Candidate Profile: Jeremiah Frei-Pearson For State Assembly

HUDSON VALLEY, NY - New Yorkers will be hitting the polls on June 23 for the primary election to choose who will be on the ballot in November's general election.

Among the local races, some residents of the Hudson Valley will be able to elect who will run for State Assembly in District 93. The district contains all of Interstate 684 in Westchester County and includes Bedford, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge and White Plains. The current officeholder, David Buchwald, is running for Congress in District 17.

In anticipation of the election, Patch asked candidates in the contested races to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Jeremiah Frei-Pearson is seeking the Democratic line on the ballot in November. His opponents in the June 23 primary are Kristen Browde, Chris Burdick, Mark Jaffe and Alexander Roithmayr.

Frei-Pearson, 42, is a civil rights lawyer. He's been practicing law for 17 years and has run his own law firm since 2014. He chairs White Plains' Sustainability Committee and, previously, headed the city's Committee for People with Disabilities. He has degrees from Skidmore College and Stanford Law School.

Check out Patch's full Q&A with Jeremiah Frei-Pearson:

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am running because I am the best candidate to address the enormous challenges facing our community. I got into this race because I’ve spent my entire career fighting for ordinary people being treated unfairly by powerful interests - with Donald Trump in the White House, I thought that experience was needed in state government. Now, I feel I am also the best candidate to address the twin challenges our state and country are facing: COVID-19 and ending structural racism. I am able to stand up for everyone in our community, to safely rebuild our economy, to address systemic racism, poverty, and police brutality, and to ensure that everyone has access to quality healthcare and affordable housing.

As a civil rights lawyer, I’m proud that my firm went down to the border to fight against Trump’s inhumane family separation policy. I’m proud that we stood up for low wage workers being victimized by billion-dollar corporations. I’m proud that we represented kids in foster care to ensure they had an opportunity to build a better life for themselves.

I have reformed broken nursing homes -- making dangerous homes safe for residents by increasing staffing. As a result of this work, the largest healthcare workers’ union in the country endorsed me, and I plan to bring those reforms statewide in the Assembly. As a small business owner, I have a plan to safely rebuild our economy and create good-paying jobs. I also have detailed plans to combat systemic racism, police brutality, and the moral failure of deep poverty existing in one of the wealthiest counties in our country.

The single most pressing issue facing our nation/state/community is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I have to pick two. COVID-19 created a public health crisis and economic disaster occurring at the same time. Over 100,000 Americans have died, including over 30,000 people living in nursing homes. We must make sure all frontline workers have proper protections and we must make our nursing homes safer -- failing to improve staffing in our nursing homes would be a moral failure and would result in tens of thousands more deaths. At the same time, we have to safely re-open our economy to mitigate the economic devastation, and I look forward to combining my experience as a small business owner with my record of advocacy for workers. While we’re addressing COVID-19 and the recovery, we also have to build a more just society where we take on systemic racism head on and ensure that black lives matter in New York. This issue didn’t start last month when George Floyd was murdered; it’s been seething for more than 400 years, and it’s past time to finally make lasting change so that, in Martin Luther King’s words, our country can “finally live up to the promises of its founding documents.”

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I’m lucky to be running in a primary with several great candidates but my experience and consistent, proven progressive values make me the best person for the job. Simply put, I am the only candidate who has repeatedly taken on and beaten powerful interests. My law firm represents ordinary people like minimum-wage workers, children in the foster care system, and families separated at the Mexican border and fights to get them justice. When a nursing home was neglecting its senior citizen residents and putting them in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, I stepped in and used the courts to improve care and staffing. This intervention saved lives, especially once the Coronavirus hit, and that’s why I’m already working with members of the state legislature to bring the reforms I helped put in place at the statewide level. I know how the system works and I know what’s needed to make it work better, and at times like these I think our state government needs a civil rights attorney with a demonstrated history of advocating for those whom society is failing in office.

In addition, there is one candidate in my race who opposed Westchester County’s historic paid sick leave law. My local small business voluntarily provided paid sick leave to employees long before we were required to because I believe this is a moral issue. No worker should have to choose between sacrificing their paycheck and putting their own health and that of everyone else in danger by working while sick.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

As a civil rights attorney I’m well aware that many people in this district do not feel safe around police officers and that far too often law enforcement officers haven’t been held accountable for their bad actions. I will advocate unequivocally for victims of police brutality, and I’ve already released a detailed police reform plan. We need to thoroughly investigate and punish violent officers, demilitarize the police, establish non-police alternatives for calls regarding those experiencing mental health and substance abuse problems, and invest in community-based organizations that organically lower crime.

Additionally, we can’t ignore the climate crisis just because the immediate issues of the Coronavirus, the economy, and police brutality are at the forefront of our minds; we still need to move swiftly to save the environment. Our planet is warming, ocean levels are rising, and clean water is becoming scarcer. Fossil fuel companies continue to pump harmful emissions into our atmosphere and many of our natural treasures are being suffocated by pollution and plastics. We need to make massive investments in renewable energy and green jobs. This will simultaneously lower our carbon output and help our state’s unemployed get back to work. I’ll make protecting the environment an absolute priority, because if we can’t guarantee the future of our planet, what is it all for?

My campaign platform is also defined by the strong anti-corruption program that I hope to put in place once elected. Both in D.C. and in Albany, too many leaders on both sides of the aisle are using their positions of influence to cheat the system and profit in unlawful ways. In order to make our democracy work better, we need to punish bad actors, increase transparency, and get money out of politics. I support creating a publicly funded election system, and until that system is in place, I am refusing all corporate donations -- my votes are not for sale.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have already made systemic change in many areas. In addition to reforming nursing homes and recovering millions for underpaid workers, one of the things I am most proud of is using the courts to reform foster care systems -- transforming a pipeline that sent kids from foster care, to homelessness to prison into a pipeline that sent kids from foster care, to college to success. I know how to make transformative change and I look forward to doing that in the Assembly.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

“Power concedes nothing without demand.” (Frederick Douglass)

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I’m running to work for you. If you have any questions please email me at jeremiah@jfp2020.com or call 914-558-2884. Campaign website: jfp2020.com