INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 12 Pages – Free
Vol. 139, No. 24
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2022 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Dining
Science
Weather
Cornellians on Stamps
Meatless Meat
Insectapalooza
Sunny
Toni Morrison M.A. '55 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg '54 will appear on new United States Postal Service stamps. | Page 5
Kyle Roth '25 talks about meat substitutes and "animal-free eating" on campus.
After a two year hiatus, the entymology festival returns to campus.
| Page 7
HIGH: 65º LOW: 40º
| Page 12
New York Democrats See Victories in Midterm Elections
Local and statewide elections call results for the 2022 midterm elections prior to absentee ballot counts By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun News Editor
At the local and state level, this Election Day brought sweeping victories for the Democratic party, with the notable exception of the New York District 19 House race. On Nov. 8, students were able to vote at polling sites on or close to campus, with other Cornellians sending out absentee ballots. Outside of Alice Cook House, Cornell’s first on-campus polling site, students told The Sun why they turned out to vote. “Climate justice is my biggest issue,” said Brandon Restler ’23. “I’m an EAS major and I think it’s an important issue for my generation with a big impact on people.” Catie Michael ’25 felt a sense of urgency to be an active part of the community. “How can you live somewhere without taking an active role?” Michael said. For some students, like Pranjal Jain ’23, being able to cast a
ballot represented a commitment to her civic duty. “I grew up undocumented, so voting for my rights is something that is really important to me,” Jain said. The results of the 2022 midterm elections are largely in, though results are not officially final until a week after Election Day when mail-in ballots will be counted. Democratic candidate Laura Lewis was elected as mayor of Ithaca, having stepped in after the resignation of previous incumbent Svante Myrick ’09. She is now slated to finish the remainder of his term for one year. Lewis was victorious with 65.33 percent of the vote, with Progressive Katie Sims ’20 and Republican Zachary Winn gaining 25.32 percent and 8.61 percent of the vote, respectively. Leading up to the election, Lewis’s and Sims’s campaign spending far exceeded Winn’s. According to The Ithaca Voice, Lewis’s campaign had raised $6,893 and spent $4,057; Sims’s had raised $6,845 and spent $2,698 and Winn’s had raised $769 — $489 of which the Tompkins County Republican
Party contributed. Lewis's campaign addressed issues including housing, infrastructure, staffing needs, public safety and sustainability, telling The Sun that she supported development within the city center and in public transportation. Lewis was also known for her lax campaign style, including not using lawn signs to campaign due to the waste they produce. Both of her opponents gracefully accepted defeat and wished Mayor Lewis well in her term. “This is my home. I wish Acting Mayor Lewis every possible positive outcome now that she has fully assumed the role of mayor,” Winn said. “I hope that whoever fills her vacated council seat represents the interests of all Ithacans and not one particular subset or group, as the role of a council person is now greatly amplified in significance due to the passage of the city manager ballot referendum.” See MIDTERM page 3
JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
NINA DAVIS / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Lining up | Students line up to vote at Alice
Moral support | A voter's dog accompa-
A Reward | Poll workers hand out stick-
Drop-off | A local voter submits his bal-
Cook House, the first on-campus polling site.
nies her as she casts her vote at Town Hall.
ers for voters to don as they exit.
lot to be counted in this year's elections.
Seven Alumni Elected to Congress IFC Suspends All By JONATHAN MONG Sun Staff Writer
Following the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections, seven Cornellians — mostly incumbents — will serve in the 118th Congress, with one remaining race being too close to call at the time of publication. In addition, one candidate lost the general election. The seven congress members-elect as well as Jamie McLeod-Skinner, M.R.P. ’95, whose race is too close to call, represent several parts of Cornell: Reps. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) and Sharice Davids J.D. ’10 (D-Kan.) are graduates from Cornell Law School, Rep. Elissa Slotkin ’98 (D-Mich.) majored in rural sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, while Rep. Dan Heuser ’88 (R.-Pa.) was a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89
(D-Mass.) won re-election handily over Republican challenger Caroline Colarusso (R-Mass.) with nearly 75 percent of the vote. This is Clark’s fifth full term since entering office in a 2013 special election to replace then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) following his successful election to the Senate. She also serves as Assistant Speaker of the House. Clark’s policy priorities include focuses on families, such as paid family leave initiatives, improvement of child care access and closing the gender pay gap. In an interview with the Sun in 2019, Clark emphasized family issues as her reasons for running for office. “I decided to tackle the issues around women and children that have always been priorities for me from the legislative side, instead of the advocacy side,” Clark said. In an election expected to be among the closest in the nation, Rep. Sharice Davids J.D. ‘10 (D-Kan.) defeated Amanda
Adkins (R.-Kan.) in a rematch of the 2020 election with 54.7% of the vote. The Third District encompasses the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas. Davids, along with Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), is the first Native American woman elected to Congress and is now the only Democratic member of Kansas’ congressional delegation. Rep. Dan Meuser ‘88 (R.Pa.) won re-election in a strongly Republican district. Prior to becoming a congressman in 2018, Meuser was the Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue. Meuser’s name was also listed in The New York Times’s list of 97 members of Congress facing potential conflicts of interest regarding recent financial trades, along with those of Rep. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) and outgoing Rep. Kurt Schrader ’73 (D-Ore.). See CONGRESS page 5
Parties and Socials
By JIWOOK JUNG Sun Assistant News Editor
As a response to the release of a crime report on Nov. 4, alerting the Cornell community to at least four drugging incidents and a sexual assault allegation, the Interfraternity Council has temporarily suspended all fraternity parties and social events. In a university-wide email, President Martha Pollack and Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi issued a joint statement condemning the reported incidents and calling for solidarity. “We are outraged and saddened… we strongly condemn the actions of all individuals responsible for these criminal violations,” Pollack and Lombardi wrote. “Crime is never the fault of those who are victimized. The university
is providing support services to the victims… our campus community is stronger together.” According to the C.U.police crime report log, within the past two months at least four students have reported being exposed to Rohypnol, a depressant and benzodiazepine also referred to as “roofies” or a “date-rape” drug. According to the report, the incident occurred between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3 at 800 University Avenue. “Students reported to have consumed little to no alcohol at an off-campus location but became incapacitated while attending parties,” the police report said. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Jiwook Jung can be reached at jjung@cornellsun.com.