WHO IS FRITS ZERNIKE?

I’m Frits Zernike. My wife and I moved from Beacon to Wappingers Falls in March of this year, and I am running to represent my new district in the Dutchess County Legislature for the upcoming two year term.

I served two terms when I lived in Beacon. I’m proud of the work I did as a member of the Democratic caucus during my two terms in office, from 2017 to 2021. During that time, I authored and saw passed legislation expanding the opening hours for wine and liquor sales past seven o’clock. That bipartisan legislation was a victory for consumers and local businesses, and increased tax revenues for the county. I’d bring that level of experience back to work for the people of the  14th district.

Democracy is on the ballot in the upcoming November 2023 election. Here in Dutchess County, there are more registered Democrats than there are Republicans. But Democrats hold only eight of the 25 seats on the County Legislature. That gives the Republicans on the Legislature a supermajority, all but canceling out the voices of Democrats, and that amounts to one-party, even minority rule. 

As a result, the will of that powerful minority gets inflicted on the majority of voters, and we get 25 million dollars in Covid relief funding allocated to helping the Yankees bring their baseball franchise to Dutchess Stadium - now renamed Heritage stadium - at taxpayer cost, while our unsheltered neighbors are left to their own devices on the streets of Poughkeepsie. We get a lack of county oversight of local development, and anyone driving past the new gas station in Hughsonville can see the results.

I’d like to change that, and I need your vote to do so.