Rob Rolison is the Republican and Conservative candidate for the state Senate district that includes Beacon and Philipstown. He is seeking a third, 2-year term. Jackie Drain, a communications student at Marist University, interviewed him as part of the school’s Community Journalism Initiative. The discussion has been edited by The Current for clarity and brevity. A video of the full exchange is below.
For an interview with his Democratic challenger, Lisa Kaul, click here.
What made you want to study criminal justice at Marist?
In high school, I wanted to be a career firefighter or a police officer, and at 18, I joined the Croft Corners Volunteer Fire Co. in the Arlington fire district, the Town of Poughkeepsie, where I grew up. I started to take civil service exams. The cops called me first. Six or eight months into the job, the fire department called me, but I opted to stay as a cop.
What made you want to pursue your degree after that?
I was going to Marist at the time but left. To anybody listening: Don’t leave college. I should have stayed. I left as a junior, and then came back eight years ago, when I was mayor [of Poughkeepsie], to take a couple of classes to finish up my degree. But work got the best of it.
How did your experience at Marist influence your political career?
I was a cop here in town for 26 years, both as a patrol officer and as a detective. I did 12 years in uniform and 14 years in detectives. I became union president, which meant I advocated for the men and women of the police department with the Town Board, from contract negotiations to mediation and arbitration. I learned the town side of things, and I enjoyed working with town officials. I was also a member of the Police Conference of New York, which is the umbrella organization for local police agencies. I got close with and worked collaboratively with many of the police unions in Westchester, which took a more active role in the political side of things in their communities as a police union. I started to get our union more involved in the political process because you have to be involved if you want to change something, right?
I probably should have said this at the get-go, but my dad was a lawyer and also was on the Board of Trustees here at Marist. He was a state senator for 24 years, from 1967, when I was in third grade, to 1990. As a kid and a young man, I always focused on becoming a police officer or a firefighter. I share this anytime I have the chance to speak to anyone, especially the younger generation—of course, that means younger than me: Never let a chance go by if it’s something you may want to grab. In 2003, I was a detective, and I had an opportunity. Someone approached me from the Republican committee in the City of Poughkeepsie, where I’ve lived for 35 years. There was an opening in the county Legislature, because someone had resigned to become a full-time county employee. I was appointed to the position for six months.
I had to run for election in November, and I won by the skin of my teeth. Two years later, I ran for re-election and won again in a close race. The third time, the margin got a little bit bigger. The fourth time, I must have been doing something right because my vote totals grew. I stayed in the Legislature for 12 years. The membership picked me as chair. That was gratifying, especially because I got the Democrats’ votes. Only Joel Tyner, from Clinton voted against me. He said, “Roli, I just can’t do it.”
In 2015, I decided not to run again. I’d retired from the police department and felt someone else needed to do the job. It’s not like a career. But then people on both sides of the aisle approached me about running for mayor. The incumbent was done because of term limits, so I took a chance. I won and ran again. I was in my second term when there was this controversy in New York state over the congressional district lines. It got highly political and partisan. Litigation followed, and a judge ruled the new lines and the Senate lines unconstitutional.
I was not paying attention to any of this. I loved being mayor. But out of the clear blue sky, the judge approved a new set of lines that created a new Senate district. I got text messages: “Did you see the Senate lines? You might want to consider running.” I won in 2022 and in 2024, and here we are. The point is, these were chance encounters for me, and I took them, and they’ve been great opportunities.
In your experience in the Legislature, as mayor and now senator, what are the main issues facing Poughkeepsie residents?
Right now, the topic is affordability. That wasn’t the issue when I ran for mayor. Then it was the city’s fiscal calamity, with a $13.2 million deficit. It was public safety. It was the city’s cleanliness and the morale of its 600-plus employees. I ran on a simple platform: “Safer, cleaner, stronger.” Also, “Believe in Poughkeepsie.”
I started my first term in 2016, and I worked extremely hard with employees and the departments to clean up the city. It was too dirty, too much stuff on the streets. We redeployed manpower and invested in equipment. A cleaner street is a safer street. We worked on public safety and the fiscal situation, which was worse than I knew. We had to make tough decisions, but no one lost their job. We tightened our belts, which were already pretty tight, but we got assistance from the state, county and nonprofit organizations that did community cleanups. We received state funds for fire equipment and police cars. The county assigned a planner to our planning department, which didn’t exist then. We rebuilt infrastructure and, most importantly, trust in city government.
When I was a county legislator, we needed to do more for domestic violence services. I have always focused on ensuring we could provide services and find innovative ways to help victims. Dutchess County recognized us as a leader in that area. The point is, beyond the fiscal stuff, I’ve always stayed in my lane: public safety and children and families. I was the public safety chair and the chair of family and human services in the Legislature and have similar committee assignments.
You go to Albany, and the circumstances are different. It’s the entire state. You have competing interests among the regions: upstate Hudson Valley, downstate Long Island, etc. What we’re seeing, of course, is that affordability issues aren’t just in New York; they’re across the country, and they are acute. There are many reasons for these challenges, and it’s not because the government is broke. In Poughkeepsie, we were out of money. We’re not out of money in New York State. We have a healthy reserve. We spent $277 billion in last year’s budget, up from the year before. The frustrating part is, we do a lot of great things for a lot of people. But if you said to the average person, did you know that since 2018-19, the state budget’s gone up by $100 billion? Would you say that your life has gotten better? Most people would say, “No, it’s gotten tougher.” There are many reasons for that. The dynamics are constantly changing, and to be effective, you need to change with them.
You mentioned your efforts toward protecting domestic-violence victims. One of the things that was done in the last year was the passing of Melanie’s Law to create a registry for domestic-violence perpetrators. What exactly does this law mean to you, and how does it help support domestic violence victims?
Melanie’s Law closed a loophole in orders of protection. It did not create a registry; that bill is floating around out there. Melanie’s Law was specific to a young woman who was murdered here in Dutchess County, in Wappinger, by the ex-boyfriend of her mom. This individual was an abuser, an extremely disturbed individual, and Melanie’s mom, Cheryl, had an order of protection against him. Melanie’s son, Miles, had an order of protection against him. But because of a loophole in the law, Melanie, who was not necessarily part of the domestic abuse, couldn’t get one, even though she was as close to it as her son was. This guy killed Melanie to get back at her mother. The bill was introduced before I got to the Senate. It languished. I came in. I had met Cheryl, who lobbied hard for this bill, and we were able to get it through the Senate, but it got stuck in the Assembly. I partnered with Sen. [Michelle] Hinchey. She became the prime sponsor, because she’s in the Democratic majority, and I was the prime co-sponsor. It took two years for the Assembly to get its act together. It was a major accomplishment.
Now we have another bill that we have passed continually in the Senate, called the lethality assessment, which started in Dutchess County when I was legislative chair. It’s a simple form that police officers fill out at the scenes of domestic violence that measures scientifically the risk to the survivor/victim of being reoffended against in even a more violent manner. It stalled and stalled in the Assembly, and this year we partnered with a coalition of female Assembly members, and they got it done.
Those are two very important bills that were done because it was the right thing to do. We’re waiting for the governor to sign the lethality assessment tool. Dutchess was the first to use it, and then Westchester and Broome. This came out of Maryland and out of that homicide that I spoke about, where I asked the Citizens Advisory Committee against Domestic Violence, of which I was a member, to study what went wrong in the homicide of Linda Riccardulli, who was murdered in 2010 in Hyde Park by her husband after he got bailed out of jail. If that lethality assessment tool was being used, most likely — I can only say most likely — there would have been enough warning bells on those boxes that she would have known, based on the circumstances of her life with this guy, that she was at risk for further harm. Maybe she would not have been at home; maybe she would have had a safety plan. Margie Smith, chief of the Special Victims Bureau at the DA’s office, said, “All right, what are we going to do?”
What conflicting interests exist between the City of Poughkeepsie and New York State?
We have more similarities than not, but we are products of our surroundings. I may think differently as a former mayor, someone who lived in the City of Poughkeepsie, grew up in the town, and was a former cop, compared with some of my colleagues who live in more rural upstate areas or in densely populated sections of New York City. But when we all work together — and we do talk about many, many things — we find more common ground than uncommon ground. The politics of Albany, the pure partisan politics, I dare say, excuse me, relates to one-party rule. The executive chamber, one party: Democrat. The Senate: Democrat. The Assembly: Democrat. They don’t have to compromise with anyone else. I’m not saying they don’t, but it can be difficult at times.
How have you tried to combat that?
By just being the good, decent human being I am [smiles] — and I have great working relationships. Strictly from a political standpoint, if you don’t want to work with the other side of the aisle, you’re not going to get much done because, in Albany, it’s a majority-Democratic-controlled operation. If I want to advance things, I can’t do it by myself. I need my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and that’s true in my county legislative district, the City of Poughkeepsie and the 39th district. They are majority Democratic districts, and I am a Republican of extremely moderate views, and always have been because, as a cop, we didn’t ask people what party they were in when we went to help them. I’ve never been that party kind of guy. I’m a community guy, and I focus on doing what I can and making the right decisions. I am reasonable. I am independent. I am an independent voice. If you look at where my bills are, where my votes are, I’m not a party-line guy.
In my career in Albany, there have been times when I was the only Republican who voted with the other side, and some people have taken exception to that. But I always try to make the right decision. My district is as diverse as Poughkeepsie, so I can’t think, “We’re doing this because this is what this group wants.” I have to be able to try to understand where they’re all at. Also, my own moral compass. I don’t poll every vote. I don’t poll any vote, frankly, to say, “What do the majority of people think on this?” I have internal discussions. Do I overanalyze sometimes? You’d think someone who’s been an elected official for 23 years wouldn’t, but the district is so diverse, and I want to make sure people, whether they agree or not, can never say I didn’t take their views into consideration.
There have been times I’ve gone to the Senate floor and told myself, “I’m going to listen to the debate and the discussion, then I’m going to make my decision.” Other times I know where I am, but sometimes I don’t, and I change my mind, which I think is good. You got to be agile. I’m like right down the middle. I can go right. I can go left. I can stay here. I don’t want to be rigid, encased in cement.
Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to discuss?
We live in an extremely divided and partisan country, and something’s got to give because it’s not going well. It’s up to individuals, of course, like myself, but also you. What you’re doing today is part of that process. Understanding a candidate’s history, why they got involved, why they did this, or why they didn’t. We need more people involved in these decision-making processes, more people to volunteer.
The one good thing for me is that I grew up in a world without social media. I was a police officer when computers showed up. I didn’t grow up with a phone in my hand, and I use it now, way too much. I’ll admit that. But I’ve had a great life, and I think I have a great perspective because I’ve done so many different things. I stocked shelves at Grand Union; I pumped gas at Hess; I worked for the Bridge Authority. I was a bridge painter and a toll collector. I did all kinds of cool things. And then fireman, cop. I’ve met so many great people from all over the state, especially now, who come from completely different places. We all take the role of being a state legislator very seriously.
