Congressman Mike Lawler Welcomes Labor Secretary Sonderling to NY-17 For Discussions With Building Trades And Law Enforcement

Last week, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) welcomed Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling to New York’s 17th Congressional District for meetings with local building trades and law enforcement labor organizations, allowing union members to raise their priorities directly with the Administration.

Rep. Mike Lawler and Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling meet with members of the Westchester Putnam Building and Construction Trades Council

Congressman Mike Lawler and Sec. of Labor Keith Sonderling pose with members of the ICYMI

Rep. Lawler and Secretary Sonderling first joined the Westchester-Putnam Building Trades Council general meeting, and then convened a roundtable with representatives from police benevolent associations and other law enforcement labor organizations from across the Hudson Valley. 

“Today was about listening to the men and women who keep our communities running and keep our families safe. The building trades are providing people across the Hudson Valley with a pathway to a good-paying career without taking on a mountain of student debt, and we need to do everything we can to expand those opportunities. At the same time, our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities, and they deserve our support and respect,” said Congressman Lawler. 

“Having Secretary Sonderling here in the Hudson Valley gave our union members a direct opportunity to tell the Administration what they need from Washington. That means expanding apprenticeships, addressing workforce shortages, making sure projects actually get built, and protecting hardworking men and women on the job. Recruitment and retention, fair pay, strong pensions, safe working conditions, and respect for the profession all matter. I appreciate Secretary Sonderling for coming to NY-17 to listen directly to the people doing this work,” concluded Congressman Lawler.

“I greatly appreciate Congressman Lawler’s invitation to meet with local labor leaders and law enforcement. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and champions for American workers like Congressman Lawler, the Working Families Tax Cuts are driving investment and job creation in the Hudson Valley. No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, and pro-investment tax provisions are revitalizing local industries and creating more high-paying opportunities throughout the region,” said Secretary Sonderling.

Rep. Lawler has been a strong advocate for workers and their families in Congress. He was an original co-sponsor of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, which would restore collective bargaining rights for federal employees. He was also the 218th member to sign the discharge petition for this bill and voted for it on the floor. He is also an original co-sponsor of the Faster Labor Contracts Act and also signed the discharge petition to force this bill to a vote. Both of these key pieces of legislation are awaiting consideration in the Senate.

Rep. Lawler also co-led the introduction of the bipartisan Warehouse Worker Protection Act to promote transparency, safety, and basic protections for warehouse workers. He is a proud Davis-Bacon Republican and will continue to fight for our hardworking men and women in the halls of Congress.

Rep. Lawler has likewise made supporting law enforcement a priority, securing federal funding for Hudson Valley police departments, dispatch systems, and other public safety needs. He has supported legislation to expand housing and childcare opportunities for law enforcement officers and firefighters and has consistently opposed efforts to defund or weaken law enforcement.

Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs. n

Blakeman Declares Hochul’s Pants On Fire

Blakeman Fired Back at Hochul’s New Campaign Ad: “When Hochul Says Tax Cuts, Your Taxes Go Up.”

Responding to Kathy Hochul’s newest campaign ad, which tries to sell an $8 billion tax hike and 48 utility rate increases as “tax cuts” and “accountability,” Nassau County Executive and candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman today declared Hochul’s pants are on fire.

“When Kathy Hochul claims she cut your taxes while handing you an $8 billion tax hike, or brags about holding utility companies accountable after granting them 48 separate rate increases, her pants aren’t just on fire, they’re practically incinerated,” Blakeman said. “It’s a classic bait-and-switch from the worst Governor in America: Hochul advertises lower costs on your television screen, but delivers higher taxes and constant rate hikes straight to your mailbox. When I’m Governor, we are extinguishing Hochul’s endless tax hikes, and when we say tax cuts, we will mean actual savings, just like I delivered in Nassau County, where I didn’t raise property taxes a single penny.”

Fact Versus Fiction: Hochul’s New Ad

When Hochul Says: “I cut taxes for middle-class families!”

What It Actually Means: I expanded state spending and hiked taxes by $8 billion!

Everyday English: Your taxes went up.

When Hochul Says: “I took on utility companies!”

What It Actually Means: My administration rubber-stamped 48 separate utility rate increases. Now, you pay 70% more than the rest of the nation for electricity!

Everyday English: Your electric bill went up. n

ZOA’s Mort Klein Slams Hollywood Actor For Antisemitic Rant 

Morton Klein is the president of the ZOA 

Zionist Organization of American (ZOA) President Morton “Mort” Klein spoke out regarding the recent controversy stirred up when Mark Ruffalo, a Hollywood actor, posted some antisemitic slurs on an Instagram story. “Mark Ruffalo thinks he’s such a great humanitarian when he wrongly attacks the Jewish state and Jewish corporate leaders who support the Jewish state defending themselves after 1,200 Jews were massacred, raped and tortured by Islamic Hamas Nazis,” said Klein. “But Ruffalo, the phony “humanitarian” Jew-hater is silent on the 500,000 black African Christians being massacred by black African Muslims in a true genocide against African Christians. Ruffalo is silent about the slaughter and enslavement of Christians in Sudan. Ruffalo is silent about the discrimination and abuse of Christians in Egypt. Ruffalo is silent about the Muslim massacre of 500,00 people in Syria, even using outlawed chemical weapons. Ruffalo is silent about the Palestinian Arab Muslim Authority, which spends $400 million a year paying Arabs a lifetime pension to murder Jews. Ruffalo is silent about the awful treatment of women in much of the Arab world. Ruffalo is silent about the Palestinian/Gaza schools teaching young children to hate and murder Jews. 

“If he truly cared about the lives of Palestinian Arabs and others, he would condemn the 20-year dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority and the human rights and women’s rights and children’s rights abuses rampant in that society. And he would be demanding reforms in the Palestinian educational system and hateful curriculum. But no, Ruffalo has shown he’s only another cheap, ignorant lying jealous bigot and Jew hater. He’s an embarrassment to America and to his family.”

Morton Klein is a highly-respected elder statesmen of America’s Jewish community organizations. As a consistent and principled pro-Israel voice, he brings a historically grounded perspective on U.S.–Israel relations and the ongoing struggle to secure lasting peace while avoiding the repetition of past mistakes. The ZOA was the only Jewish organization to honor President Trump following his first term in office. 

Since 1993, Mort has served as national president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the United States, founded in 1897. He has also served as a member of the National Council of AIPAC and is widely regarded as one of the leading Jewish activists in the United States. He is a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Gunzberg, Germany.

Founded in 1897, the Zionist Organization of America is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works towards strengthening US-Israeli relations through educational activities, public affairs programs, advocating on Capitol Hill, and by combating anti-Israel bias in the media, textbooks, and on campuses. The ZOA is dedicated to educating the public, elected officials, media, and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing and relentless Arab-Islamic war against Israel and the Jewish people. For more information, visit www.zoa.org.  n

FEC Complaint: Conley Campaign Illegally Coordinated With PAC In “Shady Payment Scheme”

A complaint before the Federal Election Commission alleges that the person speaking to the press for Cait Conley’s campaign was paid by outside political organizations, including a PAC, and identifies what it calls “two related, investigable violations” of federal election law. 

The New York Post broke the story Sunday night, reporting that Cait Conley’s congressional campaign “violated the law by coordinating with outside groups in a shady payment deal, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.”

The complaint, filed with the FEC on August 24, comes five days after Conley released an ad promising to “end corruption,” and names the Conley campaign, several Democratic outside groups, and Conley spokesman Jackie Rosa. It alleges that Rosa “simultaneously served as a de facto communications spokesperson for the Conley Committee” while she was “compensated by one or more outside political organizations” for that work, identifying those organizations as MD PAC and Precinct. Rosa is also tied to Precinct LLC, a firm the Conley campaign itself paid and listed as a “campaign consultant.” In the complaint’s words, “That combination presents two related, investigable violations of the [Federal Election Campaign] Act.”

According to the complaint, Rosa functioned as the Conley campaign’s press contact during this year’s Democratic primary. She introduced herself to a reporter as part of Conley’s team, gave on-the-record statements for stories about the campaign, arranged for a surrogate to defend the candidate, and circulated an opposition memo against one of Conley’s primary rivals. Yet the Conley campaign reports no payment of any kind to Rosa. Its only disclosed payments to Precinct were two disbursements totaling $20,000 in August 2025, months before the services in question.

An outside group covering the cost of those services would amount to an in-kind contribution to the Conley campaign that “would exceed the campaign contribution limits and appears to violate election law,” the complaint states. It also highlights potential illegal coordination between the campaign and outside groups through a common vendor. As the complaint notes, coordination among outside groups is legal; coordination between an outside group and a candidate’s campaign often can be illegal.

“Five days ago, Cait Conley looked into a camera and promised to ‘end corruption.’ Last night, the Hudson Valley learned that her own campaign stands accused of illegally coordinating with a PAC and outside political groups to fund its press operation off the books,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “According to this complaint, outside organizations were paying the person who spoke to reporters on Cait Conley’s behalf, and none of it shows up in her FEC reports. If these allegations are true, her campaign broke federal law while she toured the district lecturing everyone else about ethics and fighting corruption.”

The Conley campaign owes Hudson Valley voters direct answers to basic questions:

• Who directed and approved Jackie Rosa’s work as the campaign’s spokesperson?
• Which outside organizations paid Rosa for that work, and how much did they pay?
• Did Conley or her senior staff know that a PAC and other outside groups were funding the campaign’s press operation?
• What did the campaign’s $20,000 in payments to Precinct LLC actually cover
• Will the campaign release its communications with Rosa, MD PAC, and Precinct?

The complaint is pending before the Federal Election Commission.