In 2016, candidate Julie Killian attacked her opponent George Latimer with a TV ad implicating him in the cover-up of sexual abuse of a NYS Assembly employee. That implication was utterly false. How can I be sure? The complaint and its resolution happened before George was in the Assembly.
In 2017, in defense of Mayor Joe Sack’s bid for re-election, Julie Killian circulated a letter not only disparaging the local Democratic candidates — who subsequently won by a landslide — but “many of their supporters, and their party chair.” In other words, she maligned large portion of her neighbors including, perhaps, you, the person reading this letter, if you supported the winning ticket.
In 2018, she is trying once again to become our State Senator with a mendacious attack campaign. Instead of running on her record (which includes denying climate change, supporting opponents of gun control, and other positions at odds with Westchester values), she is distorting the truth to smear her opponent, Shelley Mayer. Both Killian and a shadowy PAC supporting her candidacy are saying things that are every bit as sleazy as their 2016 claims against Latimer. In a recent speech, NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman denounced these attacks against Mayer as complete fabrications, adding, “they are not only dishonest – they are despicable.”
The truth is to be found not in campaign smears but in the public record – for example, an article in the Daily Newsabout Mayer’s testimony against a corrupt NYS Senator.1 Or one in the Wall Street Journalsaying Mayer was the second Assembly member to call for Sheldon Silver’s resignation.2
In January, the Rye City Democratic Committee endorsed Mayer as the Democratic candidate for NYS Senate. We had several excellent candidates to choose from, so before making our choice we spoke to people up and down the County who knew the contenders in various capacities in the past and present. Every single one who had worked with Mayer offered unqualified, enthusiastic endorsements of her integrity. The other Democratic committees in our NYS Senate District went through a similar process. Ultimately, those committees chose Mayer, unanimously, for her strong record in the NYS Assembly and her history of hard work, good decisions, and personal integrity. Voters who care about the truth should do the same.
- <Meg Cameron
Chair, Rye City Democratic Committee>
1 Daily News, July 2, 2015
2 Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2015
