Express News Group Hosts State Assembly and State Senate Debates

Democratic State Assembly incumbent Fred W. Thiele Jr. and his Republican challenger Peter Ganley, and incumbent Republican State Senator Anthony Palumbo and his Democratic challenger Skyler Johnson, squared off in a debate held via Zoom and hosted by The Express News Group on Monday night.

In the first half of the debate, over the course of 40 minutes, in a back-and-forth moderated by Express News Group Managing Editor Bill Sutton, Thiele and Ganley, in their bids for the 1st District seat, shared their views on a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights and bail reform, to traffic and transportation issues and efforts to create more affordable housing on the East End — and at times the debate became heated.

Thiele, 69, of Sag Harbor is seeking what would be his 14th term. He began his career in the Assembly in 1995, before his challenger was born. Ganley, 26, of Southold interned for Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin in his 1st District congressional office while he was in college and then went to work on Zeldin’s congressional reelection campaign after graduating, before taking a turn at politics himself.

Thiele has touted his experience and record during the campaign, saying that as someone who has served the area in the Assembly for nearly 30 years and lived in the area even longer — he’s a graduate of Pierson High School — he has his “finger on the pulse of the East End.”

“I think my seniority has given me a great deal of ability to deliver for the district,” he said in his opening statement, after touting several of his accomplishments, including his work to help create the Community Preservation Fund, which has preserved more than 10,000 acres of open space land in the area. “I try to find out what matters to people, and we work together to try to find solutions in this community, and I deliver in Albany.”

Ganley calls himself “a North Fork guy to my bones,” and said he has spent ample time knocking on doors in recent months getting to know residents of the South Fork better as well. He said he’s running because “there’s never been a more difficult time to be a New Yorker,” citing high taxes, rising violent crime, and rampant corruption in Albany as issues he’s focused on addressing, while adding that he supports term limits.

Ganley did not waste time in firing shots at Thiele, going straight to an issue that he has made a feature of his campaign in recent weeks, stating that while he plans on living in the district for his “whole life,” Thiele “has one foot out the door.”

The basis for that accusation is the fact that Thiele and his wife, NancyLynn Schurr Thiele, recently built a second home in North Carolina. Later in the debate, the issue came up and the candidates had a heated back-and-forth.

Thiele said the house is strictly a vacation home, and said he and his wife decided to build it after she sold a home she previously owned in Albany and moved to Sag Harbor.

“It’s not a novel concept on the East End to have a second home,” Thiele said. “When it comes to being present, as Mr. Ganley likes to say, I’ve been in Albany more than 1,500 session days — and have missed three. For two, I was in the hospital, and one I was at my daughter’s middle school graduation.

“This is the tactic of a candidate who has nothing else to run on,” Thiele continued, before taking a shot of his own at Ganley. “It reminds me of when I played basketball at Sag Harbor. There are players that are good, and you have a game, and then there are players that don’t have qualifications and achievements and so they talk trash. That’s what Mr. Ganley is — a trash talker.”

He added, “It’s a second home — I’m not leaving Sag Harbor.”

Both before and after that exchange, the candidates focused mostly on the issues at hand that matter to voters in the election.

On the topic of reproductive rights, which decreased dramatically in the country after the Supreme Court, in the Dobbs decision, overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the question of abortion access back to states, Thiele reiterated his long held stance as a pro-choice legislator, while Ganley offered a moderate pro-life stance while trying to downplay the issue, saying that changing New York State abortion law is “not on my agenda,” because “it’s not mathematically possible.”

When asked if it were mathematically possible if he would attempt to change the law, Ganley did not offer a straight answer, and Thiele compared his line of reasoning and response to the question to the way Supreme Court candidates spoke about the issue during confirmation hearings in recent years.

“We’ve heard this story before with the confirmation hearings in Washington, and looked what happened with Dobbs,” he said. “When someone says they’re pro-life but they’re not going to change the law, I’d say this: If this is an issue that’s important to you, who are you going to trust? Someone who has a record of protecting abortion access for decades, or someone who says they’re personally pro-life but they’re not going to change the law?”

The candidates also spent time discussing bail reform, with Ganley saying he supports a full repeal of the bail reform act that was first implemented in 2019 and later revised.

“Judges have become powerless, and changes [to the law] have not become sufficient enough to curb violent crime,” Ganley said. “Judges are powerless to keep violent maniacs off the street. We need to elect representatives who will repeal this and change the direction of public safety in New York.”

Thiele, who voted in favor of the reform but admits it has flaws, said that a full repeal “is not the right solution,” but said he doesn’t think that the old system worked either.

“There are cases of people with misdemeanors who sat in jail for years,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe cashless bail was the sole culprit in a rise in crime, but that “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to fix it.”

“One thing I think my opponent and I agree on is that judges need to have more discretion in the process,” Thiele said, adding that he has sponsored several bills that would do that.

Another area of relative agreement between the candidates was on the issue of affordable housing. They both support the ballot initiative to create a Community Housing Fund.

They also found some common ground on the issue of trying to restructure the Long Island Power Authority into a public power authority, although Ganley has accused Thiele, who is the co-chair of LIPA commission, of not working fast enough to make that happen. Thiele said he and fellow committee members have been working “very hard,” and are on track to have a report to the legislature by an April deadline.

In his closing statement, Ganley brought up another issue he’d hoped to discuss during the debate — corruption in Albany.

“We see new corruption scandals every week,” he said. “We need to put restrictions on who can give to campaigns if they’re doing business with the state. It’s a huge problem. I want to bring ethics back to Albany.”

He also called for more transparency, saying he supports webcasting of committee meetings and saying that Thiele and the rest of his party voted against that. Thiele quickly pointed out that he sponsored legislation that allowed for hybrid meetings and also opened up the state’s Open Meetings Law, an example of his support of governmental transparency.

Thiele kept his closing statement short.

“I’m running on my record and experience and what I’ve delivered for the community,” he said. “Compare that with what my opponent has offered. I didn’t hear one new idea or one piece of legislation. Stick with what works.”

Palumbo and Skyler Johnson debated the issues that will be on the ballot next month during the second half of the debate on Monday night.

The Senate debate was moderated by Express News Group Deputy Managing Editor Brendan O’Reilly, who posed a series of questions to the candidates over the course of 40 minutes related to topics like public transportation, bail reform, reproductive rights, economic development opportunities for the Shinnecock Nation, and more.

Like in the assembly race, there is a wide disparity in the ages of the candidates in the senate race, with the incumbents both significantly older than their challengers. Palumbo, 52, of New Suffolk is seeking his second term, and was in the State Assembly for seven years prior to running for the senate seat two year ago when former Republican Senator Kenneth P. LaValle — who Palumbo called “a close friend and mentor” — retired.

“I ran and won the seat, and in those two years, I’ve passed 37 bills,” Palumbo said. “Government is about getting things done. I co-sponsored the affordable housing bill, I carried it in the Senate and Thiele carried it in the Assembly.”

Palumbo also touted his accomplishments when it comes to environmental and transportation issues as well.

Johnson is a 22-year-old resident of Mount Sinai, who previously worked for Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren. He is a progressive candidate who said he would focus on climate change and protecting a woman’s right to choose. He also touted his work with the advocacy group New Hour, which works with law enforcement agencies like the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department to support formerly incarcerated women and their families.

Because of their backgrounds and areas of interest, the question of what to do about bail reform was an animating issue for both Palumbo and Johnson. Palumbo is an atorney who worked in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office for many years, and in private practice now.

When asked if bail reform needs to be “repealed, left alone or revised,” Palumbo offered his thoughts on the legislation that was passed in 2019.

“Something needed to be done with bail,” he said. “No one wants someone to be sitting in jail on $500 or $1,000 bail awaiting trial.”

He said he is in support of a “repeal and replace” approach, saying it’s currently “a broken system.”

“Criminals are emboldened,” he said. “Homicides are down, but other crimes have outrageously increased, and it’s a result, to an extent, of these policies.”

Johnson offered his thoughts on the matter.

“Bail is meant to guarantee that someone returns for trial,” he said. “It’s not meant to be a way to keep people locked up. What gets left out of the conversation about bail is that implementing bail doesn’t guarantee you can’t leave, it just guarantees that you can’t leave if you’re poor. I’m happy to revise [bail reform] based on stats and hard facts, not based on fear mongering.”

Johnson said there is “little evidence” bail reform led to re-arrests, and accused Palumbo of using it as a campaign tactic.

On the issue of reproductive rights, Johnson said he is pro-choice and accused Palumbo of being dishonest when it comes to his stance on abortion.

“When someone asks me what his position on abortion is, I ask what day of the week is it?” Johnson said. He addressed Palumbo directly when he said, “You have voted against protecting the right to choose for years. It’s been legal in New York because we’ve voted in people who protected that right.”

Palumbo and Johnson also discussed the Shinnecock Nation and its efforts at economic development, something they both said they support. Johnson said the question of the billboard monuments the tribe constructed on Sunrise Highway is a “non issue,” because the monuments are on Shinnecock land and they have a right to do whatever they want because of that. He added that he ran campaign ads on the billboard, and said that if elected, he pledged to meet with the tribe before making any decisions related to them.

“They’re a large and crucial part of our district and I will do everything I can to make sure we’re increasing protections for the tribe and making it easier for them to apply for mortgages and bank accounts, and making sure they receive the funds they need to survive and thrive, and that they are not constantly hindered by New York State.”

Palumbo said he thinks the tribe’s plans for a welcome station are a good idea, but is not in support of their plan to potentially build a casino in Southampton, saying it would exacerbate already challenging traffic issues. He added he did think ongoing state litigation against the billboard monuments should end.

Palumbo and Johnson found common ground on issues like increasing LIRR access for South Fork residents, and both support the Community Housing Fund proposal currently on the ballot.