Michael J. Volpe

Michael Volpe

Republican

BACKGROUND: Volpe, 57, is running on the independent line Serve America Movement. He was born and raised in Glen Cove and earned a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University. He earned a master’s in industrial relations from Cornell University and the City University of New York, and a law degree from New York Law School. He’s now a partner at Venable LLP, where he heads the firm’s nationwide “labor and employment” practice group. He first won office in 1999, elected to the Pelham (Westchester County) town council. Since 2015, he’s served as mayor of the village of Pelham. He is married with three adult children.

ISSUES: Volpe, is running with former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat, as part of the Serve America Movement, a new national group looking to back candidates separate from the major parties. When he announced, Volpe said: “I am doing this because I believe our two-party system is broken and our country and state are heading in the wrong direction. We need an independent, bipartisan and cooperative approach to government locally, statewide and on a national level.” He wants to abolish direct grants to companies, which he said too often reward campaign contributors. He proposes to overhaul mass-transit bureaucracy, implement early voting, end gerrymandering and ban loopholes that allow companies to skirt campaign-contribution limits. He wants the state to assume full costs of the Medicaid program from the counties, which he says will dramatically lower property taxes. With the New York subway system in disrepair, he calls for firing every current member of the MTA board.