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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Newburgh native hopes
to challenge Maloney
Francis C. Spampinato, who left the
Town of Newburgh 30 years ago to join the
Marines, hopes to return to the area next
year, as its representative in Congress.
Spampinato announced Tuesday that
he will seek the Republican nomination
to challenge Sean Patrick Maloney for
his seat as the representative for New
Francis C. Spampinato announced this week
his intention to run for Congress.
York’s 18th Congressional District. He
has been living with relatives in the Town
of Newburgh in recent weeks, while
preparing to launch his campaign, and
telecommuting from his job with YRCI,
a veteran-owned professional services
firm based in Virginia. He is currently
the Director of Acquisition Services for
YRCI, after spending 28 years on the
payroll of the Federal Government in the
Washington D.C. area.
Spampinato dismisses the notion that
he is a carpetbagger, having planted roots
in Newburgh.
“I was born in St. Luke’s (Hospital),”
he said, adding that he spent his early
years living on DuBois Street and attended Broadway School and Gidney Avenue
School.
“I want to make this place better,” he
said. “I grew up here.”
Spampinato
graduated
from
Newburgh Free Academy and earned a
BA in accounting from Siena College in
Loudonville, NY. He returned to the area
briefly after college, and ran unsuccessfully (as a Democrat) for the Newburgh
Town Board in the early 1980s.
“I had a non-partisan interest in service,” he said, adding that he realized his
views were more conservative than the
Democratic Party agenda of the early
1980s.
After five years in the U.S. Marine
Corps, he returned to the Town of
Newburgh when he was appointed town
accountant. He left the area again to
accept a position as a contracting officer with the Central Intelligence Agency.
After 17 years with the CIA, he moved to
the Department of Energy as an acquisitions policy specialist. He has Master’s
and Doctor of Public Administration
degrees from the University of Southern
California and a law degree from Catholic
University.
“Government has gotten way too
big,” says the Vet who has spent most
of his career working for the Federal
Government.
Spampinato said his agenda includes
tax relief and regulatory reform. He favors
fewer regulations on community banks as
a way of creating more jobs. He has also
been critical of incumbents who rely on
photo opportunities when announcing
that they have brought money into their
district.
“Let’s try to keep more money in the
district,” he said, “rather than sending
it out and making a big splash when we
send it back.”
Spampinato believes some public-private partnership is necessary to keep
the Veteran’s Administration solvent. His
federal background includes work with
Veterans In Agriculture (VIA) and the
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to help Veterans
acquire skills to become farmers.
He is also concerned that Congress
has not discussed the plight of Syrian
refugees.
“My focus is not including or excluding
anybody,” he says. “My focus is national
security. We need to discuss this instead
of taking in a flood of Syrian refugees.”
Spampinato becomes the fourth
Republican to enter the race. Sakima
Brown of Poughkeepie, a West Point graduate and Iraq Veteran who unsuccessfully
challenged Frank Skartados