Assembly-winner Nicole Malliotakis takes a victory lap
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - She may have big plans for Albany, but Nicole
Malliotakis, the Republican who upset Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer for her
East Shore/Brooklyn seat Tuesday night, is taking small steps to get there
while waiting for her term to begin.
The Vanderbilt at South Beach, Rebublican election results, Vera
Malliotakis gives her daughter Nicole Malliotakis a hug after her acceptance speech
on winning the assembly seat ( Staten Island Advance photo / Irving
Silverstein ) Yesterday, she started by thanking voters at local senior centers
and outside the ShopRite in New Dorp.
Next – after some long-awaited catching up with her family – the
assemblywoman-elect plans to meet with community leaders and local elected
officials to come up with a game plan of what to improve.
"Now that the campaign is over, it's time to put politics aside and really
begin to govern," she told the Advance yesterday. "I've been speaking with
all the members of the Albany delegation, and it's very clear that, on
Staten Island, this delegation is a family and that, when they go to Albany,
they fight and put Staten Island first. I'm going to be doing that."
The more preparation, the better – Ms. Malliotakis will be among the
minority, with Democrats in comfortable control of the Assembly.
Among the issues she hopes to focus on are education, policies affecting
seniors, transportation services and health care.
She said she was disappointed by cuts to school bus service for seventh-
and eighth-graders, reductions to city bus service across the borough –
including the X18 in Rosebank, her hometown – the restoration of sales tax on
clothing, increased car registration costs and the deposits on bottles of
water.
Whenever given an opportunity, she said she'll strive to protect working
families and senior citizens from bearing the weight of such added costs.
"I want to be an advocate against overtaxing, reckless spending," she
said. "I will tell you that I have a voice and I have a vote, and when I go to
Albany, I will be using both of those to fight against the establishment."
When given the opportunity, she plans to refer to a reform agenda she has
drafted, which includes larger-scale plans, such as capping spending at 2
percent or the rate of inflation, whatever is less, and requiring
legislators to disclose outside sources of income to detect conflicts of interest.
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