Earlier today, Angel and I had the opportunity to conduct a wide-ranging interview with David Nachbar, who is running against Jim Alesi in New York’s 55th Senate district. Btp did a fantastic job with the demographics that make this such a tight race in the last post — now let’s meet the candidate.

The interview is quite long, so we include most of it under the fold. I think it’s well-worth reading — both Angel and I were extremely impressed with the detail and candor of David’s answers. We apologize for any typos or mistakes on our part! Now, without further ado, here’s the interview.

RT: Where were you born?

DN: New Brunswick, NJ, raised in Matawan, NJ, small town, a beach community. My parents moved out from NYC. Our big news was when the Burger King opened. Our town had a main street, a library, shops and stores on main street, we biked to town and the train station. People knew each other. It had small town values, word got out pretty quickly if you didn’t keep your word or your promise. When you grow up in a town like that, you learn that you have to be trusted by your neighbors. It was also a town that was in transition, with people leaving NYC to live in small towns. With so many people coming out to that area it created a lot of change in different places and dealing with that change was very different. Very early on I saw fights in the school, etc. That is sort of the grassroots story.

RT: Could you describe your business background?

DN: I worked as much as possible because my father wanted me to appreciate the value of the dollar. So, my brother and I began working probably even before we were supposed to. He told us nothing was handed to you on a platter. My dad is retired now; he was an engineer, middle level, and very early on he worked for RCA for about 25 years and in the 70’s was laid off in one of the very first rounds of these large conglomerate layoffs. He was one to wake at the crack of dawn, go to work, and then to see one day someone make a decision that you no longer work here, and this was before pension protection acts, so he didn’t get a pension. All those years of putting into the company pension plan, he was not entitled to the money. So he had to scramble. Today we don’t even print layoff stories. My dad did okay because he was resourceful, he got another job and landed on his feet. So we saw that going on, and I had various jobs, I pumped gas at the gas station, across the street from that Burger King by the way, I was a newspaper delivery boy. One of my jobs was at an amusement park. I went into one part of the park and I started pointed things out that looked a little strange. There’s this balloon game with water pistols and whoever pops the balloon first wins the prize

I was walking by and saw there was an outlet and there was no faceplate on it. Two metal prongs and a water game, ok? I happened to notice that the town fire marshal was walking by. I called him over and asked him to go to the water game where the clowns are and see that outlet that looked real dangerous to me. Well he shut it down and they fixed it right away. Word got out that Dave did this and management didn’t like that so much. One day I got approached by someone in the local union and asked me how I’d like to be a shop steward for our union. I became a shop steward at Local 54, the hotel and restaurant workers. I tell you, the things you see could absolutely make your hair stand up on end. People brought into back rooms, under bright lights, asking why they are stealing money. You got to say “cut it out.” Having the force and impact of a union, to be able to say how to stop that.

That led me to start looking at labor relations and the law, and taking a look at Cornell. It has one of the best labor relations programs in the state. I went there and it led to even more open doors in the field. One of my first jobs was in NY office of collective bargaining in NYC. I worked on the Metro North commuter line strike. Seeing the way both sides were working together in spite of what went on in front of the cameras, that was the key, get the trains running again, this led to other assignments and I stayed in the field of labor relations. I was the Chief of Human Resources at B&L.

It all comes back to those roots, listening and understanding people. I’ve been able to do the very same thing I did in that amusement park.

RT: What made you decide to enter this race?

DN: We need to get change in the community, we need to get action, and we need to get results. I’m one of those people who believes that anything is possible with work and effort, and oftentimes our biggest regrets are when we decide not to do things. My company was sold and I called Joe Morelle and told him I was offering him my services in any capacity in whatever way he felt he could use them. He mentioned to me that I really should look at various local races, which I then did. When you take a look at the 55th district you come to the conclusion very rapidly, you have to be in a position where you can get things done. We’re at a place in the state where we have some very key decisions to make. It’s rare in life when you’ve got t these great intersections of the right opportunity at the right time. That opportunity is the reason.

RT: What kind of things will be possible if we flip the state senate?

DN: We need to create an environment for well-paying jobs. There has been some job creation in the past seven months, but very low-paying jobs. That’s good but there’s a difference in high-paying jobs where you can have security. [We need] the coordination in the community to make that happen.

The second thing is investing in infrastructure.

I also believe that we will have the opportunity to take action on covering uninsured New Yorkers. There are a little over 2 1/2 million New Yorkers who are uninsured, almost 400,000 are children. We should be very, very uncomfortable with that. I know we can take action to be able to [fix] that. I’ve been working with one organization on a national basis to be able to provide affordable insurance. At Bausch and Lomb I worked to make insurance affordable for everyone who worked there. We had a way that the less you earned the less you had to pay for your health insurance.

What we had was this terrible dilemma, because health costs are going up as much as 12 or 14 percent a year. But real wages are only going up 2.5-3% the last 5 years. How do people deal with that? They spend a little less on food, spend a little less on gas. But then it got to the point that gap became too big. People would drop health insurance to save premiums or go to work sick or injured or reduce coverage and benefits, so that their family wasn’t covered. Those are positions people shouldn’t be in.

So to cover those who are earning lower wages, our decisions kept them insured. The interesting part is that the people who earned more money were worried they couldn’t afford it. It worked out that they were, the cross-funding made it so that everyone was covered without anyone having to spend too much.

The goal is keeping people insured, having access to health care. Everybody agreed how important it was. I think we can take action like that in this state.

RT: Do you think NY state should use the model of Massachusetts for statewide health insurance?

DN: Massachusetts, let’s look at that….

Unlike food, which you have to eat, and, pay for, every day, health care and being healthy, is very unpredictable. In many cases it’s our family makeup, lifestyle, birth of a child, whatever, it varies by individual. As a result we have to look at systems that share the cost. A state like MA and CA that are taking a look at other systems, they are moving fast because they have a situation that has to be dealt with right away. So, at least we won’t throw up our hands and say if it’s not done nationally it won’t be done anywhere. We will take action. As far as the mechanism, I think there are some ideas that can share that economic risk.

One, is everybody has got to get covered. Those who aren’t covered end up going to the ER and we as a community wind up paying anyway.

The second premise is that we have to unleash market forces in the health care sector. What a lot of people are talking about is they want to put the burden of cost reduction than you and me. We have more information on buying a fridge than we do about choosing health care We may decide that preventative step is not worth it, we’re not sick right now so we won’t do it. We want to make sure those situations are provided for. There’s no better way to lower health care costs than having a lot of the health care providers start competing for the business.

Third thing is the less you earn the less you have to pay. We cannot have a family’s budget be the circuit breaker about whether or not they can have health care.

So…everyone’s got to be insured, unleash market forces, the less you earn the less you pay.

We can work the mechanics. The endless game of kicking the can down the road, let the feds handle it, is one more example of people not taking responsibility. I think that’s worn and that’s going to stop right now.

RT: Could you explain what you mean by unleashing market forces?

DN: Individuals need to make choices about who they want coverage with. The fun part is to get a whole bunch of companies trying to get your business. Instead of going to company A we’re going to give you diagnostics and coverage for your children. Company C is going to say we’ll give you dependent care for your parents if you come with us. What I don’t want to see happen is individual being relied upon to make coverage and treatment decisions. Those belong between doctor and patient. Doctors are very capable professionals so to say that insurance companies can make diagnoses decisions is wrong.

RT: Is it unusual for someone who started out in unions to end up as head of HR for a big company?

DN: Well, I wasn’t the type of manager who thinks of unions as evil. We’re all in this together, I can see things from both sides. The discussion is turning very nicely to let’s forget abut going at each other’s throats and let’s partner up.

Here’s a concrete example: David Glass and Andy Stern, the CEO of Walmart and the head of the SEIU standing side by side talking about health care There’s a situation where we said ‘we’re going to try to organize’ and they tried to have a common goal.

RT: Gerrymandered districts: would you support some kind of fair redistricting plan, something to make the races more competitive, since only one race changed hands last time? With the 2010 census coming up, the districts will get redrawn in 2012?

DN: First off you’re talking about representatives who are truly representative the people in their community. If you take a look at some of the districts we have, the districts are kind of cut off from the representative. That’s a problem.

On the other angle, if you take a look at the map, and use state senate districts as one example, there is no logic that you can see about how these maps are laid out. I think what we need to do after the census is to take a look at the basic rules on how these districts are configured. How is the opportunity for the voices to be heard? It’s an inherently political process but we have to have more transparency, more common-sense, to ensure that there’s true representation. Beyond that, voters make the decision. If the incumbent is not serving the people well, they should vote him out.

RT: How do you feel about campaign finance reforms? Clean money, clean elections, either to introduce public money or to at least tighten up the current campaign financing rules?

DN: I’ve been learning a lot about campaign finance laws in NY state, and they’re different from federal and local rules. Some of these rules defy logic. You can also feel and sense the political process that has worked its way through creating. the finance laws that exist today. It’s almost a rule and not a rule. We need to provide ways to look at this. We need to provide more transparency. People want to know fundamentally who is writing the checks. Nobody disagrees with that.

You also need to know it can’t be infinitely upwards. We cannot have a situation where even there is the remotest hint of conflict of interest. It’ s going to be important.

The other thing is whether or not state elections should be publicly financed. I would say one day, as a goal, I’d love to see that. I think it does open the doors to more candidates and keeps a new type of record keeping. However, I have a tough time looking at that now with all the other things that are confronting us from a budget and health care standpoint. I’d rather invest in infrastructure, job growth. It’s not as if campaign finance reform is not important, but I think we have to start prioritizing. What’s the first thing, the second thing? I know we’ll be one day where our state is so prosperous that we can get there. We will get there.

RT: Republicans argue that there is a tug of war for resources between upstate and the city, and that if Democrats control all three branches of the state government then upstate will lose resources. Is there any truth to that argument?

DN: To paraphrase somebody much more articulate than I, I don’t believe there’s a downstate or an upstate, I believe there’s a New York state. We need a statewide perspective. There are assets and resources in upstate and in western NY that are vital to the entire state. We understand NYC has res. that are beneficial to upstate. Those perspectives are identical, so as a result we are mutually dependent. The feuds I’ve read about this, these are the types of political squabbles I have no heart for. WE have to make decisions that are beneficial for all of NY. There will be decisions made that will have benefit for downstate and times when action will be taken for concerns upstate. Because we are mutually dependent, those sorts of things will happen. We have to think of it as one NY state.

RT: Do you support Gov. Patterson’s stance on same-sex marriages?

DN: I’ve been trying to read a bit more, it’s late breaking news form last week. I think all forms of discrimination are wrong. I took steps in corporate life to make sure domestic part. benefits were identical. And I believe very strongly in that. I will even say this, I will do so because of some conservative reasons, if you believe in true equal protection under the laws, as stated in the 14th amendment, there cannot be any denial of due process, no discrimination for any reason. I think in this day and age, when we have so many things in such temporary basis, when you have two people who are committed to each other, when they want to spend the rest of their lives together, I think that is a good thing. This is a challenge for our generation, others have dealt with other forms of discrimination, such as race and gender and national origin. Discrimination of any kind is wrong.

RT: What are your thoughts on the member items (which are essentially earmarks)?

Alesi is responsible for $4M in member items. If that is the measure of success, then that is disappointing. When we look at the real issues that are confronting us, where are those results for creating jobs? Why is it that so many New Yorkers don’t have insurance? Where is the infrastructure investment in roads and bridges that is necessary. When you look t the sum of approx. a quarter of a billion dollars, I’m not saying that these things are bad, the sidewalk, the memorial, the contribution to the arts, but we’re at a time when we have to ask very important questions about where are our priorities? We should be looking at things that have the greatest amount of impact for the greatest number of people.

That is the difference between being a true state senator and being able to bring back pork for a small number of issues.

RT: Would you be willing to support more money for pre-K?

DN: A great question. People think that times that we’re in right now that we have to watch every dollar that we spend, which we do, we have to restore our financial credibility, not only with financial institutions but with people in the state, because it’s their money. In these times when we are prioritizing, it doesn’t mean that the only thing we have to do is cut back. Certainly we should eliminate the waste –a billion and a half in Medicaid waste in NY. We also have to look at investments in infrastructure, growth and R&D. That’s how you control your spending, you prioritize, eliminate waste, and you invest in the future. You create a wonderful cycle of growth and prosperity. This is NY, we should lead the way. We should be the role model for economic growth and revitalization.

Related posts:

1. New York State Teachers Union cries foul on FAIR
2. Trickle up dysfunction: New York State and High Speed Rail failure
3. Should New York State take lessons from Xerox?
4. RP: Why does NY state still have uninsured children?
5. New York State Legislature redistricting, a GOP view