On Thursday September 20th Jean and Martin Shafiroff hosted guests at their Park Avenue home to support United States Senate Republican candidate Chele Farley. I had met Chele numerous times at star-studded events and assumed she was the beautiful wife of a mogul. This evening, I discovered she not only graduated Stanford with two degrees in engineering but for the past 25 years has worked at both Goldman Sachs and UBS Capital before moving into private equity at Mistral Capital International. Additionally, just like her host Jean Shafiroff, philanthropy is foremost on her mind as Chele is a board member of the WordPress Foundation and active with the Alzheimer’s Association and the New York City Steering Committee.
Chele faces an uphill battle in the fiercely Democratic State of New York where Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s far left views mirror the leanings of her constituents. During the past couple of years Gillibrand’s radical anti-Israel views have been alarming: supporting the Iran Nuclear Deal, voting against the Taylor Force Act which prevents money from being given to terrorists’ families, and writing a glowing article in “Time” on anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. Moreover, while Gillibrand was one of the initial sponsors of anti-BDS legislation she surreptitiously removed her name from the bill. Contrastingly, Chele aligns herself closely with Israel even visiting David Friedman in Jerusalem the week before the Embassy was moved and has been a vocal opponent of the BDS movement. Farley praised Trump’s sticktoitness remarking that we finally have a President who follows through on his campaign promises-a businessperson who “thinks outside the box.”
Farley is similarly a nonconventional business candidate who is only supportive of Trump when his policies are aligned with the interests of New Yorkers; vowing to renegotiate deals that are unfavorable to the State. Farley is against having two government shutdowns and wants to fix the infrastructure of New York decrying last year’s policy of sending $48 billion to the federal government that New York never got back-an unfathomable occurrence. Farley is an unorthodox choice as she has had little political experience aside from holding the position of Republican Finance Chair in 2017. However, Farley views her atypical background as a positive attribute as she enters the job with few preconceived notions and a singular focus on getting the job done.
Chele has some novel ideas for New York including her incredibly popular proposal of allowing a federal tax deduction of $3,000 a month for renters in New York-a group comprised of more than 4 million people. Farley criticized Gillibrand for being too busy running for President as opposed to helping New York remarking that the only bill Gillibrand got passed in her ten years as Senator was renaming the Post Office. Farley also wants to set term limits for Senators to two terms and has vowed to reach across the aisle. While Farley has challenged Gillibrand to more than six debates she has heretofore been turned down. Farley remarked that New York has over 40 percent of the mass transit riders in the country while only receiving 16 percent of the budget-getting shortchanged more than $2.2 billion a year.
Farley is all about facts and figures and tonight Farley supporters Jean Shafiroff and Chana Garelik attested to her integrity, honesty, character and concern for the electorate. To date Farley has raised over $1 million dollars with support from the President, John Paulson and dozens of upscale New Yorkers. With the election being held in November, Farley is attempting to chip away at Gillibrand’s lead with her motto of “put New York first.” Thankfully, the evening wasn’t all political with guests enjoying the tunes of bandleader Alex Donner accompanied by opera singer Rose Jang who sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” As guests headed home more than two hours later, I went to see a musical comedy on the Trump family; manifesting the nature of our current environment where political saturation is nonexistent.
By: Lieba Nesis
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