ALBANY – Democratic state comptroller candidate Raj Goyle is making a pointy left flip to attempt to unseat longtime incumbent Tom DiNapoli, massively flip-flopping from his days as a conservative Dem.
unearthed by The Put up reveals.
“Within the state home, I voted with Republicans 80% of the time,” Goyle bragged in a marketing campaign advert whereas repping Kansas’ 4th Congressional District in 2010.
A spokesman for his marketing campaign on the time described him as “a fiscal conservative and a social average.”
However now the tech entrepreneur is rebranding himself as a “progressive” — calling for divestment from Israel, opposing immigration enforcement and demanding a transfer away from fossil fuels – generally in stark opposition to his voting data and public statements from his time in workplace in Kansas 15 years in the past.
“My values are fully constant,” Goyle insisted throughout a current interview with The Put up.
“I used to be an absolute, no-question a progressive. That’s why, in fact, they attacked me for it,’’ he mentioned.
Lots of his contradictory statements at this time in comparison with years in the past stem from his 2010 marketing campaign.
He misplaced the race to Mike Pompeo, who would go on to serve in President Trump’s first administration as CIA director and secretary of state.
For instance, in 2010, Goyle known as for a crackdown on companies that employed undocumented migrants.
“Our immigration system is in an entire disaster proper now. We should safe the border. We have to crack down on employers who knowingly rent undocumented staff,” he wrote on Fb.
“I feel immigrants want to come back right here the suitable approach,” he mentioned at a political discussion board in 2010, in accordance with the Newton Kansan on the time.
Goyle’s dad and mom are docs who immigrated to the US legally from India.
He additionally voted for payments on the time to make English the official language of Kansas, place further restrictions on abortions after 22 weeks, permit hid stick with it authorities properties similar to faculty campuses, permit Kansans to personal computerized firearms and silencers and to cease undocumented immigrants from getting drivers’ licenses.
As well as, he voted towards elevating gross sales taxes in 2010 and supported extending the President George W. Bush’s tax cuts.
Goyle now says he particularly voted towards the gross sales tax hike, arguing that it’s a regressive tax that hurts poor individuals extra.
On the opposite matters, he claims that he solid his votes as compromises with Republicans who had been pushing for much more conservative insurance policies similar to stopping state Kansas from accepting paperwork in languages apart from English altogether.
He additionally mentioned his immigration feedback stemmed from a problem of employers mistreating undocumented migrant staff on job websites.
“We had been defeating and beating again as a lot of their unhealthy laws as we may. And look in a state like Kansas, in fact, progressives are going to be on the defensive,” he mentioned.
Goyle argued that DiNapoli has advanced his stances over his almost 4 a long time within the state Meeting and as comptroller.
“When Tom DiNapoli was within the meeting, he was actively opposing drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants,” he mentioned.
Goyle is operating in a major towards DiNapoli alongside perennial Brooklyn candidate Adem Bunkeddeko and housing non-profit govt Drew Warshaw.
