Interview With NY Senate District 5 Candidate Georgina “Gigi” Bowman

Gigi Bowman is running for New York State Senate District 5 against incumbent Carl Marcellino.

Gigi’s role in politics can be traced back to 2003 when she endured the greatest tragedy of her life. Gigi’s daughter Kati passed away.  Kati was taking medication that was prescribed to treat depression. After being on the medication for less than a year, Kati committed suicide. Gigi explained, “After this tragedy, I began investigating why this had happened, which led me to where I am today.”  Gigi describes herself as “a political activist who feels she must speak up about Corporatism, Lobbyists and how entities like Big Pharma and Monsanto have affected our personal lives through our food system, our mental and physical health, and our pocket books”.  She continues, “Our quality of life has been infringed upon and I feel we must make more people aware of what is happening, so that we have the manpower to stop it.”

Throughout the years, Gigi has organized many events and rallies, including one at Kennedy Airport in opposition to the TSA Body Scanners.

She explained, “I co-organize the organization “SaveLongIsland”, which is a non-political organization that works to educate Long Islanders about the issues facing our communities and our nation”.  They host discussions and lectures about topics including, “What is Industrial Hemp and Why is it Illegal,” “Alternative Medicine”, and “Survival and Preparedness.”

In 2009, she founded  www.libertycandidates.com which is an organization that helps to vet and promote candidates running for office on a platform of liberty. She explains, “With the help of my Vice-President, Sally O’Boyle and the contributions of many of our liberty candidates, our organization put out a book on how to run for office on a Liberty Platform.”  She continues, “In the past three election cycles, Liberty Candidates have managed to become a standard in the political realm. We have had such notable candidates as newly elected Congressman Kerry Bentivolio, Congressman Justin Amash, Senator Mike Lee, and elected State legislators Glen Bradley, and Jenn Coffey, to name a few. We have had over 435 candidates listed on our website as liberty candidates.”

Gigi grew up in Bayside Queens, and moved to Baldwin as a teen.  She currently lives in Huntington, New York. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hofstra University, where she majored in Publishing.  She is married to Ken Bowman, and she has three daughters from a previous marriage, Julianne, Kati, and Theresa.   She also has two step daughters, Briana and Kristen.  Gigi is the past Chair, and current Treasurer, of the Suffolk Libertarian Party.  She is a past President of the Long Island Board of Realtors, Central Nassau Chapter, and currently one of the Directors of the Huntington, Long Island Chapter.

She travels the country with her husband Ken where she speaks at many events about her organization, Liberty Candidates.

She explained why she is running for State Senate, “I feel that legislators need to start talking to their constituents about REAL ISSUES that affect REAL PEOPLE – and that includes our loss of liberty which many current politicians are contributing to.”

Her ultimate decision to run for office came in January of 2013 after the passage of the New York SAFE Act legislation.  Gigi explained, “guns were blamed for the tragedy at Sandy Hook”.  She continued, “What no one is addressing is the fact that every school shooting in the past 15 years was done by someone on, or coming off of, pharmaceutical medication.” Based on her own personal tragedy and her extensive research she explained, “I knew that there were bigger powers at work here. Namely, that no one will address the real problem –Big Pharma, and they were using this tragedy, instead, to infringe upon the 2nd Amendment.”    According to Bowman, “from 1998 to 2012 Big Pharma spent 2.6 billion on our lawmakers”.

“I started looking into the issue of Big Pharma after my daughter’s suicide. She was on the pharmaceutical drug, Zoloft. My research told me, she should never have been put on this drug. Today the website reads that Zoloft is not approved for children under 24 for depression –it is only approved for children with OCD”.   Gigi continued, “She did not have OCD. She was diagnosed with depression and given a prescription for Zoloft. Had I not put my trust into doctors and instead took matters into my own hands and did some research first I may have saved my child. Hopefully her death will not be in vein and that my talking about this can save someone else from the pain of losing a child or loved one to pharmaceutical medication.”

“At the center of my campaign is the word “Corporatism” because that is what we are dealing with –corporations influencing and running our government and guiding our policies.”  Her slogan in the campaign has been REAL ISSUES that affect Real People. She explained, “not politics as usual!” She describes some of  those “real issues” as Common Core Education, GMO food,  Big Pharma, Vaccine safety ,and personal property rights.

Gigi will be running on the libertarian line.  She is currently the New York State Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party, Treasurer of the Suffolk County Libertarian Party and she has held various offices within the party.  She is a registered Republican.  She explained that I am a registered Republican so that I can vote in the primaries.

Gigi explained, “The Libertarian Party does not have ballot access in this state so it’s very hard for us to get on the ballot because we have a lot more signatures to collect as an independent party than do the two major parties.” Gigi collected more than enough signatures to get on the ballot but incumbent challenger Carl Marcellino has filed a lawsuit attempting to get her off the ballot.  At this point the case is still in the legal system.

Gigi explained that she chose to run on the Libertarian line because she feels that, “The Libertarian Party platform stands for principle and integrity.”

She stated, “I’m not in this to play politics. I am not a politician. I am a concerned citizen and I actively take part in trying to take my country back from “politicians” who are in office to make a nice living and care nothing about the issues really affecting their constituents.”  She continued, “I think they stay up late at night dreaming up new bills to infringe upon our liberties.  I believe in small government. She elaborated by saying “less government intervention and regulation, sound money, a free market, constitutional government and individual liberty.”

“I’m not here to play some political game; I’m here to give a better life to my children who I fear for right now. I have 4 daughters now and they are at the age I was when I actually still had opportunities to “get a job” and “buy a house” and “have children. I don’t think my daughter’s stand a chance right now the way things are headed.  I want to a make sure we do all we can to make sure our children have the same opportunities we had.”