Do Our Electeds Have to Talk to Us?

January 27, 2023

Shortly after the New Year, January 10, a thousand New Yorkers arrived in Albany for Lobbying Day to make their concerns known about bills now in the legislature. In the weeks leading up to this day, phone calls were made, and emails sent, to legislators asking to talk in person. We were ready to meet with our electeds and be part of the democratic process.

New Yorkers, especially those terminated last year over declining a Covid shot, were at Lobbying Day to protest new bills intended to make the Covid era limitations last forever: mandatory Covid vaccine for all college students (S6495), mandatory Covid shots for K-12 students (A8378), allowing children to consent to any medical treatment or vaccine without parental consent (A9963), and allowing doctors to treat children of any age for STDs while keeping it a secret from their parents (A822). 

Widely available guidelines produced in multiple states note that “to responsibly enact laws, it is important that the legislator be in tune with the specific interests and problems associated with his or her district.”* What better way to be in tune with one’s constituents than to talk to us? Yet instead of talking on Lobbying Day, New York State legislators speed-walked through the Legislative Office Building pretending their constituents were not there. Here are a few who were especially uninterested:

• Jeffrey Dinowitz, Assemblymember. He refused to stop to talk to a former NYC Schools educator terminated for not taking a Covid19 vaccine. His eyes were barely visible above his black face mask. Dinowitz squirmed and paced and tried to ignore this educator until an elevator opened, then ran inside like a coward.
• Jo Anne Simon, Assemblymember. Constituents of Jo Anne asked in advance for a meeting.  Ms. Simon–who believes “my body, my choice” but only when supporting abortion–responded saying only those with proof of a Covid19 vaccine and a face mask would be allowed to meet with her, even though the Legislative Office Building has not required proof of vaccine nor a face mask in about a year.
• Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal. According to a constituent of his– young Mr. Rosenthal “ was headed to the elevator, a bagel in his hand. I called his full name several times. I caught up to him before he got in and asked him, ‘Didn’t you hear me call your name – four times?’“ Mr. Rosenthal replied, ‘I didn’t know you were talking to me.’ 
• Sharahana Shresta, Assemblymember. She didn’t respond to any calls or emails requesting meetings for Lobbying Day.  So on Tuesday her constituents repeatedly went to her office. Shreshta was in her office hiding from them. Eventually her constituents persuaded a masked staffer to get Ms. Shresta to come out to the hallway. When she did, she had on a mask and let them know that she supports mandatory COVID shots for everybody.
• Brad Hoylman, State Senator. Mr. Hoylman’s power donors include Pfizer and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. His passion is making laws to remove the right to medical privacy, consent, and religious freedom, and to trample on parental authority and reduce parents to the egg and sperm donors described in the classic novel Brave New World. On Tuesday, Hoylman dodged peaceful but assertive constituents, dodging and weaving like a New Yorker trying to catch his subway train. Maybe he was running to HR to pick up his $30,000 pay increase he voted himself at Christmas. 
• Stefani Zinerman, Assemblymember. Sadly, I got no more consideration from my own state assemblymember. Though I called Ms. Zinerman on weekdays during business hours, I always got a voicemail and my calls were never returned. All emails get only an auto-reply email saying, “As we all adjust to this new normal of social distancing and working remotely, I want to assure you that my staff and I are checking phone messages and emails frequently.” She and her staff are still working remotely and it’s January of 2023. 

How nostalgic I feel at times for the old days of politics, when electeds turned on the fake charm when you approached them, and when you asked for their attention, they gave you some. Sure, it usually came to nothing and before you knew it you’d been foisted off on some staffer, who in turn stopped calling you. For example, Cory Booker and Charles Schumer treated me like they couldn’t wait to talk to me when I asked for meetings over ten years ago. Sure, electeds may not have been any more interested in us then than they are now, but they at least knew enough to fake it, since talking to constituents is key to staying in their jobs.