"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones." Machiavelli
Dem debate, post 1: 21st CDBy albany layman, Section Diaries
The eight Democratic contenders for the nomination for the Congressional seat in the 21st district debated Wednesday night at the SEIU building on Washington Avenue. The room was crowded, with the eight candidates themselves, with staffers and supporters, and presumably with other dorks like myself who wanted to see the candidates in person.
This being a Democratic debate, there were many areas of agreement on policies and issues. But there were also enough differences, either on policy or on presentation and focus, that the whole thing was very interesting. With this post, I hope to present a little bit of each candidate's biographical information and what each one identified as his or her priority for legislation. I plan on putting up additional posts, in order to present more information on the candidates' policies and how they responded to questions. I'm not a professional, so please forgive any deficiencies in note taking, paraphrasing, and attention sp... what was I saying? Here we go.
Aretakis introduced himself as not a professional politician. His priority is protecting children. He would like to see comprehensive legal rights for abused children, saying that they have no voice in DC, that punishments for abuse are not severe enough, and that there should be national standards for protecting children.
Brooks referenced the Gingrich and Bush era, and how they motivated her to be involved in politics. In her introduction, she said that we needed to end the war, and re-invest that money here at home. In response to the question about her priority for legislation, she talked about gas prices, about rolling back subsidies to oil companies, and working on energy technologies, including technologies for improving gas mileage in cars. Burridge discussed his work history, which you can see here, and said that his legislative priority was universal healthcare. He talked about beginning by covering all children, and by doing so, introducing adults into the process of universal coverage. Freeman made a point of his upbringing in the city of Albany, and how he was the only candidate born and raised in Albany. He talked about increasing funding for the inner city areas. He also discussed as his legislative priority a proposal for an "age of maturity," in which a person is considered an adult in various ways at the age of 20. This is part of his desire to protect children. Shahinfar stated his campaign theme of "renewing America's promise." He discussed being the son of an Iranian immigrant, whose take on America was that of freedom, hope, and opportunity. He stated as his priority "HR 676," which is a House bill to establish universal healthcare. Steck stated that while others talk about change, he has led on change in his position as Albany County legislator. He pointed to his role in overturning control of the Colonie government from Republican to Democratic. He stated that his legislative priority was the immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and that other initiatives were meaningless and subordinate to the cost of the war in Iraq. Tonko stated his belief in a system that responds to the people, and that he speaks forcefully on behalf of working families. His priority is to end our involvement in Iraq, and said that we cannot afford to dis-invest in healthcare and energy initiatives by investing money in the war. Welser introduced himself as a non-politician and a realtor. He pointed to a lack of proposals by the other candidates, and to a number of his own proposals. His priority is an education bill, which would include mandatory high school education and either a military draft for drop-outs, or a military type school for them, in addition to a proposal for "remedial Saturdays" at schools. Additional post(s) to follow, to present more of the candidates' thoughts and policies.
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