As reported by Kings County Politics on 4.12.18:
In a city, state and country that is increasingly polarized along party lines, State Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Flatbush, Borough Park, Kensington, Sunset Park, Madison, Bensonhurst) is a political anomaly.
Much to the chagrin of Democrats, and particularly “progressive” Democrats, Felder is a registered Democrat who caucuses with the Senate Republicans. Additionally, two years ago, when he was re-elected to the state senate for a third term, he nabbed the Democratic, Republican and Conservative Party lines at the ballot box.
But while political idealogues may disagree with Felder’s party affiliation views, they would be hard-pressed to devalue his solid education credentials and political experience. This includes being a Certified Public Accountant, who holds a Masters of Business Administration degree in Management from the renowned Zicklin School of Business at CUNY’s Baruch College.
“Party loyalists, no matter if they are Democrats or Republicans, have tunnel vision, and it’s almost as if the party is some some religious obligation. I don’t believe that and I think more and more New Yorkers are tired of being loyal to a party. What most New Yorkers want is improvement in quality of life issues and making sure the services needed are provided, whether its mass transit issues, housing issues and education issues.
“Contrary to public belief the legislation really creates a pathway for non public schools to provide a rigorous religious education as well as a sound secular education by mandating that the basic foundations, writing, reading, arithmetic, history and science are core elements of everyone having a sound education, and that in addition to a lot of the skills that a child gets, social or emotional skills, critical thinking and analytical skills is a winning formula for getting a good education as well,” said Felder.
Felder also dismissed the organization NY Senate District 17 for Progress, which alleges they are apolitical, despite having a number of members associated with the Working Families Party.
“There is nothing for me to say [about the organization]. We don’t spend our time dealing with political games,” said Felder.
“Anyone who calls or comes into this office that has an issue in the neighborhood or in Albany we try to address. We have a great staff spending all day long with such a variety of problems. I’m very proud of the number of people we service daily. We just completed a heat assistance program where more that $30,000 in grants was awarded to people who can’t afford to pay their heating bills,” he added.
Felder Tracker 