EDITORIAL: Barrett's strength continues to grow

In her first full term as a state assemblywoman, Didi Barrett has accomplished much and has become a "go-to" person to get critically important work done for her district — and the mid-Hudson Valley area in general. She is becoming a more important force in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, and ultimately that is good news for the area.

Barrett, D-Hudson, deserves re-election. She is being challenged in Assembly District 106 by Mike Kelsey, a Republican Dutchess County legislator. He is a sharp candidate with strong ideas and should be heard from again. The two candidates recently met with the Poughkeepsie Journal Editorial Board. As a county legislator, Kelsey has spoken out repeatedly against cuts to mental health services by the state and often has offered reasoned views on an array of issues. But last year he aligned himself with a hasty, potentially dangerous effort to have the county pull its sponsorship — and, thus, its funding — from Dutchess Community College to patch a hole in the county budget. It was a bad idea to begin with, and the effort was handled poorly, causing much consternation among legislators from both sides of the political aisle.

The county instead opted to impose an energy tax and that, too, caused a whirl of controversy. While Kelsey, R-Pleasant Valley, initially voted against the energy tax, he did vote in favor of the overall budget that included the tax. As it turns out, Barrett was able to help the county greatly by working with state Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, and others to secure money in New York's budget, allowing the county to repeal the energy tax.

Barrett also has gone to bat greatly for those suffering from Lyme disease. She has sponsored important legislation that would protect doctors who provide long-term treatment for the disease. Both the Assembly and Senate have passed this measure, which would make it possible for physicians to prescribe long-term antibiotic therapy to a patient with symptoms of chronic Lyme disease without fear of retribution from government regulators. The bill now only needs Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature to become law.

Barrett was elected to the state Assembly in 2012, filling the seat vacated by Marc Molinaro, who sought and won the position of Dutchess County executive. From the inception, she has made the argument that if given the chance to serve, she could "educate" her downstate Democratic colleagues about the needs of the mid-Hudson Valley and be an effective legislator. She appears to be doing just that.

Kelsey makes a compelling case that the state should loosen regulations to improve the business climate, and he is skeptical — though not always outright opposed — of tax deals and other private-partnership ventures between government and businesses.

Barrett is more supportive of such partnerships, especially if they are going to help promote tourism, aid the agriculture industry and make the area more economically diverse and less reliant on one company, such as IBM, which has been downsizing.

While supporting many of the bread-and-butter issues of her political party, Barrett also has shown a willingness to work across the political aisle to get important things accomplished for the area. Voters should give her two more years to continue this fine work.

The state Assembly District 106 includes the towns of Amenia, Clinton, Hyde Park, Milan, North East, Pine Plains, Pleasant Valley, Poughkeepsie and Stanford in Dutchess County, as well as parts of Columbia County.