As I Go Door-To-Door II ("help us...")

I came upon a house in Poughkeepsie where a young man was carrying a matress to a van parked in the driveway. He was taking a few things from his parents home, because, it turns out, he was moving to North Carolina.

"I can't afford to live up here anymore. I'm moving down to N.C. where my property taxes will be 1/4 what they are here," he said of his own home in Pleasant Valley.

Then his mom came to the door. She was almost in tears and she told me she will miss her son terribly. I spoke with her about how she wasn't alone. That I'd already encountered this elsewhere in the district. I left her some material and told her that when I'm elected, job one will be to tackle the school tax crisis.

As I walked away down the driveway, she waved and pointed to the literature I left with her and mouthed, "Help us."

My opponent is the chairman of the Senate Education Committee and has blocked Property Tax reform for years. If for nothing more, this is reason enough for change.