More than 40 people, many of them constituents of Pelham Mayor Michael Volpe, gathered at the New York Athletic Club Thursday for a fundraising event to hear former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and Volpe talk about their independent bid to win election as New York governor and lieutenant governor.

Volpe, a Republican, described his frustration with the system after the 2016 election. He said he became committed to the Save America Movement (SAM) and joined the ticket topped by Miner, a Democrat. Volpe addressed the skepticism of the SAM ticket running against incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a New York political powerhouse, and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.

SAM is building a political party for a new American majority, he said. Some major issues SAM is concerned with include education, ballot access and fixing broken infrastructure, including severe problems with the New York City transit system widely discussed at Thursday’s event.

Volpe said SAM is a party committed to people interested in the middle path. Miner and Volpe earned a spot on the ballot by collecting more than 30,000 petition signatures and weathering challenges of the petitions by the Democrats. Volpe made it clear one real goal of the campaign is to gain 50,000 votes in the election so SAM will have a place on the ballot in elections for the next four years without having to collect signatures.

Volpe and Miner would also both like to take second place, beating out Republican candidate Marcus Molinaro, a result that would replace Republican election commissioners in every county with those named by SAM.

“I submit to you that this would be really revolutionary,” said Volpe

Miner spoke about her frustration with Cuomo during her time as mayor of one of New York’s biggest cities over several issues, including education and infrastructure, and her hopes for New York.

“It’s hard work because it’s meaningful work,” said Miner of being in government.

She said she finished her second term as mayor of Syracuse with the city achieving the highest rate of high school graduation. Miner described one situation in which she looked to the state’s leadership for help on the broken water system in Syracuse. She was turned down and said that reflected on the state leadership’s constant negligence of important issues and wasting of tax dollars.

“You can’t cut ribbons on water mains,” Miner said she was told by an Albany official about the infrastructure project.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority must be more responsible and this could be accomplished by putting transit experts on the MTA board, she said.

“The only way we get results is if we are audacious in working for change,” said Miner.

Miner and Volpe both talked about seeking constructive change in New York, which they said Cuomo has not made. Even as the odds are stacked against them in November, they hope to have a lasting impact by having a SAM party in all 50 states. To vote for Miner and Volpe, they said voters will have to go to the bottom of the ballot to find SAM line on Nov. 6.