Candidate: Trish Kopp
Residence: Oakdale
Occupation: Retired teacher
Party Lines: Democratic, Working Families
Office Sought: New York State Assembly, District 7 (AD-07)
Endorsements: NYSUT, AFl-CIO, LiUNA, 1199, Steamfitters Union
Trish Kopp is making her first run for public office to succeed Assemblyman Jarett Gandolfo (R-Sayville) as he makes a run for an open Senate seat.
Trish Kopp sat down with The Messenger for this candidate spotlight interview.
Q: What is your professional background and how does it equip you for the Assembly?
A: I’m a veteran teacher and a mom of four. I taught art – the best subject to teach – and the kids were always happy to go to art class. I spent 15 years in Half Hollow Hills. I taught every grade level there, starting at the elementary level and working up to high school. Half Hollow Hills is an exceptional district but they struggle sometimes due to declining enrollment because the houses are so expensive. When school districts start cutting, art is one of the first subjects to get cut. I got excessed after 15 years and went right away to work in Brentwood.
I have administrative certifications, so I did admin work for a while at Brentwood for a whole different perspective. It’s shocking how different school districts can be from one another, how districts impact the community. I did 5 years at Brentwood for a total of 20 years in teaching.
I’ve always been involved as a political committee member. I didn’t know much about Suffolk politics until this campaign, but I’m obsessed with national politics. In March, we knew there was no candidate in this district. Parts of the South Shore have been ignored by the Democratic Party and that was a part of the committee’s chairman race last month. I figured I would run for this seat and learn as I go. It’s better than having no candidate; that didn’t seem like an option. I know the South Shore so well from living here for so long, and we on the committee took an approach to build a ground game that was absent here. We’re doing two things at once.
My husband owns restaurants and delis across Long Island. I have that perspective of knowing how really, really tough it is for small businesses here. I have a front-row seat to understanding the challenges of owning small businesses and how hard the restaurant business is. I also raised four kids here. It’s a great understanding of what families go through raising kids on Long Island.
Q: What is the state of the State in your view?
A: While New York is a blue state, that’s not Suffolk’s experience. I sometimes feel like voters in Suffolk don’t always reap the benefits of some other things that New Yorkers are experiencing. We’re lucky to be in a blue state right now. I think it’s a real precarious situation in some areas, what’s happening on the federal level. People are losing their health insurance; the State is trying to assist. I think New York is doing well and playing an important role right now.
We know what the challenges are; it’s very expensive, especially utilities. I would like to see New York lead in green energies where we can give people initiatives and try to move forward while lowering things. Nobody is confused about what’s difficult in New York; it’s all-priced related. It’s surprising the people you hear it from. It’s not just marginalized people who are having a hard time while everyone else is okay. You can walk up to a house where it seems they’re doing well, they have at least one 6-figure income, you can tell by the house and the cars, yet they’re feeling squeezed.
New York has always been expensive; most of the squeezes being felt are from the federal level – groceries, gas, health insurance.
I’m not suggesting that New York is perfect. We do have to do the work to help our hardworking families. In a general sense, it’s a nice thing when you send a Democrat who votes with the majority. That representative now has a seat at the table to bring funding that those in the minority are not always able to bring.
Q: What are your priorities for AD-07?
A: Patchogue has a living wall that protects from flooding and is revitalizing the Great South Bay. I would love to see that all the way out to Bay Shore.
On housing, the apartment complexes have been great in revitalizing downtowns like Bay Shore and Patchogue, but people in their 20s and 30s can’t afford the rents around $3500 to $4000 a month. It gets you in the cycle of paying rent, not paying for a deposit, not saving, and prevents the life in a community that we all had. Just a generation ago, my husband and I bought this house in our 20s. I would love to see a focus on starter homes and initiatives for first-time buyers.
Neighborhoods have so much to do with how people interact with each other. I refuse to believe with all the expertise and smart technology we have in New York, the areas are getting what they need and want. Why can’t we build nice, laid-out communities with starter homes, but with green energies? Solar-powered, off the grid, water retention, and union-built of course.
10 years ago, if you went hamlet-by-hamlet, Bayport wanted this, Sayville wanted that. It’s so strange as I knock doors in each hamlet, it’s almost like the challenges are unifying. Every hamlet has the same struggles.
Q: What would be your prerogatives for the state at large?
A: I’m very pro-union. Those are the jobs that balance the increased expense of living on Long Island that help families stay here. I think being pro-union in this moment of billionaires running rampant is important for the middle-class. I bring an educational background and I hope to form a voting bloc with the other NYSUT members who are up in Albany. There’s a couple precarious things, the charter school/voucher scheme, Tier 5 and 6.
Big change can come from little things. The cell phone ban in schools has been very effective. Albany and Governor Hochul gave the bell-to-bell mandate but schools were allowed a permission structure.
I love the concept of bringing apprenticeships for good-paying jobs into the schools – like a new twist on BOCES. Some kids are not going to college, others can’t afford it, and for others, institutionalized learning is not their thing. Teaching trades can allow kids to leave school with credits, meet graduation requirements, get into apprenticeship programs, and leave with good-paying jobs, benefits, and they can stay in communities where families are.
I’m interested in putting protections in school districts on AI. There’s a whole unknown about AI and I don’t really trust the people who are in charge of it right now. It can bring amazing things, but it needs to be monitored. I don’t think they can be trusted to self-regulate when you have the people who built it saying they’re scared of it.
Q: If you’re elected, where do you fit into the fold of an evolving Democratic Party in New York?
A: I’m not a “woke” Democrat – our party needs them as well – but I’m a pragmatic, FDR-type Democrat looking to just deliver. The government should use hard-working taxpayer dollars to help taxpayers in any way they can.Expanding Medicare, for example, is not a giveaway; that’s our hard-earned tax dollars working for us. Working with either side doesn’t give me any hesitation.
I do think we’re in an interesting moment about how we got “got” by both sides over the years. There’s nothing I wouldn’t be willing to talk about with either side for a genuine chance to help families. I do think the moment we’re in has opportunities that maybe weren’t there 2-4 years ago.
I’m a detective’s daughter, my brother is a police captain in Nassau, and my family is known in NYPD history. It supersedes my politics that I understand police and what they go through. In dealing with bail reform, I think what we have to do across the State is complete judicial discretion. We know why it started, there was an issue there, but it’s a good idea just gone bad. We need to have judges say this person is not allowed to go back into the community. That would be a starting point. Even though I’m a Democrat, I am pro-police. We have the best police in the state and phenomenal police in Suffolk.
I would deal with the majority on an issue-by-issue basis.
Q: What’s your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic?
A: Get there early and stay later, and work harder than anyone. That leads to a joyful life.
Q: How do you like to connect with your community, and what do you do in your spare time?
A: I know that a lot of politicians don’t like knocking doors, but I can talk to people all day long. I do really love knocking doors. You learn a lot in that way. In this moment, it’s fascinating; the struggles are the same everywhere. You can detect the trends and their urgency.
Having had four kids, I’m constantly networking. When you’re a parent you’re forced into it, whether on the sidelines at a soccer game or at the school board meetings.
All my kids are in their 20s and out of the house. My husband and I are in that phase of our lives and we’re finding things we love to do. We went to Europe for the first time a few years ago. It’s been very recently in our lives to take a big trip like that, I hope to get better at traveling. I’ll go anywhere, but hopefully I’ll be in Albany.
The Messenger thanks Trish Kopp for her time for this interview.
