NORWICH – A Norwich Democrat is getting a headstart on his campaign to run for the 52nd District of the New York Senate in November 2008.
Though his candidacy isn’t official yet, Dr. Richard Jorgensen has filed a financial report with the New York State Board of Elections and begun soliciting campaign contributions toward a goal of accumulating $100,000 by year’s end.
Republican Senator Thomas W. Libous is currently serving his 10th term for the district which includes parts of Chenango County and all of Broome and Tioga counties.
Chenango County Democratic Chairwoman Catherine Ulfik said Jorgensen is out early with his campaign and would need to collect 1,000 or more signatures by July 2008, depending on party enrollment numbers determined on April 1.
“He might also have an opponent. It’s a process. It’s so early,” she said.
A local dentist, Jorgensen was a member for eight years on the Norwich City School District Board of Education. He was also executive vice president of the New York State Association of Small City Schools. His name became more widely recognized last year through his role as director for Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Garry’s successful campaign in November.
“Throughout that campaign - and all over the district - we got a feel for what people are doing and got to know the local, regional and state issues. We discovered considerable voter dissatisfaction with the current leadership,” he said.
Jorgensen’s platforms include health care reform, economic development through reduced utility costs, improved highways, lower property taxes and new school funding formulas. Speaking from his office on Tuesday, he said he often questions why students in the Southern Tier survive on $6,700 per pupil per year versus the $25,000 to $30,000 per pupil in more wealthy, downstate regions.
“That’s a big discrepancy that needs to be addressed,” he said. “We owe it to our children here to be good stewards of the economy and for the schools,” he said.
Jorgensen said “too much power lies in the Senate majority leader’s hands” currently, and that changing the majority party there “would enable Governor Eliot Spitzer’s reform packages that are targeted for upstate.”
“We need to change the New York State Senate leadership and change the rules of the Senate. This will allow for a return of the democratic process to the citizens of the 52nd District and to all Senate districts across the state. We can together bring an end to the dysfunctional ‘Three Men in a Room’ (Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Spitzer) practices in Albany,” his fundraising letter states.
Jorgensen has been practicing dentistry in Norwich since 1987. He is a graduate of the University of Buffalo and is originally from Penn Yan. He said running for and becoming involved in Chenango County government didn’t interest him because the daytime meetings would have conflicted with his dental practice.
His fundraising efforts to date include direct mailings, telephoning and setting up campaign committees in the district. Recent public appearances include the Strawberry Festival parade in Owego, the Fourth of July parade in Candor and the Farm Bureau picnic in Tioga County.