The Barclay family has reigned over Oswego County for the past three decades and it’s time to change. Gail Tosh is the only candidate who has the guts and determination to run against William Barclay, not once but twice. Not only has she had the stamina to oppose him, but Gail has the intelligence, knowledge, desire and sincere wish to improve problems in this 120th NYS Assembly District. Barclay has run unopposed for too long; he doesn’t even have to campaign.
As a farmer, educator, wife and mother, Gail will strive to improve our lives. She’s had jobs in different fields including teaching English as a second language overseas, worked on two different continents, and returned to teach refugees in Syracuse. She’s worked in management, education and belongs to several organizations such as NOW, Catholic Charities, and Animal Rescue. Gail graduated from Empire State College with a degree in Social Theory, Social Structure and Change with a concentration in Leadership. Gail is one of us and a grass roots candidate unlike her opponent.
In a state as wealthy as ours, she sees how we’ve been passed over for badly needed resources. Gail will strive to get these resources to attack the drug crisis and poverty, address medical needs and mental health issues. She cares about the environment, unemployment, and farmers’ needs that should be addressed more vigorously in Oswego County. New minds, not status quo, are needed.
An important issue for Gail is the plight of the farmers. She believes that the farm workers’ rights and the needs of farmers are not mutually exclusive. She does not believe in putting band aids on issues but takes a holistic approach to protect workers while ensuring that farmers remain protected to stay in business. Barclay has voted for the short term in favor of farmers while disregarding the needs of essential workers. Gail is a farmer and is sensitive to both sides. She has new ideas on sustainability with profitable farming in conjunction with environmental safety. She has joined forces with nine other rural Democratic Assembly candidates in the UPWARD caucus in order to go to work for our rural communities while Barclay is stuck in old and outmoded rural philosophies, many of which have benefitted his family’s control of acres of land on both sides of the Salmon River. Barclay voted “no” on many issues including extending workers benefits to farm laborers and “no” on amending labor laws.
With drug abuse a major issue, he voted “no” to allow marijuana for opioid use addiction recommended by doctors as an intermediate treatment. He voted “no” on drug law reform and drug law treatment (A8098.)
Barclay also voted “no” on the following campaign issues taken from justfacts.votesmart.org:
Limit campaign contributions by closing LLC Loophole (A776)
Authorizing absentee voting due to Risk of Contracting a Disease (S8015)
Extends Voter Registration Cutoff (S6532)
Authorizes Voter Pre-registration (A774)
Establishes Early Voting Period (S1102)
Perhaps Mr. Barclay does not want to make it easier to vote.
Unemployment in our rural community has devastated our district resulting in one of the highest poverty rates in the state. The district lacks sufficient electricity and internet access to meet and entice new business and jobs. Barclay has voted “no” consistently on bills improving or regulating technologies to help entice industry by voting “no” on last year’s budget on “Business and Consumers.” (Check justfacts.votesmart.org for all of Barclay’s voting record.)
Gail’s knowledge of the nuclear industry, which District 120 relies on, is extensive and supported. However, she also knows that clean energy is the future and we need to begin implementing plans with environmental safeguards. Some of the environmental safeguards Barclay voted “no” on suspending hydraulic fracturing, “no” to prohibiting the use of Glyphosate, a dangerous compound to kill a wide assortment of weeds, “no” to requiring state-funded projects to consider effects of climate change, emergency state park appropriations and more areas adversely affecting us.
The list goes on as “no” votes are counted in the “justfacts….” Listings, and time for “yes” votes to begin a new chapter for the 120th NY District by voting for Gail Tosh. This singular 30 year Barclay reign has had its way long enough. We need forward-looking leadership with new ideas, new knowledge, and new energy to improve the status of our rural and small city middle classes, not wealthy land owners. It’s time to get out and vote; no excuses, no cynicism, no thinking it doesn’t count, no more apathy. Vote, vote, vote to make it count.
Suzanne Stout
Fulton, NY
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30 years? That would mean I got elected when I was 21! Haha. You are off by a few years. That being said, it has been an honor to represent this area and I look forward to continuing to do so if the voters of the 120th Assembly district are so inclined.
Will Barclay
Please, Mr. Barclay. Your family has run this region for decades. Should she have mentioned Doug Barclay as well? It’s always funny when aristocrats try to pass themselves off as small-d democrats. Good luck with your continued efforts to deny healthcare as a right to the people, to militarize the pro-Trump right-wing police departments in the region, to protect corporate polluters and deny the reality of climate change, along with denying capitalism’s responsibility for the crisis. Good luck protecting your own wealth and the wealth of your class in order to perpetuate the worst wealth and income inequality since the Gilded Age. Good luck protecting New York billionaires from a wealth tax while opposing the legalization of marijuana (so your police can keep up their costly and destructive Drug War, and general repression of the people). Good luck blocking meaningful gun control in service to your pro-Trump right-wing militiamen eager for civil war. Your defeat in this election would be such a gift to the people of the region and the people of New York state. Then we could have a representative in-step with the inevitable progressive change coming to the state, the country and the world … instead of a right-wing reactionary scribbling Republican talking points in response to every Democratic initiative. Just move to Alabama or Mississippi … you’d fit right in.
READ THE ARTICLE AGAIN FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING, Will. It says “Barclay family”. HAHA, yourself. What a trumpian response:” haha”. So infantile. Your constant barrage of “onerous” attacks on the administration is OLD FASHIONED! Get out of the way. We have a POUTUS* AND FLOUTUS with COVID-19 and thank goodness we have a governor who knows how to lead. Indeed, if the Honorable Andrew Cuomo had led all 50 states, the pandemic would be nearly over. I feel Safer with restrctions on magazine size, restrictions on glyphosate use. Getting Big money out of politics gives The People a say in who governs, so OF COURSE you voted “NO”. By the way, how’s brother Dave’s high end salmon rod business doing with that $200,000 of MY MONEY? Voter suppresiion is a facist technique, championed and perfected by GOP’s and the progressive agenda counters that with voter participation-friendly legislation, so OF COURSE you voted “no”. Get out of the way and let us move on and get ready for the next four years of REAL LEADERSHIP.
Well said, Publius! (I love your screen name, BTW). He would fit right in there, although “I’m sure there were fine people on both sides”, covefe, notwithstanding. Their armed camp is now “standing down and standing by”, ready to take aim at anothing that could possiblly benefit them such as improved health care, schools, and protected soil, air and water. Your comment; “Good luck protecting your own wealth and the wealth of your class in order to perpetuate the worst wealth and income inequality since the Gilded Age” describes him to a “T” and it works best in low-income areas like ours, hence his work at suppressing voters.
Blah,Blah,Blah..losers.