Woodbury Councilman James Skoufis announces bid for Assembly

HIGHLAND MILLS — Woodbury Councilman James Skoufis, a first-term Democrat serving on the Woodbury Town Board, announced his candidacy this week for the newly proposed 99th Assembly District currently held by Nancy Calhoun.

“Our current assemblywoman has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons - double dipping our state taxpayers, fighting local elected officials and missing important votes,” Skoufis said in the press release announcing his candidacy. “It’s time we had a representative who paid attention to the important issues facing our residents and small businesses - reforming the unjust property tax system, retaining and creating jobs and keeping our children well-educated and our families safe.”

Proposed district lines The proposed 99th Assembly District includes the towns of Blooming Grove, Chester, Cornwall, Goshen, Hamptonburgh, Highlands, New Windsor, Wawayanda and Woodbury in Orange County and Stony Point in Rockland County.

For the moment, Skoufis remains the only declared candidate. As many as two Republican office holders and another Democrat may jump into the race. For now, though, the only other announced candidate looking to challenge Calhoun is Republican Colin Schmitt out of Montgomery. The Town of Montgomery is not in the newly drawn district, so that may change.

Skoufis, who will be 25 in October, is a project manager for an electronic security integrator, designing blueprints and then overseeing the installation of closed circuit television, alarms and related security programs. He would face re-election for the town board in 2013.

Constituent service In his short time on the board, Skoufis has made himself available to the public in a variety of ways. He instituted a monthly e-newsletter that updates Town Board actions and lets people know about important local events within the town. He also uses the e-newsletter to credit public officials as well as volunteers for the work they do, be it efficiencies in the town clerk’s office, getting better service for public access television coverage, the creation of a dog park or any number of other activities at Woodbury recreation facilities. He also meets with constituents prior to town board meeting.

In Calhoun, he would face a tested Republican-Conservative who was first elected to the Assembly in 1990.

Calhoun defeated Orange County Legislator Roxanne Donnery in the 2010 election by about 1 percent and lost both Orange County as well as her hometown of Blooming Grove.

Last year, Skoufis voted against a tax cap override and successfully worked to keep an increase below the cap, a continuation of low-tax budgeting since being elected in 2009. There has not been a single budget-related layoff during that time, the candidate said.

According to the campaign announcement, Skoufis has been a leader in the fight against the Kiryas Joel pipeline, attempts to annex Woodbury land into Kiryas Joel and the expansion of the Harriman Sewer Treatment Plant for the benefit of Kiryas Joel and the Mountco Development on the former Camp LaGuardia site. Additionally, he led a coalition of individuals, businesses and community groups that aided local victims of Hurricane Irene, helping devastated families with food, clothing, shelter, and financial assistance in the immediate aftermath of the flooding.