services rather than to Westchester; and that Proposition One will put families under attack, violate women’s rights and make children more vulnerable.
Mayer promoted her record of accomplishments, and said she is “for a government that works for the people, and is constructive and problem solving, not angry and divisive.” Regarding Proposition One, she said she is proud to stand up for strengthening the state constitution through making sure abortion is constitutionally protected, as well as protecting against age and disability discrimination.
“I’m proud to make decisions based on fact, not fiction; on science, not fantasy; on realistic goals, not fear mongering,” she said. “We’ve seen the dangers of science denialism, election denialism, vaccine denialism, and climate denialism, and we cannot go down that path.”