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WESTCHESTER, N.Y. The wife of New York State Assembly member Dr. Steven Katz released a video Sunday as a public response to being removed as a Facebook friend of State Sen. Greg Balls after she posted critical comments on his social media page.
Nicole Katz posted the video commentary about Balls action on her personal Facebook page. In the video, titled The Salad Bully, her friend Robin Murphy serves Katz a salad. Everyone in the video praises the salad, except for Katz, who says, This is great Robin, just one thing, I really dont like black olives. I really prefer green olives. Robin takes offense and quickly duct tapes Katz mouth shut. The video ends with the sentence, To silence criticism is to silence freedom.
Steven Katz, a Republican, was elected to New York States 99th District seat last November, the seat was previously held by Ball (R,C,I District 40) for one term prior to running for state senator. Katz reportedly donated money to Balls campaign last year and the two often held news conferences together.
The ongoing drama began on Dec. 8, according to Nicole Katz. First of all, I was very surprised, I opened up my Facebook page and on the news feed was a message from Senator Ball. And he made a comment about the New York Republicans, and he compared the dysfunction in Albany to the dysfunction in Washington, and I respectfully made a comment, said Nicole Katz, about when she was initially unfriended by the state senator.
Katz said despite personal phone calls to reach out to Ball, she has not received a phone call or response from the state senator.
Brittany Oat, a spokesperson for Ball, commented on the matter via email on Monday afternoon: "Social Media, like Facebook, is a routine staff function and not the senator's focus. Senator Greg Ball is focused on job creation, lowering taxes and serving as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. Right now the senator is proud to have maxed out at 5,000 friends, with over 400 pending requests, therefore we encourage everyone with an interest to simply "LIKE" his fan page- www.facebook.com/ball4ny- and join the dialogue."
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