We Mark Our Ballot: For State Assembly

There is perhaps no sitting lawmaker who has done more to safeguard the traditional way of life and community character of the East End while making every effort to improve the lives of its residents than incumbent New York State 1st District Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., whom we wholeheartedly endorse for a 14th term in Albany.

Thiele was an architect of the Community Preservation Fund, which has generated nearly $2 billion to preserve farmland and open space and protect water quality in the five East End towns over the last two-plus decades. His other initiatives in his 26 years in Albany, in addition to stellar constituent services, include providing state funds for local estuaries, farmland preservation and a host of other measures. He helped to create the South Fork Commuter Connection, which, although it has had its fits and starts, will, as it grows, have a role in alleviating the South Fork’s traffic issues.

The assemblyman also led the charge in giving the towns the option of adding the Community Housing Fund, which, if approved by voters on Election Day, will generate millions of dollars to combat the region’s most critical threat, the dearth of affordable housing.

His opponent, Republican Peter Ganley, offers little in the way of vision for the future, echoing his party’s tired scare-tactic talking points about rising crime and a perceived failure in the effort to reform the state’s bail system and corruption in Albany — but no concrete ideas or legislative agenda on how to improve the district.

Ganley’s personal attacks against Thiele for his construction of a vacation home in North Carolina and the implications that the assemblyman is checked out have been tasteless, politics at its worst and clueless to the extreme. Owning a winter home elsewhere is hardly a rare thing on the East End.

Ganley, a political newcomer, also said that if elected, he would champion term limits, implying that lawmakers like Thiele who have served for multiple terms were more open to corruption and complacency, resigned to simply align themselves with party leadership.

But Thiele has proved just the opposite to be true, utilizing his breadth of experience to work — across the aisle in many instances — consistently and tirelessly for the betterment of his district and its residents. He should get to continue that work — we all benefit.