Election 2010: Katz makes a run for New York Assembly

Albany, N.Y.

— He’s running on a platform to lower taxes and restore "honesty to state government."

Veterinarian and tea-party candidate Steve Katz of Mohegan, N.Y. is making his first bid for political office.He hopes to represent the 99th District in New York's House.

To do it, he has to get more votes than Democratic challenger and attorney Brendan Tully. Incumbent Greg Ball is stepping down from the post.

Katz's platform is based on reversing the "hostile business climate" and becoming employer friendly. He seeks to reform healthcare and offer some tax relief and enforce illegal immigration. In fact, he threw his hat into the ring based on "the lack of fiscal control in Albany and Washington."

Tully unveiled a plan calling for ethics reform in state government.

Katz is a 1984 graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal Science from Cornell University in 1976. During his study, he served as a field researcher for the World Wildlife Fund in French Guiana and Galapagos.

"I am running because I have seen enough of the dysfunction and irresponsibility up in Albany that has led us to the point where we are $10 billion in the hole. And there is no one up there willing to make the hard decisions to make a change," he said in a video statement aired on LoHud.com. "It is a time for citizen legislators to come in."