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“Marc Molinaro is a dangerous anti-choice extremist who, alongside Washington Republicans, will put women’s lives in danger. In Congress, Molinaro would continue the trend of self-serving Republicans, and the last thing New Yorkers want is another pay-to-play politician like him who cares more about lining his and his donors’ pockets than helping families and working people,” said DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney.
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To: Interested Parties
From: Nebeyatt Betre
Date: August 23, 2022
Subject: The Case Against Marc Molinaro
Over his decades as a corrupt career politician, Marc Molinaro has consistently abused his office and betrayed hard-working New Yorkers. From raising taxes in every office he’s held, to peddling millions of dollars in government contracts to his campaign donors, to making taxpayers pay thousands of dollars for his luxury vehicle, Molinaro has shown zero respect for the people he was elected to serve, and his flagrant abuse of the power voters trusted him with makes him totally unqualified to represent the Hudson Valley in Congress.
As New Yorkers are faced with rising costs and attacks on their fundamental freedoms, voters are looking to elect a Representative who has a record of delivering real results that uplift their community. This race is now a clear choice between Josh Riley, who will be focused on working on behalf of their district, and Molinaro, who would stand in the way of lower costs and women’s rights.
LUXURY ON THE TAXPAYER’S DIME
While workers and families in the Hudson Valley were forced to deal with a devastating pandemic that came with serious economic pressures, Molinaro – who’s been in politics since he was 18 years old – demonstrated just how incredibly out-of-touch he truly is. As county executive, one of Molinaro’s first proposals was to use more than $12 million in pandemic relief aid to upgrade luxury box seats and a party deck at the county’s minor league baseball stadium.
However, mounting local and national backlash pressured Molinaro to walk back his tone-deaf idea after working for nearly a year on his pet project. Did Molinaro have a change of heart, or was he just afraid of the public discovering which of his developers, contractors, and consultants were about to be awarded millions of taxpayer funds?
Marc Molinaro abandoned the urgent needs of his constituents at the time when it mattered most, and that’s exactly who he’ll be in Congress. Upstate New Yorkers can’t trust a career corrupt politician who has to be shamed into doing the right thing.
His flagrant misuse of taxpayer funds doesn’t stop there. Molinaro was recently exposed for years of expensive and unnecessary car purchases that are costing taxpayers.
Not only did Molinaro work to skirt county rules to have taxpayers pay for his luxury car – at a monthly rate higher than the average one-bedroom Dutchess County apartment – but Molinaro’s reckless spending triggered a costly countywide audit that will force officials to investigate the county’s entire fleet of vehicles, once again leaving taxpayers to pick up his tab. Taxpayers spent almost $200,000 for Molinaro’s car usage while Dutchess County executive.
Molinaro’s pattern of recklessness was only further underscored by a second report detailing his history of crashing multiple taxpayer-owned vehicles and improperly impersonating an emergency responder. Those repairs cost taxpayers more than $17,000.
ANTI-CHOICE EXTREMIST
Marc Molinaro has a long history of opposing a woman’s right to an abortion. At a time when women across the nation – including in Central New York – are mobilizing to demand their constitutional rights to be taken seriously, Molinaro’s clear anti-choice record makes clear his election to Congress would threaten the livelihoods of countless women and families in New York.
In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s important voters know just how extreme anti-choice GOP candidate Molinaro is. Molinaro has been on his crusade against women’s freedoms for years and shows no sign of stopping now.
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Molinaro opposed allowing Medicaid funds to be used for abortions, and even transferred thousands of dollars from his state campaign account to an anti-choice organization that operated crisis pregnancy centers, best known for lying to pregnant women about their care options.
He’s also proudly aligned himself with Washington Republicans, who are pushing for a nationwide abortion ban that completely strips women of their rights and puts them in grave danger.
ANOTHER OFFICE, ANOTHER MIDDLE-CLASS TAX HIKE
Marc Molinaro has never seen a day’s work outside of political office. Since he was just 18, he has been mayor of Tivoli, a Dutchess County legislator, a New York assemblyman, and a Dutchess County executive – getting paid to be a politician every year of his adult life. Instead of adopting a career of service that’s helped his constituents, Molinaro has used every one of these roles to raise taxes on his constituents.
As county executive, Molinaro raised property taxes three times and increased them by 20% in his first years in office. As assemblyman, Molinaro voted for the largest income tax increase in New York in 50 years which cost taxpayers $1.9 billion. In the Dutchess County legislature, Molinaro voted repeatedly to increase property taxes. Finally, as mayor of Tivoli, Molinaro increased property taxes while giving raises to municipal employees and city contractors.
PAY TO PLAY MARC
Molinaro’s decades never having a job outside of politics has turned him into a typical pay-to-play politician. Reports show Molinaro handed out government contracts to contributors to his countless campaigns. Molinaro’s administration doled $89 million in government contracts to companies that had donated over $300,000 dollars to his campaign. And of those $89 million in Dutchess County contracts he gave to his campaign donors, $34 million went to 20 companies (owned by campaign donors) located outside of Dutchess County.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Hudson Valley 360: Molinaro car usage part of countywide audit | [Hudson Valley 360, 7/30/22]
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