Colin Schmitt: 'You can stand by your beliefs and represent everybody'

By Ginny Privitar GOSHEN — Colin Schmitt decided early in life to get into politics. Now he's the latest 20-something running for the 99th District Assembly seat currently held by Nancy Calhoun. He said he was 12 or 13 years old when he met Annie Rabbitt, who was running her first campaign for state assembly. He was involved in her successful campaign and said of the experience, “I was drawn to her character and platform....I saw that you could be a genuine person and stand by your beliefs and represent everybody.” Schmitt, a Republican, worked for her for nearly four years before he went to college. Born in Staten Island, Schmitt and his family moved to Montgomery while he was an infant. For the past six months, the 22 year-old has established his own residence in New Windsor. He graduated from Valley Central High School and then attended Catholic University of America, where he received a B.A. in politics and a minor in theology and religious studies. Schmitt does independent consulting on social and relation media and political relations. Three years ago he established New Dawn, a political action committee, to further his political goals. Those goals include: job creation, relief from mandates and taxes, ethics reform, protection of the second amendment (to keep and bear arms), and opposition to abortion. Schmitt said the government in Albany is disfunctional. “The culture of Albany is to eat you up and spit you out — not as the same person you were," he said. "People view politicians as just trying to represent themselves.” He said he believes in “standing up for what you believe and not sacrificing it for political gain.” Another strong position for him is to stand firm on taxes. Schmitt swears he will "never, ever, will support any tax raise.” If elected, Smith will be part of the Republican minority in the State Assembly, but he does not see that as a disadvantage. “The power that the minority party has played — sometimes the minority voice in the American system of government is more powerful than many assume it can be," he said. For more about Schmitt, see his Web page at www.nyforschmitt.com/about.shtml.

Others running for the same seat include Kyle Roddey, the Village of Goshen mayor, who has the endorsement of the Republican, Conservative, and Independence parties; James Skoufis of Woodbury, who has the Democratic endorsement; and Mark Levy of Salisbury Mills, who is running as a write-in candidate for the Republican Party Primary and Independence Party Primary elections on Sept. 13.