Jessica Thorsen, Kathy Harter, Michael Akinyemi (Mike Leess)
“I am engaged to a woman, so right now we are jumping through hoops trying to figure out where we can be married and what we can pull off. A lot of the friends I have here in Syracuse are, like, shocked when I tell them that not only can I not be married in New York state, but I can’t even have a civil union in Syracuse or in Buffalo.”
(Jessica Thorsen, 24, of Camillus, accountant, describes herself as “pretty darn liberal”)
“We really need to put more emphasis on math, science and technology skills. We are really falling towards the bottom in the world, and that is not a good position to be in.”
(Kathy Harter, 44, of Phoenix, president of Junior Achievement of CNY, unaffiliated with a political party)
“I guess my biggest concern would be spending for programs such as Medicaid. I think that we spend a lot of money on people who waste it. And that maybe they should come up with some reform as to how we are tracking that—you know, people selling their food stamps for money for drugs.”
(Molly Kimmel, 25, of Eastwood, insurance case manager, unaffiliated with a political party)
“I think the number one to me would be education in America. As it is now, we’re number six or something in the sciences, and I think that’s extremely important to be able to continue in the future. I would like to see more preparing from the government to try to do whatever they can to improve education, because that’s the future of this country.”
(Michael Akinyemi, 28, of Nob Hill, surgical resident, unaffiliated with a political party)
“Politically, I am for harder, swifter action on immigration. But I guess, bottom line, I realize if we didn’t have the immigration issue, we probably wouldn’t get the work done that we get done in this country, because this country seems as though the worker in the U.S.—U.S. born—is tending away from hard physical labor.”
(Mike Osborn, 60, of East Syracuse, electrical contractor, conservative)
(Michael Leess is a senior majoring in newspaper and online journalism.)
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