Batson Announces Candidacy for 97th NY State Assembly District

NYACK, NY — Rockland native Bill Batson announced his bid for election to the NY State Assembly seat representing the 97th District Tuesday — in Nyack Sketch Log, the column he has written and illustrated for 10 years on Nyack News and Views.

Batson is a Nyack-based civic leader, small business owner, artist, writer and activist from a family of community leaders who have called Rockland County home for more than 130 years.

"The 97th is my hometown in every sense of the word," said Batson. "My family put down stakes here in the 1880s. It's a richly diverse community — multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-faith — a microcosm of our great country in just 46 square miles. It will be a privilege to serve our many constituents: workers, families, tenants, educators, first responders, students, civil servants, seniors, veterans — all in the community we share."

The 97th district stretches east to west from the Hudson River to the Ramapo mountains and borders Bergen county in northern New Jersey. It includes Chestnut Ridge, Grand View, Hillburn, Nyack, Piermont, Suffern, Airmont, Monsey, Montebello, Orangeburg, Pearl River, Sparkill and Spring Valley.

The seat was won in November by conservative Republican Mike Lawler, who defeated longtime Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee.

Batson said his legislative platform is built on the basic tenets of US democracy, which are often taken for granted.

"Our country was founded on the principle of liberty and justice for all," said Batson. "We may all be 'free,' but many are free to discover how many doors are closed to them, and how difficult it is for their voices to be heard on critical issues affecting their lives."

Batson plans to conduct a "listening tour" over the next year leading up to the election, interviewing citizens of all ages, leaders, civil servants, workers, educators, students, veterans, business owners and institutional executives in the district. "I'll also be walking, biking, hiking and riding every bus in the 97th," he said.

Batson's work includes his current post as artist-in-residence and manager of the Nyack Farmers Market; teaching posts with the Learning Collaborative, Nyack public schools, and Nyack Library; and membership on the steering committee for the Rockland People’s Panel on Policing.

In previous decades, Batson served as a labor organizer for the SEIU 1199 health care workers union, and chief of staff for former governor David Paterson during his tenure as New York State Senate Deputy Minority Leader.

Batson also currently serves in board positions with the Nyack Center, the Nyack Historical Society, the Nyack branch of the NAACP, the Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Oak Hill Cemetery and the Mount Moor Cemetery Association, which oversees and maintains an historic burial ground for Black veterans in West Nyack. He works as a consultant for the River Hook preserve in Upper Nyack.

Batson chaired the committee that installed the Toni Morrison Bench by the Road monument in Nyack’s Memorial Park in May of 2015, and was inducted into the Rockland Civil Rights Hall of Fame earlier this year.

During the pandemic, Batson co-founded Nyack Mask Makers, a mutual-aid organization, mobilizing 600 volunteers and donors who, in the early days of the crisis, manufactured 16,000 masks for frontline health care workers, first responders, and the public. The organization is now
revamping its operations to address new needs raised by the Delta COVID variant.

"If there's anything positive to be said about the pandemic, it has forced us to create new alliances and new tools to support local businesses, institutions, workers and families," said Batson. "These new resources will continue to serve our community long after the pandemic is over."

Batson's Nyack Sketch Log chronicles the people, places, stories and top-of-mind public policy issues in Rockland County.

"September 14th is the tenth anniversary of the Sketch Log, and a fitting time for me to step into the public arena," Batson said. "In my journalism and storytelling over the past decade, I've met hundreds of incredible people and seen our culture, our community, and our history up close. It will be an honor to continue in this tradition of connection and service by working to craft laws that improve our communities today — and for generations."

A rally launching Batson's campaign is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sept. 18 at Hezekiah Easter Veteran's Square at Cedar and Main Streets in Nyack. Featured speakers will include Don Hammond, the village mayor.

"Bill Batson is truly a Renaissance man," said Hammond. "As an artist, writer and historian, Bill is keenly sensitive to the stories of individuals and communities, and how those stories shape our collective needs and goals. As a leader experienced in politics, policy and the public arena, Bill understands the importance of tolerance, the value of coalitions, and the creativity needed to solve problems."

Hezekiah Easter Veteran's Square in Nyack memorializes the life of Hezekiah Easter, Jr., the first Black man to hold public office in Rockland County.

Elected in 1965 to the Village of Nyack Board of Trustees, Easter served in WWII. His father served in WWI. They are both buried in the historic Mount Moor cemetery in West Nyack alongside Black veterans from every major American conflict, from the Civil War and Spanish American war to the two World Wars and Korea.

"That story is my story. My family's friend Hezekiah Easter got me my first job at a sheet metal factory on Snake Hill Road in West Nyack when I was just 19," Batson said. "It was a big step up for a teenager. But the real message was, as Hezekiah put it, 'My life belongs to the community.' I'm now stepping up to that commitment — it's our history, it's our future, and it's exactly what I am meant to do."