Komatireddy’s law-and-order AG campaign

New York hasn’t elected a Republican as attorney general in over 30 years – but Saritha Komatireddy is looking to change that this year as she takes on the two-term Attorney General Letitia James. Until late last year, Komatireddy had served over a decade as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, a record she’s running heavily on as she pitches a strong law-and-order message to voters. City & State spoke with the Republican nominee about her experience, her aspirations if elected and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me a little bit about your background and what inspired you to run for attorney general.

I was born in New York. I was a federal prosecutor in New York for 12 years, and I live here with my husband and four kids. I want New York to be safe. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen under Letitia James is that public safety has totally deteriorated. It’s something that I've seen professionally and I’ve seen personally in my own life. Repeat offenders are out on the streets victimizing innocent people because of our broken bail laws that Letitia James supports. We see terrorists, people who commit hate crimes, people who are mentally ill, out on the streets. We see an extraordinary increase in homelessness, even though we’re spending more on homelessness than we ever have before. It’s gone up, and we see fraud. Elderly people are being scammed. The vulnerable are being scammed. No one’s doing anything about it. No one’s even acknowledging it, and that’s a problem. I decided to run for attorney general to make New York safer for my family and for every family.

What do you think the attorney general could be doing right now to address some of these issues that you’ve named? And what would be the first thing that you would do in office?

On Day One, we need to restructure the office to prioritize public safety and prosecuting crime. The reality is, right now, the attorney general has more people assigned to investigate cops than investigate criminals, and that’s a problem. It’s upside down. We need to bring in criminal prosecutors. We need to make sure that of the 700 or so attorneys in the Attorney General’s Office, at least half are assigned to prosecute crime. And then we need to use those resources to back up the (district attorneys), back up the sheriffs, back up the police departments and get the repeat offenders off the streets. 

Secondly, as part of this, we see a lot of severely mentally ill people or people who are addicted to drugs out on our streets, who are also dangerous to themselves and others. We need to use our resources and our authorities to get those people into residential treatment. We have the resources to do that. We have $3 billion that New York got from the national opioid lawsuits. New York is using that money to fund drug use. We are giving people needles and giving people the equipment they need to shoot up on fentanyl and other deadly drugs. We shouldn't be using money designed to combat the opioid crisis to fund drug use. We should be using it to fund drug treatment. When I’m attorney general, I’m going to make sure we build residential treatment centers for every New Yorker who needs it, so that they are not on the streets and they are getting the help that they need. 

And finally, we need to actually deal with the homeless shelters in the state. The attorney general’s charities bureau is supposed to be overseeing every homeless shelter in New York because every homeless shelter in New York is an outpost. But they don’t do that work, and so we’re in a situation where over the last decade we’ve had numerous state and federal agencies raise concerns. Instead, we’re sending $81,000 per homeless person to nonprofits, and we don’t know where it's going. You could give a guy $81,000, and he wouldn’t be on the street tomorrow. We need an attorney general who’s going to audit and investigate every homeless shelter in New York. I will do that. 

It’s been over 20 years since New York has elected a Republican statewide –even longer since New York has elected a Republican attorney general. How do you plan to reach voters and succeed where others have fallen short?

I just talk to them. I’m the only statewide candidate visiting every single one of the 62 counties in New York. I go around and I talk to people where they are about their concerns, and I listen to them, and I hear their concerns. A lot of people tell me, “You’re the first one to really listen,” because every county has a repeat offender problem that they are seeing unfold in their communities. Every county is seeing their kids threatened by deadly drugs. Every county is actually dealing with this homelessness problem, and people are paying property taxes to put the homeless in hotels, which is not a solution because the state has shut down residential treatment over the years and is not fixing the problem. So these are issues that are occurring across the state and across partisan lines. People want someone who's going to deal with crime and homelessness and fraud, and it’s not really about Republican versus Democrat. 

Letitia James is running very much on the platform of protecting New York from attacks from the federal government and the Trump administration. What do you make of that, and do you think that there is any merit to the idea of combating the federal government? Certainly there have been instances where funding has been in jeopardy that the state won back through lawsuits.

What instances?

There was the pulling of Second Avenue subway funding, funding for the Gateway Tunnel. There was anti-terrorism funding for over a year ago. They’re now in court again over more anti-terrorism funding that could be in jeopardy over putting new requirements on election security.

The attorney general’s job is to protect New Yorkers, to make sure they’re safe and to make sure that their rights are protected. And I will do that. I’ll do that against anyone who is attempting to make New Yorkers less safe or to violate their rights.

Including President Trump?

That includes any president, any governor, any mayor. We’re going to have a new president in two years. This is a four-year job.

Do you think the current attorney general focuses too much on federal issues?

I think it’s very clear what our current attorney general focuses on because she told us what she was going to focus on when she ran. And she’s done exactly what she said she would do. She’s used taxpayer money to pursue a personal vendetta and make herself a political celebrity. She’s completely focused on national politics. And listen, we know she’s not interested in actually being state (attorney general). She ran for governor and failed. She’s more interested in national politics. Maybe she should run for Congress and take (U.S. Sen.) Chuck Schumer's seat. But we need someone who’s actually going to do the job of attorney general and do the work for New Yorkers focused on New York and making New York safer. While she’s been pursuing her political agenda on a national scale, New Yorkers have become less safe, and it’s become more expensive.

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican on your ticket running for governor, indicated recently he believes Democrats will try to steal the election and said he would accept the results of the election as long as they were “fair and reflect what actually people voted for.” Do you have similar concerns? And will you accept the results of the election regardless of outcome?

We all want safe and fair elections, and New Yorkers deserve to have every confidence in the integrity of their elections. When I’m attorney general, I will do my part to make sure that elections are safe and fair. I’m not going to speculate about an election that hasn't happened yet. 

There have been many elections in New York state to draw data from. I’m just asking about a candidate running on your ticket who is indicating that there will be widespread election fraud, and if you have a reaction to that assertion.

I think we all want safe and fair elections, and it’s very important that New Yorkers have confidence in the integrity of their elections. I can speak for myself, which is that when I’m attorney general, I will do my part to make sure that our elections in New York are safe and fair. The reality is, the issues that I’m talking about – crime and homelessness and fraud – these are issues that reach every New Yorker, and I expect to gain widespread consensus across the state and win this election.