Quantcast
Channel: Tea Party Cheer » NYDem 2014
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 34

Martha Robertson (D-NY-23)

0
0

Back to NY Candidate Bios23.01 Martha Robertson

Martha Robertson

 

Campaign links: Martha Robertson (D-NY-23)

 

 

Martha Robertson 2014 Congressional Candidate New York District 23

 

Biography of Martha Robertson from the Committee to Elect Martha Robertson

Martha is a fixture of our community. She is in tune with its ongoing and emerging needs, and has a keen eye on its future. As a member of the Tompkins County Legislature since 2002, chairing it from 2010 through 2013, she has a proven track record of fighting for what we need, right here at home. She has shown on countless occasions she knows how to listen, how to compromise to get things done, and how to lead.

 

Martha is often still up and working into the wee hours of the morning, then back in her office again early the next day. When she takes on an issue or a responsibility, she doesn’t let go until it’s done!

 

WIDE-RANGING EXPERIENCE

 

Martha has a diverse array of experience, in a host of different arenas. She grew up working in the family business, and later started a business of her own.

 

“I literally grew up in a small business. My parents had a flower shop and nursery, with the house right next to the shop. We were open 24/7, so if a customer came in, someone had to jump up to go wait on them. My brothers, sister, and I helped sell the trees, water the shrubs, and make the bows in the flower shop. It was called Liberty Nursery, and that’s where I learned about hard work.


“Thanks to a scholarship, I found my way to Cornell University and upstate New York, where I fell in love with the region and stayed here after I finished school. I earned a degree in Early Childhood Education and still believe that – as the saying goes – everything we need to know, we learn in kindergarten.


“I taught for five years, then followed my husband to Cleveland where he had a promising new job. After 11 years in Cleveland we had the opportunity to move back to upstate New York, which we happily took. We raised our children here and became engrossed in the local community.


“In Cleveland I had helped start the Cleveland Children’s Museum. I brought this experience back with me when we returned to New York in 1988. I worked with the Sciencenter in Tompkins County and started a small business for museum exhibit design and construction. After this, I followed my passion for building communities and went into community nonprofit development work, including with Cornell University, working with Cornell women alumnae.”

 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

 

Martha got involved in local politics and county government where the rubber hits the road…literally! The county was considering building a big new road that would have gone from our shopping mall to one of the eastern highways.

 

“The road would have promoted traffic to the mall at the expense of local businesses, as well as negatively impacting sensitive environmental areas and local neighborhoods. It would have been a disaster for our city.


“I organized a community group where we educated ourselves on the issues, learned what ‘sprawl’ was, and figured out how to influence the decision-makers. We pushed the idea of enhanced transit to solve the traffic problems without building a new road, while maintaining the interests of local businesses. We got more than 500 signatures on a petition and the county heard us — the road was not built.”

 

Following this successful grassroots organizing effort, local leaders asked Martha to run for the County Legislature. In 2001 she ousted an incumbent and won the seat. She was the first woman and the first Democrat to be elected from the district, representing the western half of the Town of Dryden. With bipartisan support, Martha has been elected chair of the legislature each of the last four years.

 

SERVING COMMUNITY, SERVING FAMILY

 

Martha is fully committed to the local community. Her two children, Jessica and Adam, have gone on to successful careers as a transportation planner and emergency physician, respectively. The education, work ethic, and values they learned here in Dryden continue to influence and guide their success — ideals that Adam and his wife Marta are passing on to their children, Ricky and Emmett.

 

“I have a bright vision of our region. We live here because we love it. My husband Steve and I chose to live and raise our kids here. I’ve been here for thirty years, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

“I am running for Congress to make our vision of growth and prosperity a reality for all our families in upstate New York.”

 

Biography of Martha Robertson from the Tompkins County Legislature

Martha Robertson has been on the Legislature since 2002 and has served as Chair of the Legislature since January 2010. In addition she chairs the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (TCIDA) and represents the Legislature on the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG). Martha serves on the Program Oversight Committee of the Housing Fund, a joint effort of Tompkins County, the City of Ithaca and Cornell University to respond to the affordable housing needs of the county’s residents. Martha has been chair of the Public Safety Committee, the Health and Human Services Committee, and the Planning, Development and Environmental Quality Committee. In addition she chaired the Capital Plan Review Committee from 2010 – 2012.

 

Robertson represents the County on the Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council and chairs the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency. She is a leader in the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), serving on statewide commissions on Mandate Relief and Medicaid Redesign as well as several of the association’s standing committees. Robertson has been an outspoken advocate about the issues facing County governments in New York, is a strong advocate for fairer funding for schools and health care, and frequently serves as an influential spokesperson in the statewide media.

 

Over the years Robertson’s legislative priorities have included expanding housing choice and affordability, fairer taxes in New York, creating jobs through local efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, and providing strong, effective alternatives to incarceration to build a safer, more just community. She appointed the County’s Broadband Committee and charged it with identifying a path forward to secure internet access for every resident of the county. The committee’s work and collaboration with Clarity Connect resulted in a $2.2 million broadband grant from New York State. In addition Martha worked across party lines to secure State funding to fight the invasive plant Hydrilla.

 

Robertson’s leadership on the issue of hydrofracking includes co-founding Elected Officials to Protect New York (nyelectedofficials.org), a group of 729 local elected officials from every county in the state. EOPNY calls for extension of the state’s moratorium pending comprehensive studies of fracking’s health impacts, cumulative environmental impacts, and socioeconomic effects on communities and local governments.

 

A County resident for 30 years, Martha has been very involved with the Sciencenter since 1988; she is currently a member of its Advisory Board. She is also a member of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce Board and the Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Committee.

 

Before joining the Tompkins County Legislature, Martha was Director of the President’s Council of Cornell Women, in Alumni Affairs at Cornell University. A Cornell graduate, she has been a teacher, a business owner, and a fundraiser for several not-for-profit organizations. Martha and her husband Steve have two children and two grandsons.

 

County Legislators serve four-year terms. All seats are up for election this fall, in districts redrawn by the Independent Redistricting Commission and approved by the Legislature in 2012.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 34

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images