New York State Senator Jeremy Cooney made an appearance at Tuesday’s Monroe County Democratic Committee watch party upon winning re-election that evening.
The incumbent of State Senate District 56, Cooney, who is also chairman of the Committee on Transportation, won against Republican challenger James VanBrederode with 58% of the vote on election night. The University lies in Cooney’s district.
During an interview with the Campus Times, Cooney highlighted his priorities for office — commenting that he plans to focus on transportation infrastructure, and specifically, on the Rochester area bus system.
“New York City has subways and trains, and upstate, we have our buses […] I want to make sure whether you live in the city of Rochester or one of [the suburbs] you are able to get from Point A to Point B,” he said.
With these infrastructure projects, Cooney explained that jobs will be made along the way, further enriching the Rochester area.
Cooney also said he was interested in making New York City more connected with upstate NY.
“[The two] are one state,” he said. “If we had things like high speed rail or more direct flights out of [Frederick] Douglass [Greater Rochester] International Airport, we could better connect New York City [as well as] Buffalo to Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.”
Cooney, a big supporter of high speed rail, said that the introduction of this type of infrastructure into the state could greatly improve the economies of the upstate area as well as the lifestyles of those who live in it.
“You could live in Rochester with your family [and] send your kids to public schools, but at the same time have a job in Brooklyn,” he said. “If we had a two-hour commute versus a seven-hour commute, that changes the whole ball game.”
