All four candidates for New York’s 21st Congressional District were on hand at View in Old Forge, on Tuesday, June 17th, for a townhall-style informational forum.
The candidates are vying for the open seat to be vacated by Congressman Bill Owens, a Democrat, who decided not to seek reelection to a fourth term.
Two of candidates, Republi-cans Matt Doheny and Elise Stefanik, shared the stage for the last time before they face off in a primary, next Tuesday, June 24.
Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, each has secured a spot on the November ballot, Doheny as the Independence Party candidate, and Stefanik as the Conservative candidate.
The other candidates at the View forum were Democrat Aaron Woolf and Green Party candidate Matt Funiciello.
The forum was sponsored by CAP-21 and moderated by Nick Rose, the organization’s executive director.
Each candidate gave an introductory statement, before individually answering questions that were offered to the group.
Elise Stefanik of Willsboro said she grew up in a small business family. Her parents run a plywood company in Albany County.
She said that, if elected, she wants to repeal and replace Obamacare. She also said she wants to throw out the nation’s 85 thousand page tax code and rebuild it from scratch to make it flatter and fairer.
She said she wants to fight for Constitutional liberties, and fight for farmers, military families and veterans.
Matt Doheny described his upbringing in Alexandria Bay and said he now makes his home in Watertown, also the home base of his business, North Country Capital.
Matt said he is a businessman and wants to bring a business approach to Washington, DC, on behalf of constituents in the North Country.
He described his experience with analyzing and restructuring distressed businesses, many facing bankruptcy, and turning them around to profitability.
He wants to apply the same expertise to the north country economy, he said, for the purpose of creating jobs and a better quality of life.
“I’ve spent a lot of time during the last year in Rochester, NY, working for Kodak,” he said.
Doheny said he was invited to be part of a team that would help guide the Kodak to renewed stability as a company.
The challenge involves taking a company, whose flagship product has disappeared, and transforming it through reinvention.
That’s not unlike the current state of the 21st Congressional District, that has lost a lot of its former manufacturing base, he said.
“That’s the same kind of thinking we need on the ground, here in the North Country,” Doheny said. “[It’s what’s needed] to make the economy and our way of life a little bit better. At the end of the day, that’s why I got in the race. I think I have something to offer.”
“Washington is broken. We have to send different people there,” he said.
Sending the same type of people to do the same thing over and over again—that won’t fix anything, Doheny said.
“We need to change the roster. We need the type of people that [will allow] for a different outcome,” he said.
Send a true businessman to Washington. Let him make a difference for us, here in the North Country, Doheny said.
Questions for the candidates involves topics such as Immigration Reform, the Environment, Hydrofracking, Tourism, Federal Highway and Transportation Bills, NSA Eavesdropping and the Right to Privacy, and the need for bipartisanship in our nation’s capital.
In discussing Immigration Reform, candidate Stefanik said focus has to be placed on the northern border of the United States, as well as its southern border.
“I think any discussion about immigration reform has to keep that in mind,” she said. “Issues we face are very different from the national immigration discussion.”
“I believe we have to take the Ag Workers Visa Program out of the broader immigration debate, and deal with it specifically as an agriculture issue,” Stefanik said.
“It is very important to provide certainty for the labor force our farmers rely on.”
As for the southern border, Stefanik said it must be secure.
“Second, I think we need to promote a legal immigration system,” she said.
“Lastly, I think we need to promote an employer verification system…[so] that small businesses are forced to verify that they are hiring legal immigrants and legal workers,” she said.
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EDITORS NOTE: The CAP-21 forum at View brought forth a number of views on a number of topics. This report has been limited to a sampling of thought expressed by the two candidates that are facing one another in next Tuesday’s Republican Primary. Future articles will focus on the other two candidates, Aaron Woolf and Matt Funiciello, who have secured their party’s nominations without need of a primary election.