Michael Gaynor
Why Wendy Long should be nominated for U.S. senator instead of George Maragos
By Michael Gaynor
More than a decade younger than Maragos, interested in politics all her life and steeped in the law and the legislative process, Long is much better qualified, prepared and able to defeat Gillibrand.
George Maragos, who hopes to become the Republican nominee to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand, New York's junior United States Senator seeking to be elected for a full term this year, posted this biography of himself at his Nassau County Comptroller website (www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Comptroller/biography.html):
"In his first term as Nassau County Comptroller, George Maragos is using his years of experience in the financial sector to watch over the County's $2.6 billion dollar budget. Mr. Maragos is the founder of SDS Financial Technologies, a growing organization providing financial information and online trading services to the financial industry. SDS has been in business in New York for over 20 years.
"Mr. Maragos has over 35 years of senior management positions and accomplishments with leading organizations in Banking, Consulting and Information Systems. As president of SDS, he guided the firm's growth for 20 years. Prior to SDS, Mr. Maragos was a Vice President of Citicorp and the Director of Telecommunications for Treasury Systems.
"Prior to Citibank, Mr. Maragos was a Vice President at the Chase Manhattan Bank where he held various senior systems management positions. He was responsible for planning and implementing the global electronic financial systems and the telecommunications networks that supported the global banking network.
"Earlier positions held by Mr. Maragos were with Booz Allen and Hamilton, Management Consultants, as an Associate, and with Bell-Northern Research as manager of Communications Planning.
"Mr. Maragos holds Masters in Business Administration (1983) from Pace University in New York City, and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree (1973) from McGill University in Montreal. Mr. Maragos is married for 36 years to Angela and has two sons and a granddaughter. He enjoys reading, golf, travel and recently politics."
Maragos's business success and recent interest in politics are commendable, of course, and his background explains why the voters of Nassau County elected him Comptroller.
Unfortunately for Maragos, being qualified to be Nassau County Comptroller does not make him the best qualified person to contest Gillibrand for a United States Senate seat from New York.
Gillibrand is an able and experienced attorney and an articulate Dartmouth-educated native New Yorker who has been interested in politics all her life. She was an upstate New York Congresswoman before former Governor David Patterson appointed her a United States Senator in 2009.
In 2010 Gillibrand easily held her seat in a special election, beating Joseph DiGuardia, a certified public accountant and former Arthur Anderson & Co. partner and New York Congressman by more than 1,250,000 votes or 28% of the total vote, 63% to 35%.
At his campaign website (www.maragos4ny.com/about.html), Maragos noted that he became a naturalized American citizen in 1985 and cited his work at "Chase Manhattan Bank [leading] a team charged with building the bank's international data and money transfer network" and "Citibank...as Vice President and Director of North American Treasury and Telecommunications Systems....introduc[ing] numerous innovations, implement[ing] significant expense reductions and always manag[ing] within budget" and his ability to "run a small business, meet payroll and compete on Wall Street with some of the biggest organizations in the world" as reason to send him to serve in the United States Senate.
Unfortunately for Maragos, (1) New Yorkers need a younger United States Senator with a deeper interest in politics and thorough familiarity with the United States Constitution, the United States Congress and America's legal system and (2) Republicans, Conservatives, Independents and disappointed Democrats need someone who can beat Gillibrand, in debate and at the polls and function effectively as a United States Senator upon being sworn in.
Fortunately for those Republicans, Conservatives, Independents and disappointed Democrats, Wendy Long declared herself a candidate for the United States Senate on February 23, 2012.
Long is a very able and articulate attorney with expertise in the United States Supreme Court and Constitution. She has appeared on numerous news programs and as a guest columnist and contributor for various media outlets on these subjects.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Long went to Washington, D.C. and served as press secretary for two Republican United States Senators, William L. Armstrong from Colorado and Gordon J. Humphrey from her native New Hampshire.
After studying law at Northwestern and Harvard, Long received a J.D degree, moved to New York and served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City, and then for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Long then served as a litigation partner for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, a leading law firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C.
In 2005, Long joined the Judicial Confirmation Network as chief counsel and advanced the cause of judicial restraint through extensive media and public speaking. She participated in discussion and debate on U.S. Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court nominations and led public support or opposition to them, including supporting confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States.
A wife and mother of a son and a daughter living in New York City, Long also is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Saint Mary's College in Newburgh, New York, an active member of the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan and a Roman Catholic catechism teacher.
More than a decade younger than Maragos, interested in politics all her life and steeped in the law and the legislative process, Long is much better qualified, prepared and able to defeat Gillibrand.
Opportunity is knocking, and this is the year for the New York Republican Party to finally nominate a female United States Senate candidate (since Long is both female and best).
As Long explained when she announced her candidacy at the New York County Republican Committee's Lincoln Day Dinner:
"There may be some years when an incumbent senator can take things for granted, but 2012 is not one of them. Senator Gillibrand doesn't have much to show for the last three years in Washington, but she does have a lot to answer for.
"This country is heading toward a debt crisis. America's credit has been downgraded, and it could happen again. Jobs and capital have been leaving New York because of economic policies that stifle free enterprise. Federal bureaucrats keep handing down their orders, expecting individuals and institutions and even churches to fall in line and obey.
"In all of this and more — all of the spending, borrowing, regulating, and mandating by Congress, Senator Gillibrand has been a compliant 'yes' vote for the reigning liberal orthodoxy, that is, unless she's complaining that the othodoxy isn't far left enough.
"Yesterday, the National Journal released its Congressional vote ratings for 2011, and guess who is tied for #1 as the most liberal Senator in the entire United States Senate? Our former moderate upstate Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand, who after getting her new job on the other side of Capitol Hill apparently went into a political witness protection program and emerged as the most doctrinaire liberal in the Senate."
It's time for Gillibrand to be rejected and Long to be elected.
© Michael Gaynor
February 28, 2012
More than a decade younger than Maragos, interested in politics all her life and steeped in the law and the legislative process, Long is much better qualified, prepared and able to defeat Gillibrand.
George Maragos, who hopes to become the Republican nominee to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand, New York's junior United States Senator seeking to be elected for a full term this year, posted this biography of himself at his Nassau County Comptroller website (www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Comptroller/biography.html):
"In his first term as Nassau County Comptroller, George Maragos is using his years of experience in the financial sector to watch over the County's $2.6 billion dollar budget. Mr. Maragos is the founder of SDS Financial Technologies, a growing organization providing financial information and online trading services to the financial industry. SDS has been in business in New York for over 20 years.
"Mr. Maragos has over 35 years of senior management positions and accomplishments with leading organizations in Banking, Consulting and Information Systems. As president of SDS, he guided the firm's growth for 20 years. Prior to SDS, Mr. Maragos was a Vice President of Citicorp and the Director of Telecommunications for Treasury Systems.
"Prior to Citibank, Mr. Maragos was a Vice President at the Chase Manhattan Bank where he held various senior systems management positions. He was responsible for planning and implementing the global electronic financial systems and the telecommunications networks that supported the global banking network.
"Earlier positions held by Mr. Maragos were with Booz Allen and Hamilton, Management Consultants, as an Associate, and with Bell-Northern Research as manager of Communications Planning.
"Mr. Maragos holds Masters in Business Administration (1983) from Pace University in New York City, and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree (1973) from McGill University in Montreal. Mr. Maragos is married for 36 years to Angela and has two sons and a granddaughter. He enjoys reading, golf, travel and recently politics."
Maragos's business success and recent interest in politics are commendable, of course, and his background explains why the voters of Nassau County elected him Comptroller.
Unfortunately for Maragos, being qualified to be Nassau County Comptroller does not make him the best qualified person to contest Gillibrand for a United States Senate seat from New York.
Gillibrand is an able and experienced attorney and an articulate Dartmouth-educated native New Yorker who has been interested in politics all her life. She was an upstate New York Congresswoman before former Governor David Patterson appointed her a United States Senator in 2009.
In 2010 Gillibrand easily held her seat in a special election, beating Joseph DiGuardia, a certified public accountant and former Arthur Anderson & Co. partner and New York Congressman by more than 1,250,000 votes or 28% of the total vote, 63% to 35%.
At his campaign website (www.maragos4ny.com/about.html), Maragos noted that he became a naturalized American citizen in 1985 and cited his work at "Chase Manhattan Bank [leading] a team charged with building the bank's international data and money transfer network" and "Citibank...as Vice President and Director of North American Treasury and Telecommunications Systems....introduc[ing] numerous innovations, implement[ing] significant expense reductions and always manag[ing] within budget" and his ability to "run a small business, meet payroll and compete on Wall Street with some of the biggest organizations in the world" as reason to send him to serve in the United States Senate.
Unfortunately for Maragos, (1) New Yorkers need a younger United States Senator with a deeper interest in politics and thorough familiarity with the United States Constitution, the United States Congress and America's legal system and (2) Republicans, Conservatives, Independents and disappointed Democrats need someone who can beat Gillibrand, in debate and at the polls and function effectively as a United States Senator upon being sworn in.
Fortunately for those Republicans, Conservatives, Independents and disappointed Democrats, Wendy Long declared herself a candidate for the United States Senate on February 23, 2012.
Long is a very able and articulate attorney with expertise in the United States Supreme Court and Constitution. She has appeared on numerous news programs and as a guest columnist and contributor for various media outlets on these subjects.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Long went to Washington, D.C. and served as press secretary for two Republican United States Senators, William L. Armstrong from Colorado and Gordon J. Humphrey from her native New Hampshire.
After studying law at Northwestern and Harvard, Long received a J.D degree, moved to New York and served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City, and then for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Long then served as a litigation partner for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, a leading law firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C.
In 2005, Long joined the Judicial Confirmation Network as chief counsel and advanced the cause of judicial restraint through extensive media and public speaking. She participated in discussion and debate on U.S. Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court nominations and led public support or opposition to them, including supporting confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States.
A wife and mother of a son and a daughter living in New York City, Long also is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Saint Mary's College in Newburgh, New York, an active member of the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan and a Roman Catholic catechism teacher.
More than a decade younger than Maragos, interested in politics all her life and steeped in the law and the legislative process, Long is much better qualified, prepared and able to defeat Gillibrand.
Opportunity is knocking, and this is the year for the New York Republican Party to finally nominate a female United States Senate candidate (since Long is both female and best).
As Long explained when she announced her candidacy at the New York County Republican Committee's Lincoln Day Dinner:
"There may be some years when an incumbent senator can take things for granted, but 2012 is not one of them. Senator Gillibrand doesn't have much to show for the last three years in Washington, but she does have a lot to answer for.
"This country is heading toward a debt crisis. America's credit has been downgraded, and it could happen again. Jobs and capital have been leaving New York because of economic policies that stifle free enterprise. Federal bureaucrats keep handing down their orders, expecting individuals and institutions and even churches to fall in line and obey.
"In all of this and more — all of the spending, borrowing, regulating, and mandating by Congress, Senator Gillibrand has been a compliant 'yes' vote for the reigning liberal orthodoxy, that is, unless she's complaining that the othodoxy isn't far left enough.
"Yesterday, the National Journal released its Congressional vote ratings for 2011, and guess who is tied for #1 as the most liberal Senator in the entire United States Senate? Our former moderate upstate Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand, who after getting her new job on the other side of Capitol Hill apparently went into a political witness protection program and emerged as the most doctrinaire liberal in the Senate."
It's time for Gillibrand to be rejected and Long to be elected.
© Michael Gaynor
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