Credit: Didi Barrett Campaign
The New Pine Plains Herald has conducted interviews with both candidates, Didi Barrett and Claire Cousin, ahead of the Democratic primary on June 25 for New York’s Assembly District 106 — the first Democratic primary for this seat in 12 years.
Assembly District 106 includes approximately 138,073 constituents over 872 square miles, spanning significant portions of Columbia and Dutchess counties, including the Pine Plains Central School District.
The Herald’s interviews offer voters an insight into each candidate’s background and platform. Early voting starts June 15.
Democratic Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, 73, is serving her sixth term representing District 106, a seat she first won in a 2012 special election. A Hudson Valley resident for more than 30 years, Barrett is the mother of two adult children and entered politics after a career as a writer, museum professional and leader of nonprofit organizations.
Barrett, who chairs the Assembly’s Energy Committee, also serves on the Agriculture; Environmental Conservation; and Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development committees, discussed her legislative record, responded to criticism and shared her views on a range of topics including housing, affordability and climate policy. The responses and questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Why are you running for Assembly?
I’ve had the honor of representing this district for 12 years now. I’m the first Democrat and the first woman elected [in the district]. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the region, the district and the state. I feel like there’s a lot more work to do and I’m running to continue doing the important work we’ve done.
If reelected, what will be your legislative priorities?
My legislative priorities will continue to be those that I have made priorities: housing, agriculture and my work in mental health has been a constant throughout. Now as chair of the Energy Committee, the opportunities to reach our Climate Leadership Community Protection Act goals and figure out how we pay for them, is up there on my priority list as well.
What are your top accomplishments while in political office?
One that I’m particularly proud of is as the chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Veterans, we created the first department of veteran services in New York history. We created this with the goal of it being a one-stop shop for veterans, whether we’re talking about housing, jobs or other benefits — it would all be in one place. That process has begun.
Also, as chair we passed a “restoration of honor,” which gave veterans who were given other-than-honorable discharges in New York state — because of Don’t-Ask, Don’t-Tell, military sexual trauma; traumatic brain injury; or PTSD — a pathway to get their benefits in New York state.
I’m also really proud of the resources that I brought back to my district. We brought something like $13 million back to the Assembly district in both counties, for everything from schools to support for mental health, to food access, to housing and creating a model for affordable housing. We were able to identify ways to support — even before this legislation that we passed last month on affordable housing — to give our upstate communities and Hudson Valley communities a way to really start building affordable housing.
I think there’s a lot that I’m very proud of. There’s a lot more to do. It’s a very diverse district. It starts in the Town of Poughkeepsie and goes all the way up to New Lebanon. There are 27 different municipalities and there’s lots of school districts, lots of libraries, lots of fire companies. Really being responsive to all of them is a challenge and I’ve been very intentional about getting to all of the places. I show up, it’s important to me.
Do you regret any of your past votes?
I don’t think anything significant. There are things sometimes that one has to vote for because it’s part of what we call a “big ugly,” like a budget bill or end-of-session bill. There are things that I’m not a huge fan of that we had to vote for but I wouldn’t say I regret bills.
Why is housing so expensive and what can you do as Assemblymember to lower costs for residents?
Housing is expensive because this has become an increasingly expensive place to live and the cost of building houses and the cost of land is expensive. We have worked on a number of different initiatives with Habitat for Humanity, with Hudson River Housing, and other groups, to create affordable and energy-efficient housing.
It’s really important that the carrying costs are also affordable so that people are not suddenly in a place that they can’t afford to maintain, and that the taxes stay reasonable. These are all things that I’ve been working on and will continue to work on.
We work in the City of Hudson on a number of different initiatives that we’ve helped get investments in. It’s a very diverse and spread-out district, so Pine Plains is not dissimilar to other smaller rural communities. We were talking actually for a couple of years about trying to help the prior administration with some affordable housing by the Stewart’s and a bunch of possible sites in the Pine Plains area.
How as an Assemblymember would you help to lower the cost of living for low and middle-income individuals and families in the Hudson Valley?
I believe that we need to build the economy more robustly here. We’ve got some excellent schools, they’re losing enrollment. We have an aging population here, we need to be attracting younger families and keep people who grew up here. That will go a long way to creating a more sustainable economy.
We really need to look at sustainability as both an environmental and an economic dynamic and be sustainable in all of the things that we’re doing. Part of that is creating housing so that older people can downsize and stay here, younger people can start their family, and that we have workforce housing for our farms and businesses and our schools. That’s all part of what I’ve been very focused on from the outset.
Why should voters in the Pine Plains Central School District vote for you instead of your opponent?
I think they should vote for me because I have worked with them for 12 years. I’ve worked with the FFA. I worked with the prior and the current superintendent. We were just with the current superintendent talking about helping with electric school buses. We brought back increased funding to the school district every time that we could.
I’ve been an advocate for the school district. I’ve been to almost every one of the Ag Days in October and whenever I can do that. I think that they’ve had outstanding representation from me. I’ve been in communication with the board and the community consistently over more than a decade. I think that it’s been a great relationship and I hope that they feel that way too and that we can continue it.
What would you do to ensure that our schools receive adequate funding from Albany?
I just did. We literally, in the budget, advocated to make sure that they get funding. Even though initially in the formula it looked like they were really gonna get a serious cut, we committed to working with the speaker and I did and delivered funding for them. I will continue to do that as I have every year since I was elected.
Across the country we are seeing alarming rates of gun violence. Your opponent mentioned two gun regulations that you did not support. What have or will you do as an Assemblymember to enact sensible gun control measures in New York?
I voted for the SAFE Act, which was the most comprehensive [gun] bill that we have ever passed. I voted 17 times for different kinds of gun safety and gun regulation bills.
There were a few bills at one point that were similar bills that were introduced, and there may have been one that I picked over another. My vote for the SAFE Act was not difficult for me, but I had circles and bullseyes on my pictures from this district on websites because people were very, very angry about that vote.
I was thoughtful and strategic about voting for things that I felt were important and that made a difference. Sometimes we have votes that are one-house bills that certain parts of the state feel that they want to move but that will never have a Senate sponsor or get signed by the governor. So sometimes one makes decisions on what to vote for based on where it’s going and whether it’s actually going to happen.
I have a record … more than a dozen [firearms-related] bills that I have voted for that have passed that the governor signed. Those are really the ones that matter, those are the ones that actually become law. Lots of time there are grandstanding bills that go through one house or another. I am committed to protecting youth and families against gun violence.
I have done a lot of work on suicide prevention. One of the primary results of gun use is suicide. It’s a huge tragedy that doesn’t get the recognition that it should. These are all areas that I’ve worked on, so to say that I don’t support gun safety is wrong.
Pine Plains and surrounding communities have a rich agricultural history. What have you done or plan to do as an Assemblymember to benefit farms and farmers?
Since I was first elected I’ve served on the Agriculture Committee. I’ve fought for farmland preservation. I’ve been a longtime and passionate advocate for farmers. We struggled hard to make sure that they have their workforce needs met while also addressing a range of other economic issues.
I met regularly with the Pine Plains FFA teams at the school, over the years, sat with a group of the student leaders to work on curriculum. It’s been part of what I’ve done consistently. I’ve also done lots of other advocacy for farmers. I’m always there to meet with farmers and have visited most of the farms in the Pine Plains district. I come to the FFA dinner and recognize the young farmers and the work that they’re doing. I’ve sat at the school and been a judge at one of the FFA regional conferences. I think pretty much anything that you would hope a legislator representing you would do, I’ve pretty much done.
There is an EMS crisis in rural Dutchess and Columbia counties. How would you help to address that issue while in office?
We have a package of bills called Rescue EMS that we’re hoping to get moved. We hoped to get it initially in the budget, it didn’t get in the budget, but there is a concerted effort amongst myself and my colleagues to try to see this through. There’s a number of bills that address different aspects of it. But yes, it’s something that I have also been engaged in.
In Dutchess County particularly, I insisted a number of years ago, I think it was 2015, that the then-county executive ask for and pull together a working group to look at what the different fire companies were doing and how emergency services were being delivered. You know, he was not thrilled to have to do it, because people call it the “third rail of politics”, but they did and I think it started a conversation and a consciousness that is being followed up by a series of articles and other things that we’re doing here.
Finally, I think that many of my colleagues are coming to understand that it is a statewide issue, it’s not just in small rural towns that don’t have a voice. That’s what’s so important about having a voice: I can talk to my colleagues in Binghamton and my colleagues from Saratoga and people from parts of Westchester and work together to say this is not just a local issue, this is a statewide issue. The other day we recognized our volunteer firefighters. It would cost more than $4 billion if we were actually paying for the services of those volunteers. So those are all dimensions of this.
What have you done in office, or plan to do, to mitigate climate change?
We passed the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act. That was a major piece of legislation. Currently as the chair of the Energy Committee I have been meeting regularly since I became chair, 15 or 16 months ago, with literally hundreds of agencies, policy people, business people, advocates and activists to really look at the whole range of our climate challenges and how to best address them in all parts of our state.
As the chair of a committee not only is my priority my district, but it’s understanding how we can do these things across the state. I don’t know how much of New York state you’ve seen but New York City is not the same as the Hudson Valley, not the same as the suburbs, not the same as Buffalo, so our challenge is figuring out how we can address all sorts of things from the shift to electric to different kinds of buildings.
Last year we passed all-electric buildings legislation to start ensuring that all new construction is electric. We are working with other state agencies to make sure that they are delivering the resources to our communities to help them with what they need to do. It’s a really multifaceted effort and it’s not just about one bill here or one bill there. The important thing is how we pay for it and not saddle all of our rate-payers with the kinds of costs that will be untenable for them.
The challenge of the climate crisis seems enormous. Do you think that lawmakers in Albany will actually be able to successfully mitigate the worst effects of climate change?
I think we have to. It’s our moral obligation to do it. It’s why I am in public service. I believe that we can make the right kind of change happen and make a difference. I think the approaches to how we do it may be varied, but I think that almost everybody believes that we will. I certainly do. There’s going to be different kinds of approaches to different aspects of it, but I do believe if we work together and all move, or row, in the same direction that we can.
Claire Cousin, your opponent, protested in front of your Hudson office over what she called the “methane bill.” Do you want to clarify your stance on that bill?
There is no such thing as the methane bill. A lot of people seem to think that the way to run government is by slogan, so they come up with cute names like the clean slate bill or good cause eviction, and people hang on to that. There is no such thing as the methane bill.
There was a bill that we introduced that was about accounting methods and it did raise the consideration of whether New York should think about being on the same accounting system as the federal government, other states and the Paris Agreement. It also offered some other options to be added to solar and wind, like drop-in biodiesel that could be added immediately — you could clean up the school buses right away — and get emissions out of certain communities. It offered a panoply of different approaches open for discussion. That’s what legislation does.
That’s actually a real misunderstanding with these conversations that I’ve had about, for example, Clean Slate, which is the bill that I voted for the first time it could ever be voted for. But this opponent seems to think that because I didn’t accept the advocates’ version of the bill, the moment it was introduced, that somehow I’m not really a supporter of it or I’m not really a champion of it.
I’m the one who actually voted for that bill and I voted for a really good bill. It took us some time, taking into consideration where the advocates were coming from, understanding New York state, weighing what we could pass, what we couldn’t pass, what was never gonna fly in certain neighborhoods, how we could get this done, and we got it done, and it’s a good bill.
The idea that whatever you introduce is somehow in its final form shows a really serious misunderstanding of what actually we do. For somebody who wants to go up and be a legislator because she’s spent three years on the [Columbia County] Board of Supervisors, there is a real disconnect about what the work really is.
That bill was one we’ve introduced, it’s not something that is necessarily moving, it’s still out there for those who want to discuss it, it’s not gutting the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act by any stretch of the imagination.
What they’ve relied on is a lot of misrepresenting what I’ve done, sort of spinning things to pretend that they’re something that they’re not, and really little recognition of all that I have accomplished and done for the district in the last 12 years. It’s really unfortunate that that’s what other Democrats are using this year — with so much at stake in November — to spend their time and resources on.
Cousin’s campaign materials state that your campaign is accepting donations from fossil fuel companies. Is that true?
We’ve had to fundraise right now because of this primary and there are some fossil fuel companies that are supporting us. But you know what those fossil fuel companies are doing now? They’re doing wind, and they’re doing solar, so it’s not a clean “I’m a fossil fuel company, I will never do anything else.” I think that’s another sort of red herring argument.
I accept money from supporters across the board, because that’s what I have to do in order to run this campaign right now. But I am not by any stretch of the imagination in the pocket of anybody.
That’s the way this works. You listen to people, you meet with people. A lot of colleagues refuse to even meet with people, so how do you make decisions? These are the colleagues that she wants to be aligned with. How do you fairly represent people if you’re not even hearing where they’re coming from? I am open to hearing from everybody and talking with them and the money that we’re accepting has no impact on my votes.
Which endorsements are you most proud of?
I’m proud of all of the endorsements: the League of Conservation Voters, Eleanor’s Legacy, the unions that I work with. These are people who have been with me for a decade and I have their support and I am certainly very proud of the Democratic committees’ support. This is a Democratic primary, so I’m proud to have the support of both the Columbia County and the Dutchess Democratic committees. I am proud of all of my endorsements.
What is the path to victory for your campaign?
Continuing to talk to the people of my district as I always have, deliver for them and work as hard as I have. We do diner stops all over the district, we have for 12 years. I do show up at events and gatherings across my district. I do the work. I’m committed to doing the work. I think that my constituents know that.
What have you learned since launching your campaign?
I feel a lot of campaigning is just what I do all the time, it’s doing the job. Having run my eighth campaign since March of 2012, I was elected in the special, and that’s what I do. We talk to people, we listen to people more than talk to people. We visit events, we understand the district, we know what people’s priorities are, we hear their concerns and we deliver for them.
How optimistic is the campaign that you will win the election?
I’m always optimistic.
Is there anything else you want voters to know?
Don’t forget to vote. We’re not used to having a primary here in June and it’s important that they come out and vote.