Election Day is less than a week away, and this year features a diverse ballot for Central New York voters, including Matt Johnson. The 20-year-old Le Moyne College student studies political science, and now he’s running for one of Onondaga County’s legislature seats. Currently, incumbent Republican Tim Burtis holds the seat.
“I started running for county legislature because I believe our county can be doing more for its taxpayers,” said Johnson.
Johnson graduated from East-Syracuse Minoa High School in 2019. He’s been an ESM resident his whole life, which influenced his decision to serve the area.
When it comes to things like spending federal COVID-19 relief money on sports complexes, Johnson says fresh perspectives and new leadership are needed.
“That’s what motivates me to do this type of thing. It gives me the confidence to come out and knock on doors everyday,” said Johnson.
Johnson says he has knocked on a little more than 3,000 doors so far. He says more young people should get involved and take on roles of leadership because they are capable.
“I’m doing this for the opportunity to make history; to prove that younger people can run for office. They should be taken seriously while doing so, to hopefully have a chain effect,” said Johnson.
Johnson also wants to change the redistricting process so that there is not gerrymandering, a process that produces an arguably unfair political advantage for a particular group by manipulating boundaries of electoral districts.
“When we’ve been electing politicians that are starting to get in the double digits of having served years at local government and it’s the same people making the same decisions, unfortunately the reality is some of those folks, not all of them, but some of them lose touch with the communities they were originally elected to represent,” said Johnson.
Johnson says in an area like Syracuse, the residents on both sides of the street can have different legislatures representing them.
“At the end of the day, I know that I am doing the right thing. I am doing things that will have the best impact on our community and you know we are creating a dialogue at minimum,” said Johnson. “That’s really important to me because, like I said, these local elections – there tends to be a disengagement, a lower voter turnout. We need this sort of competition at the local level. That’s just another reason to run.”
Johnson also wants to create a community that allows for opportunities that will keep more college graduates and retirees in Onondaga County.
