Cover credit – nysenate.gov

Senator Anthony Palumbo

Candidate: Anthony Palumbo
Residence: New Suffolk
First Elected: 2020
Prior Elected Office: Second Assembly District, 2013-2021
Office Sought: New York’s First Senate District
Party Lines: Republican, Conservative
Committees: Ranking Member on Judiciary; Ranking Member on Codes; Ethics and Internal Governance; Environmental Conservation; Mental Health; Deputy Floor Leader of the Senate GOP Conference
Endorsements: Newsday, Suffolk PBA, Deputy Sheriffs, all law enforcement unions, NYSUT, LIFL, AFL-CIO, LiUNA, AME, CSEA, CWA, Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, Former State Senator Ken LaValle

Elected in 2020, then-Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo had monumental shoes to fill left behind by legendary Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson). After securing a decisive win in 2022, Palumbo is running for a third term. He is being challenged by former Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mt. Sinai), who, after numerous attempts for a meeting, did not screen with The Messenger.

Senator Palumbo sat down with The Messenger for an interview for this candidate spotlight.

Q: What is your professional background and how does it equip you for the State Senate?

A: I’m a small business owner of a law firm. Between college at Lafayette (Pennsylvania) and law school, I worked in the Manhattan D.A.’s office. My father was a Suffolk homicide detective, so that made me interested in law and law enforcement. I graduated from St. John’s School of Law and served as an Assistant D.A. in Suffolk for about seven years. I moved through the ranks and worked cases on narcotics, and in the Major Crime Bureau, which handles cases like homicides, rapes, and robberies. I was also Trial Supervisor for the five eastern towns for two years. I then took ten years to run a private law practice when I got married and had a family.

Q: What are some of your accomplishments for the First Senate District and New York overall?

A: My first bill was a first-time home-buyer exemption. Two years ago, we passed the Community Housing Fund (CHF), which each town can opt into. The purpose is so that each municipality can have a revenue stream in creating workforce housing. Since April, about $7 million has been in that fund to help our younger population afford homes. I also helped lead the fight against Governor Hochul’s (D) school aid funding changes in the executive budget. My district’s school districts would have lost $23 million. Every dollar the school districts would have lost would have been another dollar the residents need to pay in property taxes. Two-thirds of our property tax bill funds the schools. It is our moral and constitutional obligation to educate our kids. When enacted, the aid for my district’s schools was restored 100%.

I also have a bill to double the School Tax Relief (STAR) Exemption and another to freeze property taxes when someone reaches the age of 80. My first bill in the Senate was a first-time homebuyer exemption. I think less government is more. My focus is always on affordability and public safety.

Q: What is your top priority if you are re-elected?

A: Taxes and jobs; that’s the district. We are in full swing after recovering from COVID, and we’re trying to support our local businesses and make Long Island more affordable. I’m looking to push legislation for smaller government policies to deal with public safety, affordability, and the environment. I think the CHF is the model we can implement statewide that will create a way for the government to help those who are eligible to afford the American Dream. We have a brain drain because we have these tremendously smart kids who can’t afford to stay on Long Island.

Q: What would you consider to be the defining issue of this election?

A: Affordability. Since the Democrats took control in 2019, our budget has gone up $78 billion. It’s larger than the budgets of thirty-eight entire states. We are the highest taxed, highest regulated state, even more than California. We need to change that and reduce the size of our government.

Proposition 2 was something we pushed for bipartisanly. We have PFAs in Manorville and we need a revenue stream for septic and water quality. With a fund like that, we can use it to rebuild Stony Brook and Rocky Point after Ernesto and aid the Mastic/Shirley sewer project. This will allow us to find a way to pay for these projects.

Q: What’s your pitch to voters to return you to the Senate as a member of the minority?

A: NYC blindly votes for one party and we have Democratic legislators who vote like sheep. Every single Democrat voted for bail reform, even our Suffolk Senators, in 2019. Meanwhile, they were promising law enforcement that they wouldn’t, and they did anyway, because that’s how they run their ship. Do you want more ‘yes’ people, or do you want some balance?

I’m the plaintiff who sued the Senate Judiciary Committee over the hearing of Hector LaSalle for the Supreme Court. That episode really exposed their intentions to politicize the Court. The one place that’s supposed to be sacrosanct is the judiciary and now they have a radical activist judge in Rowan Wilson, who showed his true colors by dismissing the Harvey Weinstein rape case. Right before he was confirmed, he dismissed an acquaintance rape conviction. It took the D.A.’s office four years to indict the case because there was no statute of limitations.

I’ve had fifty-seven sponsored bills passed; that’s more than a lot of majority members. The story we hear every cycle that those in the majority are the only ones who can get it done is nonsense. The only difference is they have the votes for statewide policies. They don’t affect my local bills and what I want to do in the district. They affect the broad strokes of tax policy and criminal justice policy. The statewide policy has moved in the progressive direction, particularly with this new majority. They’re proudly aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America; they say “defund the police” on the floor. A lot of my bills were passed with Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor) in the Assembly; you can work across the aisle. Our job in the minority is to fight and expose the really bad points, like the Clean Slate Act.

Q: What is your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic?

A: “First district first.” – Former Senator Ken LaValle. We always consider the district first. All politics is local. What’s best for our local communities? The residents come first. They’re the ones who send me up there to work on their behalf to do what’s best for them. We are always required to consider what the constituents need for my district, regardless of ideology.

Q: How do you like to connect with your community?

A: I’m born and raised on Long Island. We have the most bucolic and best district in the state. When it comes to enjoying the outdoors and going for a walk, swimming, fishing, clamming, boating, we have a beautiful and amazing district. It’s an honor to represent it and it’s a pleasure to live here. People come to my district to get away and go on vacation. I’m proud to live out here and I want to make sure that other generations can as well.

The Messenger thanks Senator Palumbo for his time for this interview.

About the First Senate District

The First District is a sprawling jurisdiction that contains the entire townships of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton, and Southold, as well as northern and eastern Brookhaven. Within the Town of Brookhaven, the district includes Belle Terre, East Setauket, East Shoreham, Miller Place, Mount Sinai, Old Field, Poquott, Port Jefferson, Port Jefferson Station, Rocky Point, Setauket, Shoreham, Sound Beach, Stony Brook, Strongs Neck, and Terryville, as well as parts of Centereach, Coram, Miller Place, Ridge, Selden, and Wading River.