What happened to Dan Stec?
Rep. Stefanik vows to fire newly hired IRS workers
By Ken Tingley
What has happened to Sen. Dan Stec?
That question has come up repeatedly in conversations in recent months, including once from a former county official.
Stec is a born politician with an incredible gift of gab, but more importantly, he served the town of Queensbury capably as town supervisor for nine years and was chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors.
Stec knew his stuff and could solve community problems. If he did any politicking, it was behind closed doors and not out in the open. He seemed to be there for all the right reasons.
During most of Stec’s tenure, the town did not have a tax and when local fire companies tried to force the town into spending more than it wanted on equipment and a new contract, Stec stood up to them so taxes would not increase.
When Stec announced he was running for an assembly seat in the New York State Legislature I wrote it was a mistake. I argued he could do more good as supervisor instead of being in the Republican minority in the state Legislature.
That was the case in the Assembly and continues to be the case in the state Senate.
What we have seen increasingly in recent years is Stec become more political and weighing in on issues that don’t seem to have a lot to do with his district.
In a recent flyer, he pledged to combat “drive-by shootings” in a rural district where that type of crime does not take place. He has made Second Amendment rights a prime concern even though guns are readily available in the district.
His statements regularly mirror the rantings of Rep. Elise Stefanik and many other national Republicans. The consensus is he is positioning himself to run for Congress if Rep. Stefanik’s attentions should lead elsewhere.
Those congressional ambitions go back more than a dozen years. I wrote a column then when Stec conceded that goal, but he has never gotten the opportunity. The national Republican machine repeatedly reaches out of the district - Chris Gibson, Stefanik, John Sweeney - for Republican candidates.
I believe Stec would have been a great choice for Congress 12 years ago when Gibson ran against Murphy, but I’m not so sure anymore, especially after Stec’s stunt alongside a bunch of Revolutionary War reenactors at Rogers Island in Fort Edward.
State Democrats passed new gun regulations in the wake of the school shooting in Texas earlier this year. One of the provisions was that firearms could not be brought into “sensitive areas” like parks.
The law was sloppily worded and Republicans seized the opportunity to draw attention away from more important issues. They argued residents could be arrested if had a rifle anywhere within the 9,000 square miles of the Adirondack Park despite assurances from the governor that was not true. They made a problem where there was none.
So a group of reenactors canceled their event at the Rogers Island Visitor’s Center this week saying they feared arrest even though Warren County Sheriff Jim LaFar said neither the reenactors nor any resident should fear arrest.
This was a stunt conducted by grown men who should have known better.
But there was Sen. Stec standing alongside the reenactors giving their complaint credibility.
The reenactors should also be ashamed for taking part in politics. One of them was Ed Carpenter, the president of the Rogers Island Visitor Center board. The leadership of valuable local historic sites should be above such behavior.
Stec has always been a staunch Second Amendment advocate so his fervor on this issue is nothing new. A few years ago, Stec even opposed a measure that made it a law for gun owners to secure their firearms if anyone under 16 living in their residence. The measure was taken after a Wilton youngster died in an accidental shooting while playing with his father’s handgun.
No is taking away anyone’s guns and to characterize it otherwise is politics at its worst.
No one is being arrested for having a rifle in the woods of the Adirondack Park and Stec knows that.
I used to have a lot of respect for Stec as a capable public servant. After this week’s stunt at Roger’s Island, that is no longer the case.
Stefanik threat
Rep. Elise Stefanik tweeted Sunday morning that the first thing Republicans would do after taking back the House of Republicans is to fire 87,000 IRS agents, charging that they had been hired to target families and small businesses.
That statement has no basis in fact.
Nobody likes the IRS and no one wants a letter in the mail asking about their latest tax filings, but Rep. Stefanik is alleging the entire Internal Revenue Service is corrupt. While we all fear a letter from the IRS, none of us has anything to fear as long as we pay our taxes completely and timely.
The IRS has been underfunded for years and that has allowed those who don’t pay their taxes - including large businesses and corporations - to take advantage.
The hiring of more IRS agents was to ensure everyone pays their fair share, including rich people.
Rep. Stefanik apparently does not believe that should be the case.
Latest review
Matt Sturdevant, a former Post-Star reporter 20 years ago, posted this about “The Last American Newspaper” over the weekend and it made my day.
“I am honored to have an entire chapter of this book dedicated to an in-depth article I wrote about 20 years ago, which explored the experience of LGBTQ+ individuals who grew up in the rural North Country of New York State. This was a feat of journalism that took months of reporting and was published at a time when California was still under Proposition 22 (March 2000), which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Needless to say, this front-page story drew strong reactions in the southern Adirondacks, where I was a reporter at The Post-Star of Glens Falls, N.Y., an ambitious publication that was consistently recognized as best-in-class for its circulation size.
“More importantly, The Last American Newspaper is about the tremendous importance of newspapers to communities. The author, Kenneth Tingley, interviewed me years later, and I told him what I continue to believe, that it is important to be bold, take on a challenge and have difficult conversations to advance the public discourse.
“Ken's memoir is a riveting read. Each chapter has the excitement of a newsroom on deadline. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in #journalism, #news, #newspapers, #mediarelations, #publicrelations and #corporatecommunications. #thelastamericannewspaper”
The book is available at Ace Hardware in Queensbury, the Chapman Museum in Glens Falls, Battenkill Books in Cambridge and McKernon Gallery in Hudson Falls.
Tweets of the Day
Dan Stec seems to have gotten the MAGA virus. No vaccination obviously. The symptoms include a thirst for money and power, destruction of any moral fiber in the body and increased lying capacity to the point of being incapable of seeing the truth any longer. Well...maybe that part is a choice.
Thanks for the backstory on the Rogers Island stunt. I wondered about it in the face of seeing a reenactment had recently taken place at Fort Ti using the same arms.
It’s reassuring, I’m sure, for white collar criminals to know that Elise Stefanik has got their backs.