The Democratic primary Aug. 23 to represent New York's 52nd Senate District will witness a race between Leslie Danks Burke and Lea Webb. Republican candidate Rich David is unchallenged for the nomination.
Webb served two terms on the Binghamton City Council. She said she will focus on social justice in housing, employment, health care, the environment and agriculture.
“I’ve been in this community for all my life, and you know, just have an understanding of some issues,” she said.
Webb is a former Binghamton city councilmember and a Southern Tier native. She graduated from SUNY Broome and Binghamton University with a degree in neuroscience. She is now a diversity education coordinator at Binghamton University, developing training and programs for faculty, staff and students. She is a national trainer with Vote Run Lead, teaching women how to run for elective office, and co-founder of the Black Millennial Political Convention and a Founding Board Member of Local Progress.
Webb plans to support the final passage of the equality amendment in New York state’s constitution. And she said she will advocate for better mobile or manufactured homes. “The government put money in the budget to expand access for affordable housing. I want to look at things at the local levels,” she said.
She wants the state to stop using fossil fuels when building and maintaining homes and wants to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Webb also advocates for a living wage. “Having living wage jobs becomes even more critical for people’s ability to have a great quality life,” she said.
Danks Burke, a lawyer, ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and the state Senate in 2020.She teaches in Cornell University’s Law School and is a founder and president of the Trailblazers PAC.
Her main focus is on taxes and health care, and she wants to cut property taxes in half by repealing unfunded mandates and passing single-payer health care.
“We need to stop overtaxing the middle class,” Danks Burke said.
To accomplish that, Danks Burke proposed shifting more of the cost of Medicare to the general budget and taking it off the shoulders of county taxpayers. That would mean the cost would come primarily from state income taxes, and she said to make that more equitable, loopholes that allow the wealthy to escape income taxes should be eliminated.
“We are paying for programs to help the poor by overtaxing the poor,” Danks Burke said.
Jobs are another priority too, such as building union jobs by investing in infrastructure with long-promised money and expanding upstate alternative energy and internet buildout, therefore addressing climate change.
Danks Burke wants to fully fund public schools, universal pre-kindergarten and child-care.
She also wants to tackle corruption and offer tax breaks to developers to invest in affordable housing and transportation.
The winner of the primary will face Republican David in the general election. David served as mayor of Binghamton from 2014 to 2021.
He worked as a general assignment reporter for WBNG in 1998 and took his first government job when he was hired as director of community relations for Binghamton in 2000. He was appointed deputy mayor in 2004 and left when term limits ended the tenure of Mayor Richard Bucci in 2006, David worked as public affairs officer for Broome Community College and later began a property development firm.
City Editor Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.
