In this episode, Alec Lewis interviews Nate Salzman, a young councilman from Brighton, New York, who shares his journey in politics, his commitment to climate action, and the challenges of balancing family life with public service. They discuss the importance of community engagement, the successes Brighton has achieved in sustainability, and the need for state support in advancing green energy projects.
Summary of this Episode
Guests
- Joanna Pasceri: Director of Communications at O’Donnell and Associates.
- Alec Lewis: VP and Director of Campaigns at O’Donnell and Associates.
- Nate Salzman: Town Councilmember – Town of Brighton
Major Topics Covered
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- Nate Salzman emphasizes the value of grassroots political education.
- Engaging with community members is crucial for effective campaigning.
- Brighton has made significant strides in climate action and sustainability.
- Local government plays a vital role in addressing community needs.
- Nate’s personal history in Brighton shapes his commitment to public service.
- The importance of state support for local climate initiatives is highlighted.
- Balancing family life with public service is a challenge for elected officials.
- Nate’s vision includes long-term planning for future generations.
- Community engagement is essential for successful policy implementation.
- Nate’s passion for his community drives his political efforts.
Full Transcript of the Episode
Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.
Joanna Pasceri (00:01.729)
Hi everybody. Welcome to From the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell, a podcast that gives listeners an inside look at state and federal politics with Jack, managing partner of O’Donnell and Associates, a top New York lobbying firm. I’m Joanna Pasceri, director of communications at O’Donnell and Associates. a new generation of elected officials continues to shape New York’s future. And our own Alec Lewis, Vice President and Director of Campaigns, is at the mic for Jack today, speaking with one of them. Alex’s special guest is Nate Salzman, Councilman for the Town of Brighton, a community bordering the city of Rochester in Monroe County. And they are talking about how Brighton has been a leader in advancing climate action at the municipal level, the importance of green energy projects, and the realities of being a young elected official navigating the roles of husband and father.
Hi, Alec and Nate, and welcome to the podcast.
Alec (01:03.093)
Nate, it’s great to have you on the podcast, my friend, and we go all the way back to 2018 when we were running state Senate races on Long Island together in neighboring districts. Now, like me, you came up in this whole political government orbit as a campaign guy working on races in Colorado and Virginia. You interned for the DNC in the White House while you were doing your undergrad at American in D.C.
Now in my research I also know that you interned for now Senator Peter Welch of the great state of Vermont where I grew up. So what are some of your fondest memories looking back at those early experiences working on campaigns and in government?
Nate Salzman (01:41.173)
That’s right, Alec and Joanna, thank you so much for having me on. And you know, it’s funny, Alec, when you say you came up in politics as a campaign manager, you know, don’t want to give your listeners any illusions that I was sitting in the Manhattan office suite making million-dollar decisions. And you know this, but as a campaign guy, I’m out there knocking doors 12 hours a day. And you brought this up. You know, I was in Virginia. I was in some rural areas of Virginia.
I was in Denver, Colorado. We met on Long Island, and I was here in Rochester, both in the city of Rochester and in the surrounding suburbs, just knocking on doors. And I got to tell you, man, that’s the best political education you could get. And you listen to people, you hear their perspectives, and heck, I’ll be honest, man, I’ve heard, I’ve heard, fuck you with the doors more ways than I could count. And I’m telling you, that’s what really is, that’s political education.
And I tell this story on the campaign trail, people saying, well, look, how did you really learn the messaging that you needed on these campaigns? And I’d say, I’d get together with the team, you’d gather at the office, you’d talk about what the strategies, what the messaging is. And then I’d find a quiet hole, a bar and sit at the bar, talk to the bartender, talk to the people around and they’d say look,I really love my school. I really love the school that my kid goes to. I just really wish that my kid could walk to school. And if there’s a sidewalk connecting, man, that would be great. And you learn that’s what people are talking about. And I’d go back to the office and I’d say, I want to write a new digital ad. I want to write a new mail ad that really talks about how we can make this community more walkable. And I got to tell you, Alex, I think that’s the secret sauce to winning campaigns.
Alec (03:34.631)
I couldn’t agree more. Some of my best political education has also come at the doors, whether it’s in my cases guns drawn on me, colorful language being spoken at me. You mentioned bars and restaurants. I think some of the best focus groups in the world are a good 99 or Atali’s in Syracuse. But know, that’s real people talking about real issues that they actually care about. So I want to transition now to talking about
Nate Salzman (03:45.407)
That’s right.
Nate Salzman (03:53.268)
Amen.
Alec (04:01.217)
your life and career and journey after we met on Long Island. Now after our respective campaign stints working together on Long Island in 2018, you made your way to upstate New York and you received your MPA at Syracuse University at the Maxwell School. Now you ran successful campaigns working to elect both Daman Meeks and Jen Lunsford to the state assembly and then you served as the chief of staff to Daman Meeks when he got elected in 2020.
Now we got the chance to work alongside each other again in 2020 when I was actually in the role of statewide field director for the New York DSCC. And since 2022, you’ve now been a senior information specialist for Monroe County. And going back to your first campaign for the town board, you were obviously elected to that role in 2023. That’s a lot of ground in the last few years, but I really want to focus in on your town board role. What should people really understand and know about what really goes into being a town council member for a big town like Brighton.
Nate Salzman (05:02.173)
Yeah, great question. So I’ll tell you this. I’m a fourth generation Rochesterian. My great-grandfatherfourth-generationgreat-grandfather came to Rochester from New York City. And before that, he actually escaped the rising tensions right before the Holocaust. And so my great grandfather was a cab driver. He came to Rochester, New York. And my family’s been in Brighton for three generations.
So Alec, I appreciate you bringing up my career traveling around the country, listening to people, learning from people. Really, I’m a Brighton guy at heart, man. I go three generations deep here. And so when I’m going door to door and I’m campaigning and I’m serving on the town government, I mean, these are my people. And these are the folks that raised me. These are the folks that, know, the first time I pulled out of the driveway in a car, was right here in Brighton. I was born here in Brighton.
I met my wife in Brighton, my son was born in Brighton, and that service just means so much more because of our history and because of our future. So when he asked me about my service in Brighton, it’s the fact that I’ve got friends of my grandparents calling me up to say, you know what, Nate, I would really like to have some senior facilities here to be able to go to lunch at a senior center in Brighton.
Or it’s friends of my uncles who are calling me up to say, man, what can we do to build a more downtown Brighton, a town where we can, we have a more of a town center where we can walk and we can bike. And then I’m able to share those successes as well. Alex, I’ll tell you, know, since I’ve been elected in 2023, you know, we have built more sidewalk this year. My short term in office, we’ve built more sidewalk in a year than we’ve ever done before. We’re focused on
Alec (06:52.96)
Okay.
Nate Salzman (06:53.331)
sustainability and we’ve got an ongoing geothermal project at Town Hall. So that I like to I like to say that my town board service is, hey, how can I help you out? If somebody if somebody says, you know, my my garbage pickup, I wish I could put more in my recycling bin. Well, let me see what I could do for you. We’re creating refuse districts across the across the town. Let me see how I can help you out. And it’s all that more special, Alec, because I could tell you
Alec (07:14.976)
Thank you.
Nate Salzman (07:23.495)
in the course of these conversations, I’m either related to you or somebody I’m related to knows you. And it just, it means that much more to me.
Alec (07:33.136)
Well, the passion that you have for it really comes through and it’s amazing to see you channel that passion into some really cool work that you had the chance to highlight in an op-ed in the Rochester Business Journal where you called on Governor Hockel and the state as a whole to fast track approval for critical green energy projects. Now within that op-ed, you pointed out the fact that Brighton’s been really successful in meeting its own goals of reducing electricity consumption by actually 32 % between 2017 and 2024. And you note that you’re on track as a town to exceed 35 % by 2025. So Nate, can you let our listeners know why you feel that the state really needs to step it up here to meet the overall climate leadership and community protection act, CLCPA goals of actually cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40 % as it’s called for in the statute from 1990 levels by 2030.
Nate Salzman (08:03.891)
Yes.
Nate Salzman (08:30.589)
Yeah, great question. Let me go big picture on you for a second here, Alec. You’ve got the MAGA Trump Republican Party who are presenting this image of the future, almost let’s go back to the future, right? They’re saying, you know, we’re gonna bring, these tariffs are gonna bring back, bring back this old school economy. You know, I saw Donald Trump the other day. He’s saying, hey guys, you don’t need $30.
You need two dolls. Just limit the amount of toys you can buy for your kids. Meanwhile, this guy takes a shit on a golden toilet, right? You’ve got Linda McMandus, secretary of education. She’s trying to talk about this new technology with AI and all the potential for AI. And she’s saying, I think we should start in elementary school, educating kids on A1. Now, Alec, I love a good steak too, but I don’t think we should be doing elementary school education around A1 steak sauce. You know what I mean?
And what I’d like to see our party do, and it’s what it this is a goal that the governor Hoke will set, which she’s dead on. This is a great goal to set is is let’s take the leadership on some of these big issues of the future. Let’s take some leadership on let’s build the next great A.I. companies and all the offsets. Let’s build them here in America. Let’s expand our energy grid. We know we know that our energy grid, we need a giant big overhaul.
Demand for energy is greater than it’s ever been and it will continue to be greater and we need to increase supply. And I’d like to increase that supply because I’m somebody who cares about our climate and our environment using solar and wind. Now, I’m worried about our ability to do that with our current grid. you know, as a town board member, I’m approached with projects all the time.
Whether it’s let’s build more housing or any other kind of development. And one of our first worries is, well, geez, can our grid take that? Do we have substation capacity? And the solution is let’s increase production. So I want to do things like this, like a battery storage project. It’s one of the things that I referenced in here. And battery storage, which allows storage of all sorts of types of energy,
Nate Salzman (10:51.807)
but it’s specifically needed if we wanna continue to expand solar and wind. And Alec, I’m glad you gave our town a Brighton credit for the projects we’re doing. We’ve got a heat pump conversion and rooftop solar on our town park lodge. We’re building rooftop solar in multiple municipal buildings at Meridian Central Park, at Buckland Park, at the town hall pool building.
I already mentioned the geothermal project at Town Hall, but also geothermal heating at Buckland Lodge. You know, we’re doing what we can here in Brighton, but we do need some help from the state level to help us fast track projects to really expand our grid.
Alec (11:34.659)
Well, finally, on a personal level, mean, our listeners who’ve been sticking with us through this conversation certainly have gotten a chance to hear your passion and the purpose that you put into the work you do. But I really want to help our listeners get to know you even further. So we’ve known each other a long time as we’ve covered.
You’re certainly a hardworking guy. You are balancing a full-time role with the county, along with being an effective public official, which is certainly obviously important to you. But I know you’re married with a young child and another one on the way. So how do you work to actually take care of yourself and your family when you have all these demanding responsibilities and work in serving the town of Brighton in Monroe County?
Nate Salzman (12:13.405)
Yeah, you know, it’s funny. You’re asking me that question. I’ve got my I wish I could show you and your listeners my desk because I’ve got a train set right now at the corner of my desk. It’s that’s teetering. It’s about to fall off. But I’m I’m trying not to shake the desk too much as we’re talking. You know, being a dad is the greatest joy of my life. You know, I’ll tell you that my wife and I are extremely close. We’ve been we’ve been close friends since we met as freshmen in high school.
You know, my son Mariano and then we have one more on the way in August. It’s really the greatest joy of my life. And I got to tell you what it’s helped me do, Alec, is focus on the things that are really important. And that’s both in my personal life and in my role as a town board member and at the county. Alec, I want to have debates about ideas that are going to be relevant 20 years from now. You know, there’s a tendency sometimes in government and politics to let’s really have a fight over the mean tweet of the day. I got to tell you, I want to debate housing policy because I’m thinking about Mariano buying his first house in the next 20, 30 years. I want to debate the grid because I want my kids to be able to have a great engineering job right here in Rochester.
I like to talk about public education because I want my son to go to the best possible school. And I got to tell you, think Brighton does a great job. what having, you know, becoming a father, becoming, you know, a new father, it’s really helped me focus on let’s cut through the crap and, and really focus on what’s most important today and also in 2030 years from
Alec (14:03.932)
That’s a great answer and I think it reinforces some of the comments that you and I were discussing before we started recording about the fact that we need to take risks, not just in politics, but within general community building as a whole to cut through these barriers that prevent real people from having conversations that challenge one another in terms of having healthy perspective taking and the ability to challenge our own perspectives in truth in fundamental areas.
So, Nate, my friend, I can’t thank you enough for joining us today from the lobby, and I’ll transition to Joanna now to close us out.
Joanna Pasceri (14:39.206)
All right, Alec, thank you so much. And thank you, Nate, for sharing your story, your service to the town of Brighton and your vision for a cleaner, greener New York. Stay up on what’s really happening in politics. Sign up for our Monday morning memo sent right to your inbox every week. It’s easy to subscribe. Just head to our website at odonnelsolutions.com. That’s odonnelsolutions.com. And for daily updates, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn. and Threads at O’Donnell and Associates. Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll be back from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell.
