Candidate Profile: Chele Chiavacci Farley
Republican Nominee for U.S. Senate, New York
By Lucy Powers
NFRW 2018 Kabis Intern
Chele Chiavacci Farley wants you to know that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has never passed a bill – well, not really. After 11 years in Washington, it was only after Farley launched her campaign for Gillibrand’s Senate seat that the latter finally passed legislation renaming a post office in upstate New York.
Although Gillibrand may consider this a win, Farley is not convinced. New Yorkers, she insists, need a skilled negotiator with common sense to represent them in the Senate. In other words, New York needs Chele Farley.
Farley is a Stanford-educated engineer who built her career in finance and, following the 2016 election, became the New York City Finance Chair for the New York State Republican Party. After speaking with voters around the state, she gathered a sense of New Yorkers’ deepest concerns.
“Our infrastructure is decaying. In many cases we have tunnels and bridges that are 50, 70, even 100 years old,” Farley said. “As an engineer, I know they were really well built, but we need to make an investment to improve our infrastructure.”
Take, for example, the Amtrak tunnel between New York City and New Jersey. The tunnel closes often for maintenance, which inconveniences thousands of passengers and loses millions of dollars in potential revenue for the state. “That’s why we need a good negotiator to get in (the Senate) and say, ‘Come on. Investing in infrastructure is something that will benefit everyone,’” Farley said.
Over one million New Yorkers have left the state since the 2010 census, driven out not only by poor infrastructure, but also by the high cost of housing. Despite this overall population decrease, residents are spending more of their incomes on rent.
Luckily, Farley has a solution. If elected, she will work to implement her Renter Fairness, Affordability, and Opportunity Plan. The plan is a federal tax deduction, under which renters nationwide will be able to deduct up to $3,000 of their monthly rent. “That’s up to $36,000 per year, which will make a big difference,” Farley said. “Renters would finally be able to afford apartments closer to their jobs.”
Farley is entering the general election with this proposed legislation that will help millions of Americans, both within and outside New York. After all, she can’t afford to wait 11 years to pass her first bill. “I will only serve two terms. That’s 12 years,” Farley said. “A lot of our problems come from career politicians who don’t want to solve an issue; they want something to run on in the next election.”
Chele Chiavacci Farley doesn’t just want you to know Kirsten Gillibrand has been an ineffective Senator. She also wants you to know that she has a plan to correct Gillibrand’s 11 years of inaction.
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