Ann Marie Buerkle Challenging Dan Maffei

By Sam Foster

Lonely Conservative has the best info on conservative Dan Maffei challenger Ann Marie Buerkle. Below is her exclusive interview from March 2010.

I had a nice chat with Ann Marie Buerkle this afternoon. She’s a mother of six and a grandmother of eleven, all while building a successful career as a registered nurse and an attorney. She represented a local hospital for years. I’d say she knows health care better than most of the folks in Washington, DC; certainly more than her opponent in the NY25 race, incumbent Dan Maffei.

Ann Marie picked up the endorsement of the Conservative Party in all four of the counties making up NY 25. She received the GOP nod in three out of the four. She sounds to me like a true conservative. She’s pro-life, she wants the Democrats’ health care bills to be scrapped, she’s against cap and tax and she signed the Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge. She is also against the stimulus. She told me it didn’t do anything to create jobs, citing the record high unemployment and underemployment.

Buerkle told me job creation isn’t the role of the federal government. The government’s role is to foster an environment where employers feel comfortable hiring and investing. She supports tax cuts and wants the Bush tax cuts made permanent. She believes all the talk about cap and trade has cast a pall over American businesses.

Ann Marie Buerkle grew up here in Central New York, and unlike Maffei, she’s lived and worked in the community her entire life. She’s well aware of the exodus the young are making out of our area, as five of her six children have moved out of state. She said the Democrats’ health care bills will only make things worse. Expanding Medicaid will drive up property taxes – the federal government only picks up half the Medicaid tab, the other half is divided evenly between the state and the counties.

The other Republican in the race, Mark Bitz, has put his campaign on hold. He said he will wait and see if Buerkle’s campaign gains traction, and if so, he won’t mount a primary challenge. Personally, I believe the only person a GOP primary would help is Dan Maffei.

I got the impression that Buerkle is a serious woman who recognizes the serious issues facing all of us.

Click here if you’d like to donate to Ann Marie Buerkle’s campaign. She can use the help. Dan Maffei has quite the war chest – funded primarily by folks outside the district.