WASHINGTON – Sen. Charles E. Schumer calls this year his “silver anniversary,” but it has nothing to do with his wife, Iris, whom he married 43 years ago.
It’s all about the fact that in 2023, for the 25th year in a row since he became a U.S. senator, Schumer has visited all 62 counties in New York State – while also making a point to visit the Buffalo area monthly.
And to think it all began with a taunt from the campaign of Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, the three-term Republican who Schumer beat in 1998.
Playing on the fact that Schumer is from Brooklyn, “They said: ‘If you elect Schumer, you’ll never see him west of the Hudson.’ So I said: God willing, if I win in my first year, I will visit every county,” Schumer, a Democrat, said in an interview on Monday after completing this year’s county tour with a stop in Columbia County. “So I won, and I did, and I loved it.”
Schumer has long said his county tour is among his favorite parts of his job, and not just because he’s an old-school pol who’s always enjoyed mixing with the people.
“I’ve learned so much” on the 4,000 or so stops he’s made over a quarter century to virtually every corner of the state, he said.
That learning has informed his work in the Senate, Schumer said.
After hearing residents of rural Western New York complain about inadequate broadband service, he said he insisted that the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill include money for a vast expansion of internet service.
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