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Our TV Ads Inside Albany Story #1 "Students For Reform"
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Democrats Manhattan Monroe County Montgomery County Oneida County Onondaga County Ontario County Orange County Queens County Rockland County Schenectady County Suffolk County Sullivan County Ulster County Westchester County Republicans Bronx County Broome County Cayuga County Nassau County Onondaga County Putnam County Queens County Rockland County Wayne County Westchester County This message is brought to you by our student interns from high schools and colleges including NYU, Dartmouth, Harvard, Rutgers, MIT, Cornell, RPI, the University of Michigan and Yale, and attorneys Charles Juntikka, Dan Wolf and Craig Heller. |
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Students Launch Ads Criticizing State Lawmakers
Albany Paul Tonko among those targeted by a nonprofit group financed by a Manhattan attorney
by Lara Jakes - Albany Times Union
Even after serving nearly two decades as a state assemblyman, Paul Tonko could still use a little schooling on good-government reforms, a group of high school and college students charged Monday.
Tonko is one of 27 state lawmakers targeted as vulnerable in the November election by Students4Reform, a nonprofit group of young men, women and teenagers aided in guidance and finances by Manhattan bankruptcy attorney Charles Juntikka -- a familiar face in ``good government'' campaigns in the Capitol.
A 30-second attack ad blasting Tonko's voting record on ballot access laws will begin airing in the region by week's end, said Juntikka. Similar spots against Assemblywoman Susan John, D-Rochester, and GOP Sens. Tom Libous of Binghamton and Dean Skelos of Long Island also are set to run.
``Reformers want to make it easier for challengers (to incumbent office-holders) to get on the ballot for all offices,'' an announcer intones on the Tonko ad. ``But Democrat Paul Tonko refuses to support ballot reform. Let's vote against Paul Tonko in November. It's time for real reform.''
Tonko, seeking a 10th term in the Assembly seat that encompasses Schenectady and Montgomery counties, faces Republican James Bruner, a Pattersonville attorney and conservative local television commentator, in the Nov. 7 election.
He did not return a call seeking comment Monday.
The group spent $3,000 to $4,000 on the ads, which Juntikka said could air weekly until November. The students' organization is funded mostly by Juntikka, a practice he said ``won't last for long.''
Like his legislative colleagues, Tonko was identified as vulnerable because of what Stuyvesant High School senior Olga Kaplan described as his ``marginal'' district -- where enrolled Democrats and Republicans are almost matched in number.
``If you really try, you can affect change,'' said Kaplan, 18, who will attend Wellsley College in the fall. ``I heard about it before -- you know, everybody says tobacco companies own politics, oil companies own politics. And I was like, `No, no.' But it's true. It's true.''
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Archive of Print Stories on S4R
NY Times Story
Students Put Pressure on Legislators by Winnie Hu
Teen People
NY Daily News
NY Daily News
Albany Times Union
NY Newsday
The Troy Record
GANNET NEWS SERVICE
Albany Times Union
The Legislative Gazette
NY Times Story
The Daily Gazette of Schenectady
Rochester Chronicle
Albany Times Union
Other Articles On Corruption
NY Observer
Troy Record
Hon. Sheldon Silver
Sen. Joe Bruno
Sen. Bruno’s Flawed Gift Ban Bill Loopholes |
