Lynn Kahn smiles at the Franklin County Fair in Malone Tuesday. (Photo — Joe LoTemplio, Press-Republican)

MASSENA — Lynn Kahn says she has seen how government works, and she wants to make sure it’s working for the people.

Kahn is running as an independent and Green Party candidate for New York’s 21st Congressional District seat currently held by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro. She was an independent candidate for president in 2016.

Kahn, a Schroon Lake resident, earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1977 from the American University and then spent 32 years as an organizational psychologist for federal agencies, including 22 years with the Federal Aviation Administration. She has written two books on government reform, one book on peacemaking and many articles on violence, poverty, justice and veterans’ issues.

“I really understand how government works. I really get it. I know what to do,” she said during a campaign stop in Massena.

If elected, she said, she has five priorities: Expand health care and lower costs; grow green jobs; solve veterans’ complaints; transform family law; and protect and repair the environment. And she wants to make sure government is working for the people.

“I’m running as the Green candidate. I had a choice. I chose to run as a Green because I don’t think that Republicans and Democrats can get past hating each other,” she said. “I specifically have been driving around and going around District 21 talking to people I think don’t usually get listened to. A lot of people in this district believe their voices are not being heard. I believe I’ve become the voice of people who have been forgotten by pretty much most of our politicians in Washington, D.C.”

In visiting with voters, Kahn said she’s been asking about their ideas and needs so they can be addressed if she is elected.

She has also talked with voters and officials about possible alternatives for economic development, job development and community development that could leverage the resources that are already available in the area. She said her visit has taken her to sites that were formerly used by manufacturing plants in Massena.

“I was especially interested in the plants that have been closed and what the property and land looked like and the potential. You have this amazing set of resources to do something pretty phenomenal in terms of thinking through what kind of manufacturing you can have for the future. You have this extraordinary opportunity,” Kahn said.

She said local officials should look at what type of sustainable energy manufacturing could be done at those sites, “and specifically think about how to use the power of the St. Lawrence River that’s not really being used right now.”

Kahn has released a “roadmap” for a clean, sustainable future that includes inserting climate change responsibilities in the mission and measure of all government agencies, and chartering a cross-government Climate Accountability Board that would include citizen participation.

“The core of our response to climate change is building economic, transportation and housing systems based on clean, sustainable, renewable energy. New York District 21 and the Massena area in particular have extraordinary opportunities for the development and manufacture of these clean energy alternatives, such as hydrogen fuel production from the vast unused water power of the Robert Moses Saunders dam,” she said.