Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor
Queensbury developer Rich Schermerhorn is a huge Donald Trump supporter.
“My wife and I and a good buddy flew over to New Hampshire after he won the primary back in February,” Mr. Schermerhorn said Tuesday at the site of his 116-unit Harris-on Quarry project under construction in Moreau.
“We went to the victory party, and I had a photo taken of me in front of his jet at the airport.” Mr. Schermerhorn said that he and his wife Beth have donated $5,400 to Mr. Trump’s campaign.
“We need change,” Mr. Schermerhorn said. “What has been done in the past hasn’t worked. Hillary [Clinton] and [John] Kasich and [Ted] Cruz and Bernie Sanders, they’ve all been on a team that has been losing for the last 10 years.
“We need a new team.”
He equates it to an NFL football team.
“If a team isn’t doing well with a certain quarterback, what do they do?” he asked. “They get a new quarterback. We need a new quarterback.”
Mr. Schermerhorn said Mr. Trump “understands economics and understands business. The government is supposed to protect and regulate fairness, not tell people how to run their business. The way it is now, it’s so hard for a younger person to break into business. It’s very, very difficult.
“The government has gotten too much control.”
Asked about Mr. Trump’s controversial statements, Mr. Schermhorn said, “His language sometimes bothers me, but he is resonating with an America who seems to accept the way he talks.
“I’m looking at him as a business person. When I make an investment, I don’t care how that person looks or how he talks of what he does. I just want a return on my investment.
“Why shouldn’t this country demand a return on our investment?”
He calls Mr. Trump “the only one who knows the system. You have to be able to negotiate. He didn’t get to where he is today by being foolish and irresponsible.
“And he doesn’t need this. He’s doing it because he believes in this country.”
Mr. Schermerhorn equates it to his work at the Warren County Airport.
“I don’t make any money out there, but it’s important to me because this community has been very good to me. I believe in this area. I want to invest in this area.”
He said The Aviator, the new restaurant he owns at the airport that will be operated by Sally Longo, will open in early May. He predicts it will be “a home run. I’ve hired some great people. It’s going to be great.
“The airport is a gem in our backyard.”
Mr. Schermerhorn has built and owns 1,445 local apartment units, most of them in Queensbury, Kingsbury and South Glens Falls. He is building several hundred more, and has approvals for several hundred beyond that.
He said one reason he keeps building and succeeding with apartments is that there’s demand from young people who are carrying a lot of student loan debt and have difficulty finding good-paying jobs.
“And it’s why I believe in Donald Trump,” said Mr. Schermerhorn. “He will get jobs back here.”
What about the wall between the U.S. and Mexico? “It’s a great idea. Why shouldn’t we protect our borders? And people are missing his message. He’s not saying immigrants aren’t welcome. He’s saying there has to be a legal process in place.”
Price Chopper’s Golub: I won’t vote for Trump ‘under any conditions’
The Albany Business Review published an article on March 18 in which Neil Golub, a Republican who is executive board chairman of Golub Corporation, parent of the Price Chopper supermarket chain, said, he could not vote for Donald Trump for President “under any conditions.”
“He’s not a gentleman,” Mr. Golub was quoted. “He’s vulgar. He makes comments without thinking. He shoots from the hip….His knowledge and understanding of the problems in the Middle East are vague and incomprehensible…
“I think he brings out the worst in people. You watch his campaign, his rhetoric. He scares me.”
Of the Republicans, Mr. Golub was quoted: “Kasich in my mind is the best candidate left. Cruz … I don’t care for the man.”
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