ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY

REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE MARC

MOLINARO

Many years ago, a man far better than I, who also stood before this convention, spoke
thirteen words that we, as a party, have sadly forgotten.

"Nobody cares how much you know," Teddy Roosevelt said, "until they know how much
you care."

Save that thought. I'll be back to it in a moment.

First, I need to thank you for your incredibly warm welcome. It means the world to me
and my family - my wife Corinne; children Abigail, Jack, and Eli -- and to a yet-to-be-
named fourth Molinaro on his or her way. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for
your encouragement and support.

(Of course, Jack once told me he would prefer if I just stood before a crowd and said:
"My name is Marc Molinaro, I'm running for Governor, please vote for me," then sit
down.)

Against his advice, I stand before you today grateful, humbled-especially humbled-for
the leap of faith you are taking in me. And, with that humility, I accept your nomination to
for Governor of the State of New York.

Chairman Cox, Governor Pataki, distinguished chairwomen and chairmen, many of you
barely knew me a year ago. But I've sensed all along that you know exactly who I am --
as a man; son, husband, and father. I think that's why you've selected me as your
candidate, and if I'm right, it's an overwhelming honor.

It's also a testament to this party, because in truth, I'm no one special. If I weren't in
office, I'm someone you might brush past on the street; whose cart you might bump into
at Sam's Club (the one with all the diapers and baby wipes.)

I don't come from wealth or fame. I wasn't born into a political dynasty. I'm no film or
television star. I'm just an everyday New Yorker with a calling and some hard-earned
know-how. I make no other claim.

Yes. I stand before you today proudly staking my claim to normalcy, to being an
ordinary New Yorker. I wear it as a badge of honor, and aspire to be nothing more.
Being an everyday citizen informs me. It gives me insight and empathy and humility as I
make decisions.

Humility is something I learned as a boy. It's hard not to feel it when the cereal you
shovel into your mouth before school is paid for with food stamps. When you listen to
your single mom, in her early 30's, whispering into the phone with the electric company,
in hopes you won't hear, asking for the lights to be kept on -- until the money from
babysitting comes in...from another working mom struggling with her bills.

You learn humility when God hands your family gifts others may consider challenges.
You're thankful for your blessings, and march forward gratefully, faithfully.

The family I come from is like so many others in New York: Ethnic. Working class.
Unremarkable to outsiders. First in Yonkers -- on Willow Street with grandparents
downstairs, and aunts and uncles up the street; the whole Italian thing -- and later in
Dutchess, or the 'country' as they called it. Some still do.

Life growing up was real. There was divorce and abandonment-- patches on the huskie
Wrangler jeans -- but there was mostly faith and love, and it prevailed. We believed in
ourselves and in one another. We believed in our neighbors. And most importantly, we
believed in tomorrow, and still do.

I tell you my early background not for effect, but for a far more important reason to me,
and hopefully you: I share my childhood because I refuse to cede compassion to the
Democratic or Working Families Party, or to anyone falsely claiming its mantle.

I refuse to concede compassion as Marc Molinaro the man, and I refuse to concede it
as Marc Molinaro the Republican candidate for governor of the State of New York. Not
an inch. Not a millimeter. Not for a second. Not ever.

I look out from this podium into the eyes of New York Republicans seated here, but also
into those of Democrats and independents who may be watching at home or online to
liberals, conservatives, and moderates: gay, straight, black, white, Asian, Latino, young,
old, married and unmarried, to those able to pay their bills and those struggling too
hard.

I speak to you all from the depths of my soul in saying: I care. I know what it means to
struggle. I know what it's like to need a helping hand. And, I care about making your life
a little better, a little fuller, and a lot easier.

Teddy Roosevelt was right. We don't say it enough. "Nobody cares how much you
know, until they know how much you care." Indeed.

Watching special interests spend millions of dollars on television ads in New York year
after year -- money other people earned -- to attack elected leaders for not spending or
taxing enough never ceases to amaze me. I wonder if they realize what five or ten extra
dollars a week can mean to a single mom or father trying make rent or fix the truck.
They claim to be compassionate, but they have no idea how hard it is to live in the most
overtaxed state in America.

If taxing and spending were the best way to lift families out of poverty, we'd have the
best government in the Country - and I wouldn't be running for Governor. Over-taxing
and overspending is a dream killer; a job depriver; it robs working people of the ability to
save.

There must be a strong safety net God knows I understand that as well as anyone but
Albany will not be a cash-cow for the rich-and-powerful any longer. We will not be an
ATM for out-of-touch politicians anymore. Not for the big money donors; not for
politicians looking to dole out billion-dollar political favors. Not when I'm governor. The
pay-for-play schemes this New York fire sale ends.

Government will have priorities again: people in need and things we use, like subways
and bridges, streets and sidewalks, clean drinking water and treatment plants to stop
pollutants. Not political donors and corporate lobbyists looking for a taxpayer handout.
Those aren't priorities. Not to me. Not for you. Not for New York. Not anymore.

Government will live within its means when I'm governor because government living
within its means is compassionate to those trying to live within their own. Working- and
middle-class families can't afford to pay for the political ambitions of individuals any
longer. Our priority will be the people, not a governor seated atop the heap plotting to
run for president, trading billions in government contracts for millions in campaign
dollars.

A former New York governor addressed this point for those looking to run for office:
'Decide exactly what you want to achieve,' he said some years ago. 'Do you want to
help people, or do you want to be powerful?'

What Mario Cuomo was saying, was that one should seek public office to do good, not
to feed one's ego or career needs. Bullies and megalomaniacs need not apply.

Think about that for a minute.

I know how government works. And I know how to make it more effective, more
efficient. Governing is a passion I was given for some reason. I use it proudly and
unapologetically. I can't invent a new light bulb, rebuild a transmission (my dad tried to
teach me that), or run a four-minute mile (though I try), but I can manage a government
well, and make government serve the people. As you know, I got an early start:

In 1995, I was elected mayor of Tivoli, population 1300, at age 19. It made me the
youngest mayor in America. The outgoing mayor Ed Neese asked me to run.

So, I ran home and asked my mom if it would be okay I run for mayor. (She said yes-
right after you clean your room!)

I wasn't elected because of my good looks or political affiliation (in fact we ran without
party labels); I was elected because I was Marc, the kid at the deli people liked, people
trusted.
My neighbors knew I was in it for the right reasons. They knew I actually cared about
Tivoli and the people who live there. They knew I'd be a straight-shooter, that I'd say it
the way I see it, regardless of political affiliation.

Since day one, I've had a clear and simple governing philosophy do what works best.
Fix what's broken. When you make a mistake, admit it. Make it right. That's it.

I'm not in office to pontificate. Nor, do I have any interest in shoving my opinions down
other people's throats.

My job as governor will be delivering affordable and accountable government, not

preaching a sermon or issuing edicts for television coverage.

I have no interest in ideology for ideology sake. That doesn't solve problems, people do.
It's results I'm after. I think it's why people from all backgrounds and viewpoints keep
electing me as county legislator, state assemblyman, and now County Executive. It's
proved, to me at least, that good government is indeed the best politics. People know
when you have their interests in mind. They can tell. They know when you're getting the
job done.

In determining whether to run for governor, I had to decide whether I could be all in --
not only as a candidate, but as governor. My passion isn't in making speeches, it's in
working for the people and governing well - to do my best.

Would I have what it takes to actually do what needs to be done to transform New York
to set it free from the powerful, the privileged and return it to the people? Could we,
together, do what's necessary to harness New York's true human and economic
potential, for job providers, and families, young and old. Not only in the five boroughs,
but on the Island and in the Hudson Valley, in Central New York, the North Country,
Western New York, and in every corner of the state.

The answer for me is 'yes.' Emphatically yes. We have to:

For our children and our neighbors' children;

For grandparents watching grandkids grow up on a computer screen;

For immigrants working three part-time jobs to keep the lights on;

So kids can see a future in learning and hard work;

So those living with addiction and mental illness know the value of their own lives;

For parents stuck in a cycle of poverty whose knees ache from praying;

For people in homes that needed a new coat of paint five years ago;
For New Yorkers ready to flee to Florida, Texas, or the Carolinas;

People working 60-hour weeks in the city paying 60 percent of their income on rent;

10th generation New Yorkers who did everything right and still can't make ends meet;

For the family farmer overburdened, over regulated, and undervalued.

These are my friends and yours. They are you and I ultimately. When are we going to
break the chains of self-interested government? When are we going to free ourselves
from the humiliating corruption in Albany that taxes not only our wallets but our spirit?
When have we had enough? It has to be now.

We're being hollowed out from the inside, day after day, by a government we stopped
trusting and believing in more than a decade ago. It has to be now that we put our foot
down. Now. Today, Wednesday, May 23rd 2018. All of us, Republicans, Democrats and
independents alike. We need to work together to shake the yolk of corruption from our
backs, to throw off the never-ending burden of a government that spends more than it
should, taxes more than we can afford, and mortgages our children's futures.

In the coming weeks I'll lay out a bold property tax cut for New York that defenders of
the status quo will despise. We're going to finally cut lose the anchor holding down
upstate, throw off the burden on the backs of families and homeowners.

Stay tuned, because we're going to break some eggs; no more sacred cows in New
York; no third rail excuses, only real, meaningful, sustained, relief, and economic
opportunity.

We're going to fundamentally alter the tax structure in New York, and we're going to do
it out of compassion. For the everyday people of this state. For the people I grew up
with; for parents trapped in inner cities; for the voiceless disabled, and for job providers
up against the ropes.

Stakeholders in the Albany power and money game will spit their coffee as we roll out
our vision. They'll gnash their teeth and swear it can't be done. They'll start writing the
TV ads and leveling the attacks.

I'll say, 'watch me.'

Watch me. And hold me to it.

New Yorkers will keep significantly more money in their paychecks when I'm governor,
money they now hand over to a bloated, burdensome state government.
Who do you think will spend that money better? The family next door or some
bureaucracy in Albany that hasn't been audited in 80 years?

Sales tax revenue will grow, under our vision, as families have money to finally repaint
that home; as new homes are built and businesses move in. All those upstate college
students. They'll be able to stay in New York and put down roots. It's been too long
since that's happened. Today they get an education and flee south or west - and with
them their innovation, talent and potential.

We're going to find massive savings, and they're there. ($3.5 Billion per mile for east
side access - 7 times the average elsewhere in the world). You better believe we will
find them. You have my word. We will lead real - local centered - shared services as I
have done in Dutchess. We will modernize an outmoded state government to achieve
efficiencies, and we will eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse that is stealing from our
taxpayers.

It won't be easy, but I promise it will be easier than landing a career job in Upstate New
York these days, finding an affordable apartment in Brooklyn, or being a single working
mom anywhere in the state.

We will do this working together. Together, we'll ignore the special-interest doomsday
ads and allow ourselves to think differently for a change. We'll care enough about one
another to free ourselves from the corrupt morass in Albany.

I say to you today: Stay tuned. Stay tuned for the state-altering plans we'll be rolling out
in the weeks and months ahead. They are going to fundamentally change New York.
They're going to put the Empire State back on its toes; bring explosive job growth to
parts of the state that are dying; they're going to bring hope back to the little guy, to the
working mom, to the big thinkers now headed to Texas or Tennessee.

And we're going to change the tone here, too. In politics and in business. In the way we
treat one another in our everyday lives.

I'm going to ask you to believe in yourselves, to believe in New York again and believing
in New York starts with believing the courageous women who come forward, in Albany
or anywhere else in the state, to speak out against abusers. The days of sexual
harassment, assaults and hush money payouts must end.

I'm so proud to have as my running mate an outspoken, brilliant and dynamic woman
who's shown what it means to care about her state and neighbors, both as a mother of
five and public official: Julie Killian!

Julie has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Notre Dame and an MBA in Finance
from NYU. She's worked to help children with special needs in our classrooms, and
she's been at the forefront of addressing drug addiction in her community. We share a
passion for these issues, and a disdain for government that taxes too much and ignores
the voices of those struggling too hard.

We are going to re-set New York's priorities on January 1: Children and adults with
disabilities; seniors without savings; classroom funding and special education; opioid
addiction; safe drinking water; signal switches in subway tunnels. Those are the kind of
things that'll move New York forward.

And what's out?

Cuomo's multi-billion-dollar pay-for-play-giveaways. Gone. Yesterday.

Corporate welfare. Gone. Yesterday. We're going to make New York attractive for all
businesses.

Wasteful, duplicative, redundant overlapping agencies. Gone. Yesterday.

Budget-busting Medicaid payments from counties. Gone. Yesterday. New York will
finally take responsibility - improve how we help those in need and achieve efficiencies.
That alone will save around $3 billion a year;

Medicaid fraud. Gone. Yesterday. Unless you want to lose your medical license and go
to jail.

Backdoor borrowing and garbage accounting that hides our true debt. Gone. Yesterday.
It's dishonest and dangerous.

One of my first jobs was mucking horse stalls in Tivoli as a kid. Well, we are going to do
a little mucking in Albany. All of us. Together.

To accomplish this, we're going to empower New Yorkers, advocates and stakeholders,
embrace every good idea and welcome anyone honestly and earnestly willing to make
the change we need. We will recruit the best and brightest from our colleges and
businesses to audit this state government, reform this state government and revitalize
New York. What we have now is outdated, outmoded and antiquated 20th-Century
government at its worst.

We will move New York government into the 21st-Century zero-based budgeting from
day one, no agency gets a dime until it can show we are getting what we pay for.

If an agency is just pushing around papers, it's a former agency.

If a commission hasn't met and merely occupies space. I'm shutting it down.

If it's an agency that's working well; task force meeting its goals or program achieving its
outcomes, it will be emulated.
We're going to tap into the ingenuity of state workers and the genius of Silicon Alley and
our upstate tech communities to streamline service delivery for those in need, making
services less expensive and more effective. We're going to do it systematically and in
every department of state government.

I'm here today to announce that yesterday is over. Tomorrow is approaching. It's
coming because it has to. We've reached our breaking point. We've got to get smart.
We have to be compassionate. We must put the New Yorkers paying the bills first.

To break the constant consumption of power and end the lack of accountability, I will
demand a vote on term limits. Our government is stale and our people deserve new
energy and new ideas. We need to bring passion back to government and revitalize
democracy in New York.

And, I personally commit by pledging right now, before you and these cameras, that I
will limit myself as governor to two terms, if you'll have me. Eight years total.

Andrew Cuomo is already running for a 12th year on the job unless he resigns to run for
president so I'll challenge Cynthia Nixon today to join me in this self imposed term limits
pledge. I challenge her to go on camera and do the same. And I bet she will.

To combat corruption and end the pay-to-play schemes infecting our government I will
immediately empanel a real Moreland Commission to follow the corruption, uncover the
crimes and bring offenders to justice.

We'll adopt a universal ethics code and establish a truly independent ethics commission
to enforce it, and we will empower an open government, public information watchdog.

We'll also seek to expand the freedom of information law to include all branches, all
divisions and all agencies of state government. And, we'll end no-bid contracts and
restore the State Comptroller's independent procurement oversight, and fully implement
a database of deals so the press and public knows how their money is being spent and
who is awarded contracts.

In the months ahead, as I campaign across this great state with Julie Killian and others,
I'm going to lay out details of the revolution to come in New York: In public education; in
affordable healthcare; in disability services showing New York what it means to think
differently; in housing, in public transit and, in environmental protection too.

God gave us a beautiful but temperamental planet. We must take better care of it
preserving our natural resources, scenic vistas and active farmland; improving our parks
and protecting our water and fully cleaning up our majestic Hudson River.

I'll be talking with you about re-empowering communities wherever possible returning
power from Albany to our towns, villages, cities, and school districts. This governor
believes he alone can solve our problems; he believes he is the government. I believe in
you in our shared capacity to solve any problem and overcome any challenge.

So I ask you today: Are you ready for a revolution? Because I am.

Are you ready to take the shackles off this state; off its economy, off its families?

I am.

Are you ready to kick corruption from the doors of Albany, down its hallways, and into
the street?

I am.

Are you ready to make compassion -- real compassion -- the priority again?

I am.

Are you ready to break down barriers, accept, respect and support every New Yorker of
every ability? To build a state of inclusion and think differently?

I am.

And one more thing: Are you ready to spread the word of our revolt from Staten Island
to St. Lawrence; from Erie to Rensselaer?

Julie and I are.

Do this with us. Think differently. Act boldly.

Are you ready to believe in our state again?

Are you ready to believe in ourselves and each other?

Are you ready to believe in New York again?

Yesterday is over, today is for action, so tomorrow will belong to us again.

All of us. Together.

Believe again! Believe again! Believe again!

Thank you. God Bless you. God bless your families and God bless the state of New
York!