Aubertine a Candidate for State Senate

WATERTOWN -Today New York State Assemblyman Darrel J. Aubertine (D-Cape Vincent) announced his candidacy for the New York State Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator James Wright. The initial announcement came to a crowd that was spilling out the door at 10 o'clock this morning in Oswego, and was followed up by an announcement at the Aubertine for State Senate office at the Marcy Building in Watertown shortly after noon.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred supporters gathered at what quickly became a cramped Watertown office to listen to Assemblyman Aubertine announce his candidacy for the 48th State Senate seat. Assemblyman Aubertine's announcement and his message drew a stark contrast with his opponent William A. Barclay (R-Pulaski). The video on Mr. Barclay's website suggests that he delivered his announcement to an empty room, while Assemblyman Aubertine drew a packed house in both Oswego and Watertown.

Supporters chanted "Darrel" as the Assemblyman entered and made his way across a nearly standing room only crowd shaking hands and saying "hello" before walking to the podium. Jefferson County Democratic Committee Chairman Sean Hennesey introduced Darrel as reporters from various news organizations, and supporters gathered near to hear the Assemblyman speak.

During his introduction Chairman Hennesey drew a stark contrast between the candidates for anyone familiar with Mr. Barclay's background. Assemblyman Aubertine was introduced as a Sixth Generation farmer who understood what it meant to work for a living, and the problems facing the ordinary people living in the district, a theme that Mr. Aubertine would echo in his announcement.

During his introduction, Mr. Hennesey explained that Darrel was first encouraged to run for the Town Board in Cape Vincent by a Republican friend who felt he would do a good job. From there, Mr. Aubertine became a member of the Jefferson County Legislature, where as one of only 3 Democrats in the legislature, he was elected Chairman.

Mr. Hennesey went on to praise Assemblyman Aubertine for the work he has done in the "River District" representing Northern Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties, including securing millions of additional dollars in state aide for local schools. During his introduction, Mr. Hennesey reminded supporters of the little reported fact, that Assemblyman Aubertine is not only a member, but the Chairman of the Sportsman Caucus in the Assembly.

After thanking Mr. Hennesey, Assemblyman Aubertine told the packed house that he had decided to run for the State Senate at the urging of friends, family, and supporters because he felt he could be of service to the North County and Central New York community.

He told the crowd that a lot of people would want to distract them from the issues that concern him and the citizens of the 48th Senate District. He said that some people would suggest this race is about a battle for power between upstate New York and downstate New York, but for him it was clearly a battle to bring positive change to the North Country and Central New York, and a battle to make life on all of the Main Streets in the 48th Senate District a little better.

In talking about the work he had done that helped him decide to take on the bigger challenge of representing approximately 300,000 New Yorkers in the State Senate he said that his proudest accomplishment, helping to save almost 900 jobs at the Alcoa factory in Massena had been important. Mr. Aubertine said he felt he could be more effective at keeping good jobs in the North Country and Central New York and bringing new jobs to the region by changing the status quo in the district's State Senate representation.

Mr. Aubertine told the packed house that he understood the value of hard work from a life time of hard work on his family farm, that he understood their concerns about rising tax rates, which he joked he first learned about at 17, when he was the only student paying school taxes after he purchased his first farm. Mr. Aubertine explained that he understood families concerns about financing higher education for their children from his own experience educating his three children. He joked that he understood what a FAFSA was and he had filled a few of them out with a little help from his wife, Margaret. He explained that experience is one reason he has worked hard to ensure that public funding for higher education is available.

Mr. Aubertine thanked his supporters in Watertown before taking a few questions from reporters. When asked why he wanted to make what many would consider a lateral move from the Assembly to the Senate, Mr. Aubertine explained that the pay scale would be lateral, and that he loves working for the citizens of his Assembly District, but that the opportunity to represent many more of his fellow citizens meant an expanded opportunity to help his community, and he felt his experience made him ready for the challenge.

Assemblyman Aubertine spent a few minutes talking with individual supporters before leaving to address another crowd of more than 100 supporters at the campaign offices in Canton to make his official announcement to St. Lawrence county.