Democracy In Albany

Lester Freeman was born on March 22, 1967. His mother, Mary Freeman, and father, Lester Mosley, lived separately in Albany. He and his older half-sister Denise Mosley were raised by their paternal grandmother, Laura Hayes. His grandmother passed away when he was 7 years old, and he went to live with his mother and his two older half-brothers in Albany's South End.

In an effort to avoid boredom and potentially getting trapped in the gang-oriented society in the South End, Lester attended the Albany County Head Start Program, while his mom worked in the kitchen as a cook. This was among the activities that he participated in to help his development. These activities taught him teamwork and discipline.

Lester attended the Albany City Schools and had a timely graduation from Albany High School, where he competed in varsity football, track and field. He credits the Youth Opportunity Program, sponsored by the State of New York, with helping him make the decision to attend college. He enrolled at the State University of New York College at Morrisville where he received an associates degree in Liberal Arts. He then went on to earn his Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

After graduating from Stony Brook University, he returned to his roots to work as a legislative aide in the Albany County Legislature Majority Counsel's office, where he performed research for legislative committees and clerical functions for the Albany County Legislature.

Lester has remained dedicated to his neighborhood, having owned his home and other properties in the South End since 1996.

In 1997 Lester became a Specialist for the Albany County Department of Human Resources, Division of Affirmative Action. He analyzed statistical data related to the hiring and retention of women, minority and disabled persons in County employment. He was responsible for receiving and interpreting payroll data for compliance on construction projects receiving HUD funding, tracking applicant employment applications, and compiling annual reports on the composition of the County workforce.

As the Compliance Officer for the Albany Community Development Agency, Lester monitored utilization of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds received annually from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for residential and commercial rehab construction programs. He performed site visits to sub-recipient not-for-profit organizations receiving CDBG funds for compliance with Affirmative Action guidelines, and was responsible for reviewing voucher payments, analyzing data and interpreting program activities submitted monthly by sub-recipients for payment.

Lester is the Coordinator of the Equal Employment Opportunity program in the City of Albany, Department of Administrative Services, which oversees the operation and management of the City of Albany's Equal Employment Office for Minority and Women-owned Business. He ensures compliance with the city's Affirmative Action Plan prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status and Vietnam-era Veteran. He provides technical support to departments and the City's Human Rights Commission for compliance with applicable by-laws under the City's Affirmative Action plan, estimates projects and establishes percentage goals for Minority Participation on public bid contracts let by the City. He also monitors residential and commercial projects receiving subsidies or CDBG funding for housing in distressed areas of the city.

Lester worked on his first mayoral campaign in the summer of 1993, and made a formidable bid for the Albany City Council in 1997, losing by only 63 votes. He continued to volunteer in the South End as a little league coach working with children and encouraging youth to stay in school. He served on the Board of Directors for Albany County Opportunity, Inc., for two terms as Treasurer, and served on the New York State Dr. Martin Luther King Organizing Committee. He is a former Board Member and Treasurer of the Albany Kiwanis Albany County Opportunity program, and a member of the South End and Mount Hope Neighborhood Associations as well the Neighborhood Association of Blacks In Government (NABIG).

In 2007 Lester made a spirited bid for the Albany County Legislature, in the Second District, winning against a 17-year incumbent on the machine vote and losing only after absentee ballots were counted in a controversial ending. The election made it's way into the Northern District United States Federal Court, and changed the way the Albany County Board of Elections handles Absentee Ballots.

Now in 2008, during Black History month, Lester announced he is running for New York State's 21st Congressional District, and if elected, he will be the first minority elected to this district. Let's make history by electing Lester Freeman, Congressman.

Lester Freeman's Platform for the 2008 Election for
New York State's 21st Congressional District

Lester Freeman

Lester Freeman will develop approaches to challenge the status quo and get results. As congressman, he will continue to fight for upstate New York, advocating for more federal funding in areas of education, energy and job development. Lester, desires to see beautiful upstate become a driving force in our region leading the way to energy independence, job creation and reducing taxes.

Economy

Lester understands our upstate municipalities have an old infrastructure. Municipalities such as Cohoes, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Gloversville, Rensselaer, Cobleskill, Schoharie, Troy and even New York State's Capitol Albany have an old infrastructure. Lester will fight to procure funding for our region to rebuild and replace our roads, bridges, water and sewage lines. Senator Charles Schumer stated on in a press conference with Mayor Jennings, the boarded buildings are a "cancer on our communities". As a life long resident of the South End of Albany, Lester understands how critical it is to fund key agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help rebuild our inner cities.

According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, George Bush's new budget will cut New York's Community Development Block Grant funds by $67.4 million, which is 45% below the 2001 level. As the next congressman, Lester will fight to restore these items in the budget and more.

Lester has the experience working with Albany Mayor Gerald J. Jennings in urban redevelopment with his time at the Community Development Agency and as the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator which assures minority participation in all redevelopment and government contracts. Lester also was involved with the HOPE 3 single family housing development in North Albany.

Lester also worked as a Legislative Aid with the Albany County Legislature preparing and drafting bills for the Civic Center and working with Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, John Egan, Harold Joyce and the Albany County Co-Chairman Frank Commisso during the Airport Redevelopment. As Congressman he will work with the Senator Schumer and all the state and local officials in the 21st Congressional District to clear away the problem properties. More importantly he will work with everyone to rebuild the inner cities with safe and affordable housing. If you rebuild the inner cities there will be less crime, drugs and illegal activities in those areas and the rest of the surrounding areas benefit with higher property values and lower taxes.

Health Care

Lester supports a comprehensive health care plan for all Americans. The greatest country on earth should be able to produce a health care plan that covers its greatest asset - our children. Most of the time the uninsured happen to be the working poor, elderly, or someone's child that lives in poverty. We must accept responsibility where it lies and fight to make sure that comprehensive health care for every American under the age of 20, becomes a reality. However this is only the first step to universal health care for every American young or old, rich or poor, black or white, EVERY AMERICAN!

End the War

No More War! The invasion into Iraq has led to the unfortunate occupation of people yearning to live and be free. America must respect that and give them the resources and opportunity to realize their own revolution and evolution as a free country. This war was based on a lie and a lie cannot live forever, however we can not cut and run. I am not a military expert, but we should start by adopting and enforcing benchmarks to have a slow and steady pullout without having a power vacuum in vulnerable areas of Iraq.

Energy/Environment

Lester Freeman supports a comprehensive national energy policy to get us closer to energy independence and at the same time decreasing our need for oil. He will be a strong advocate to secure additional funding for our nation to become energy independent.

In these times of record high heating oil, gas and electric prices the president plans to cut the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Budget (LI-HEAP) budget by $90 million. This is wrong because it impacts the most vulnerable households and Lester will fight to get this reinstated. With the record profits of the oil industry giants we need to repeal the $12 billion dollars in corporate welfare to pay for these programs.

Lester understands we need further expansion of GE in the wind turbine industry, which is good for the Global Environment and great for our local economy. The Capital District also has several companies that are in fuel cell research and development, like Plug Power and MTI and as the next Congressman for this area, Lester will support these businesses and more renewable fuels like the proposed Bio Fuels Plant in Amsterdam. Lester also feels that there are major improvements of the solar industry, clean coal industry, geo-thermal industry and in Europe the Atomic Energy Industry has proven to be safe, reliable and something we need to investigate further.

Lester believes that the nanotechnologies industry can play a major role in the future of the capital region and he will fight for funding for education, research and development and the expansion at the University of Albany campus.

Education

No Child Left Behind has failed our children and left tax-payers holding the bag! We can no longer support what the federal government will not. Unfunded mandates in education have hurt our children's development and left homeowners to foot the bill. We also need to provide funding to the school districts that have charter schools to offset the additional expense of these schools.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the president's budget will slash the New York's K-12 education budget by $231 million, NY's Child Care budget by $2 million and NY's Head Start budget by $60 million, which would be at its lowest level since 2002. Bush has failed us again!
Studies have proven over and over again that our children absorb and retain more than 75% of their knowledge by the time they are nine years old. We are behind the rest of the world in our early child development and need to start children in school at 4 years old and have a longer elementary school year, during these critical developmental years.

Immigration

Protecting and strengthening our borders is a priority. Additional funding must be allocated to secure our borders and fight terrorism. Our visa policy is broken and our government doesn't care. We have let millions of people in our country legally on temporary visas and didn't keep track of them. Lester supports a comprehensive immigration bill that will reward responsible immigrants that want to become Americans with citizenship, after we secure the borders and fix the visa problem. We need to deal with those persons who are here illegally appropriately and fairly. This is not an easy subject and there is not an easy answer.

Taxes

We must repeal the Bush tax cuts and the subsidies for the oil industry. Then we need to minimize the IRS! The "Robin Hood Approach" of taxing the rich and giving to the poor doesn't work, because the poor never get it! Lester will also work toward modernizing and simplifying our tax code with a "Flat Tax" so it provides greater opportunity and relief to more Americans. Every family that makes under fifty thousand dollars per year pays nothing and a "flat tax" for the rest. Keep it simple.

Foreign Trade

I will personally fight and support trade policies that benefit American workers and increase the export of American goods. We need to produce more jobs at home and export more American products overseas. A healthy relationship with other countries in the global market needs to be re-established to maintain and increase foreign trade.

On the Road with Freeman's Forum