Levenberg seeks re-election for second term
Michael Capalbo began a debate with state Assembly Member Dana Levenberg at the Ossining Library on Oct. 7 by condemning antisemitism and asking spectators to remember the killing and kidnapping of Israelis a year earlier by Hamas.
But a comment he made 11 minutes later overshadowed that gesture. Responding after Levenberg, who is Jewish, spoke of her support for increased funding and municipal aid in this year’s budget, the Republican and Conservative party candidate said: “They throw her some shekels to do some work in her community.”
On Tuesday (Oct. 15), Capalbo said it was a “clumsy use of words” and that he had Jewish supporters attending the debate who took “no offense to it whatsoever.” But Levenberg, whose name appears on the Democratic and Working Families lines, said she was offended. “Especially following his comment about how he’s against antisemitism, I thought it was so tone-deaf,” she said.
The rest of the nearly one-hour debate, organized by the League of Women Voters for Northwest Westchester County, and subsequent telephone interviews this week gave the candidates opportunities to highlight their other contrasts in the race for the 95th District, which includes Philipstown.
Levenberg, who has a campaign cash advantage ($88,477 to $11,814), is a former Ossining supervisor and chief of staff to her predecessor, Sandy Galef, who held the seat for 30 years. During Levenberg’s first term, which began in January 2023, she has supported core progressive issues such as the environment, education funding and efforts to build more housing to drive down costs.
She voted for the Climate Change Superfund Act, which the Legislature passed in June. The bill, which Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to sign, requires that companies responsible for the buildup of greenhouse gases help fund infrastructure projects that reduce the impact of climate change.
Levenberg said she is crafting legislation requiring climate risks to be factored in for transit-oriented developments built near public-transportation stops like those along Metro-North’s Hudson Line, which is prone to flooding from the Hudson River. The 95th District runs along the river from Briarcliff Manor to Philipstown.
“We have to be cognizant of those issues, particularly in my district,” said Levenberg.
In the state budget approved in April, Levenberg and Democrats in the Legislature negotiated for a bigger increase to foundation aid than Hochul originally proposed for local school districts. She also supported spending the $2 million that is funding the Rockefeller Institute study of the formula the state uses to distribute foundation aid.
In areas like Ossining and Philipstown, data showing high incomes can mask the needs of their school districts, said Levenberg.
In Ossining, “we kept getting knocked down by the formula because there are wealthy pockets that were bringing up the median income,” said Levenberg, a former school board member for the district.
She also plans to re-introduce legislation that would require each city, town and village to develop a plan to increase its supply of housing “for everyone.” Those plans would be subject to a public hearing and have to be submitted to the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. Some of that new housing needs to be affordable, including for middle-income households, said Levenberg.
“We need it for our kids, we need it for our seniors, we need it for people on fixed incomes and people who are just trying to get a foot in the door in Westchester and Putnam counties,” she said.
By contrast, Capalbo said during the debate that “hostile laws toward landlords” have left tens of thousands of housing units vacant because their owners “can’t get the rent stabilization reviewed” so they can make a profit. “They’re sitting there because it’s more worthwhile for landlords to do it,” said Capalbo, a business analyst who lives in Yorktown.
He railed about the control by Democrats of the governor’s seat and the Legislature, and said that one-party rule would be a problem even if Republicans dominated elected offices. “We’re a system of checks and balances,” he said. “New York has become unchecked and unbalanced.”
In addition to calling for lower taxes, and the use of school vouchers, the first-time candidate said the state’s renewable-energy goals are too costly and that electric vehicles “are a fantasy.”
“The middle class is being robbed of their future, of their wealth and of their grandchildren’s future, and if they complain, they are smeared with terms like racist or xenophobe, or supporting the patriarch or toxic masculinity,” he said.
Capalbo also criticized Proposition 1, a ballot initiative supported by Levenberg that would add a number of classes — including sexual orientation, gender identity and “reproductive healthcare and autonomy” — to the state Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
Calling the language “broadly worded,” Capalbo said it pertains to people who “supposedly” face discrimination and “opens the door for men in women’s sports.”
“It opens up men in women’s private spaces — locker rooms, restrooms. It gives illegal aliens the rights of citizens. It allows children to make their own medical decisions without the parents being informed,” he said. “This bill is radical.”
