By RICK MILLER
CattCoNews&Photos
When Assemblyman Joseph Giglio announced in February he wouldn’t seek re-election, it wasn’t a difficult decision for his chief of staff Joe Sempolinski to declare his candidacy for the 148th District seat.
Sempolinski, of Canisteo, who served as the 23rd District congressman for several months after winning a 2022 special election after Rep. Tom Reed resigned, was Reed’s district director from 2010.
Sempolinski will be on the Republican and Conservative lines in November, where he faces Democrat Dan Brown, the longtime Great Valley supervisor.
“It was not a hard decision,” Sempolinski said in an interview Thursday. “I was in a unique position to serve. For the first time, a person who has already represented the entire jurisdiction” could be representing the 148th District, which includes all of Cattaraugus and Allegany counties and six Steuben County towns, including Canisteo, where Sempolinski lives. He also noted his service as Giglio’s chief of staff of the 148th district and served as director of development at Archbishop Walsh Academy in Olean. “I felt I had something to give back to the people,” he said.
“I got into the campaign as if I was going to have an opponent,” Sempolinski said. “I’m ready to go out and talk to the voters and make my case why I’m the best candidate.”
Sempolinski enters the race with a clear advantage, a nearly 2-1 advantage across the three counties of enrolled Republicans over Democrats. There are 37,740 Republicans as compared to 19,778 Democrats. There are only 1,866 registered Conservatives. There are also 19,120 voters who are unaffiliated, or “blank,” including 17,633 in Cattaraugus County.
Sempolinski said his campaign filed petitions with more than 2,000 Republican signatures – four times the number needed – and twice as many Conservative signatures as needed.
Elections are longer now with nominating petitions being circulated in March instead of June. “I can tell you collecting signatures in June is much more fun than in March,” Sempolinski said. “It’s a longer election.”
Sempolinski has already been seeking small donor contributions to qualify for the state’s new public matching funds law. “The law is not constructed the way I would have done it,” he said. “We will abide by the rules.”
Brown’s campaign did not register in time to be eligible for matching funds for small donations.
Sempolinski addressed one position Brown made when he made his announcement earlier this week, that the 148th Assembly seat should be considered a Cattaraugus County seat. “I am in a unique position to represent all the district” after serving as congressman and working for Reed and Giglio, he said. “I look at this job that you are not representing one county or another – you represent the entire jurisdiction.”
He noted his personal ties to Cattaraugus County including his marriage at St. Mary’s in Olean, his wife is a teacher at Hinsdale Central School and their daughter was born at Olean General Hospital.
Brown also emphasized that if he were elected, the district would be represented by a member of the majority party in the Assembly.
Sempolinski asked if Brown “would join up with people putting in place these negative policies or stand up for a majority” of people in the district? New York City Democrats “dominate the ultra left majority,” he added. These are the same people who have “put in policies that significantly impact the economy Upstate.”
One issue Sempolinski said he will campaign on is the state’s level of spending. “It’s going to be a gargantuan budget. It’s twice the size of Florida’s and Texas’ budgets combined.” And it’s late again this year, he said of the budget.
Sempolinski said the Democratic majorities in the Assembly and Senate are out of touch when it comes to law and order. He cited bail reform, new discovery requirements for police and prosecutors and problems with the parole system as specific concerns.
Sempolinski also questioned the state’s energy policy goals under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act as well as the state’s mandate on electric school buses. “The entire state is not New York City.”
He said as an assemblyman, he would be mindful of disability issues, which should be a bipartisan concern, because his daughter has Down syndrome.
Sempolinski said, “it was the honor of a lifetime to speak for people of this region. You don’t have to guess what my voting record will be.”
Joe Sempolinski of Canisteo in Steuben County is citing his experience as congressman and working for Congress and the state Assembly in his campaign for the 148th Assembly seat.
