Laura Brazak and Tim Stahl, two Oswego State graduates, are both first-time candidates in the running for County Legislator of the 20th District.

Brazak, the Democratic candidate and one of five women running in this year’s election, has been a resident of the town of Oswego for three years after moving from Syracuse where she lived and worked as a photographer for two decades.

Deciding it was time for a change, Brazak started taking classes part-time at Syracuse University.

In December 2014, she graduated summa cum laude from Oswego State with a degree in political science and a minor in sustainability studies.

Stahl is running as both the Republican and Conservative candidate.

“I am proud to run on both the Republican and Conservative Party lines,” Stahl said in an email. “I am also on the Independence Party and Reform Party lines as well.”

As a 20-year resident of Oswego, Stahl graduated from Oswego High School in 2000 and Oswego State in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and economics.

He currently resides in Oswego with his wife and three children and works as the Business Development Manager for R.M. Burritt Motors.

Although Brazak has never held a political office, she has been an environmental activist in opposition of fracking since 2007. She originally planned on running for town council, but was contacted by Doug Malone, the current 20th District County Legislator, to run for office.

“I hope to make a difference. There’s actually a thing called ‘call to service’ and now that I know all this stuff and now that I’ve done all this investigation (about fracking), I really think there is a way to get involved,” Brazak said.

Stahl believes that his lack of political experience will actually help him in office.

“I don’t think people want career politicians running for office,” Stahl said in an email. “I’ve worked my entire life in the private sector and I think those lessons qualify me very well to serve as an Oswego County Legislator.”

Brazak’s platform focuses on long-term strategic planning and smart, sustainable growth for Oswego. She wants to improve agriculture, focus on the waterfront and tourism development and ramp up drug enforcement laws.

She would love to see more civic engagement from community and government accountability.

“If you’re not involved and no one is paying attention, it allows for abuses in the system,” Brazak said.
She wants to start a YouTube channel to post all the town meetings, so people can see what is going on and hold the government accountable.

As a father, Stahl hopes to improve job opportunities in Oswego so that future generations will have more opportunities than his generation. He has a clear vision in mind for Oswego. He hopes to lower taxes, build better services and opportunities for residents and grow small businesses.

“We need to find ways to do more with less financially,” Stahl said in an email. “I have a degree in mathematics and economics, which will come in handy if we face a potential closure at FitzPatrick.”

He wants to find a way to become more independent from Albany stating, “the unfunded mandates that our tax dollars pay for are crazy.”

The election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3.