Dolan Releases Progressive Scorecard on Bowman, AOC
By Dan Murphy
Last week, we ran a paid advertisement from Congressional candidate Marty Dolan. Dolan, who is running for Congress in NY District 16, (the Bronx and Westchester). Dolan released a “Progressive Scorecard” for the current member of Congress in NY-16, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and for Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, (AOC).
Bowman and AOC embrace the label “progressive champions,” but Dolan said, “Bowman is not a progressive, he is a radical,” and says that Bowman does not represent the values and issues that are important to New York voters.
The scorecard included a failing grade for both Bowman and AOC on issues like income inequality, the National Debt, unfunded pensions, and the half million former New Yorkers who left NY last year.
“These are the critical issues that I am running on, but both Congressman Bowman and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez are not focused on these issues at all. And the voters of New York are concerned about these issues. And that is the question that I am asking the residents of NY-16: Is this the type of leadership and representation that you want?
“Voters I have spoken to find it very offensive when there is no discussion from our congressman about property taxes in Westchester, and the fact that we got slammed by the republicans in 2017 with SALT, (State and Local Taxes,” said Dolan, referring to the $10,000 cap on deductions for property taxes and state taxes from your federal tax return.
“Westchester homeowners pay the highest property taxes in the world, and our congressman has zero interest in any of this. He never talks about tax relief, or anything that an astute financial person would talk about. And there are negative consequences to Congressman Bowman not talking about these issues,” said Dolan, the son of an immigrant, who grew up in Westchester but believes his experiences living in Europe and around the USA as a strategic advisor to start-up companies in AI and new technologies can benefit New York City and New York State’ voters.
Both Rep. Bowman and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who is a graduate of Yorktown High School, are self-described members of “The Squad,” a group of six ultra-progressive House democrats. Dolan says that AOC’s stances have not only hurt her New York City district, but all of New York State.
“I don’t see any difference between Bowman and AOC. Nothing that they are doing is improving the financial health of New York. Their focus is on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). The progressives have been a total failure on all of the issues that matter for NY, and AOC is included in my progressive survey because she has done the same amount of damage to New Yorkers that Congressman Bowman has done.”
Dolan points to AOC leading the opposition to an Amazon plant and headquarters to be built in her district in Queens, NYC, in 2019. The Amazon HQ2 was to create at least 25,000 middle class jobs for New Yorkers and generate $30 Billion in new revenue that would have justified the $3 Billion in tax incentives asked for by Amazon. Instead, AOC called the tax incentives “a scam of public funds.”
“New York City had won the competition to bring an Amazon headquarters to New York City, and to her (AOC’s) district, and they said they didn’t want it. It’s like the Jets winning the Super Bowl and giving back the trophy. And the site is still vacant, and not creating any jobs or generating any tax revenue.
“This was a huge mistake, and points to Bowman and AOC being all about headline and more interested in national recognition and not working for the people in their districts. New York City and all of us in New York State deserve far better representation than what Bowman and AOC stand for,” said Dolan, who recently confronted Bowman at a Police Community Council meeting in Yonkers regarding his placing a convicted police killer on a Wall of Heroes at a Bronx school that Bowman worked at.
“He (Bowman) takes radical positions, like placing a poster of a cop killer on a Wall of Heroes in a school in the Bronx. I don’t think that is representative of our values in the district and in New York.”
“And March is Women’s History Month, and Congressman Bowman discussed all of the great women in our history. But he didn’t mention a single white woman. How do you talk about women’s history without mentioning Hillary Clinton, or Senator Gillibrand, or Nancy Pelosi?
“Westchester is an integrated community, and voters find his behavior, and lack of sensitivity, offensive. It’s not what the voters want in their representative. I think Congressman Bowman isn’t a progressive-he’s a radical. And voters in New York want change,” said Dolan.
