The two Democrats who want a shot at the First Congressional District seat held by freshman Republican Lee Zeldin mostly agree on what the key issues are and where they stand on them. That much was clear from last night’s head-to-head debate in Southold.
The debate, like the election, comes down to this: Which candidate is better able to accomplish those objectives and — more pointedly — which candidate can unseat Zeldin in his first re-election bid this November?
There are plenty of differences between Anna Throne-Holst of Bridgehampton and Dave Calone of East Setauket and the candidates worked to stay focused on those differences during the 90-minute debate in the Southold Junior-Senior High School auditorium.
Throne-Holst, a three-term Southampton Town supervisor who stepped down to run for Congress, repeatedly stressed her electability and her proven ability to “get the job done.”
“I am the only one up here that has run and won in four elections…and actually gotten the job done … the only one who’s put forward a progressive agenda and gotten it done,” Throne-Holst said.
Calone, a venture capitalist focused on technology start-ups, former federal prosecutor and former chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, pointed to his experience in forging public-private partnerships, in prosecuting fraud and terrorism cases and his expertise on land use and development matters, and stressed his local roots as a lifelong Long Islander and party pedigree as a lifelong Democrat.
“I am so angry about the work that’s being done in Washington,” Calone said. “Lee Zeldin and the Tea Party Republicans are putting our health care at risk, they’re putting our environment at risk, they’re putting our education system at risk and they’re putting our… economic system at risk,” Calone said. “With my background in job creation and environmental leadership, I’m looking forward to taking him on in November.”
League of Women Voters moderator Catherine Peacock posed questions on 10 different topics of both national and local import.
Calone and Throne-Holst were polite even as they sparred over personal capabilities and experience — with Throne-Holst jabbing Calone for his time as a LIPA trustee and Calone bringing up his endorsement by “every Democratic elected official who served with her on the town board.”
Here’s a snapshot of where they stand on the issues raised in questions at last night’s debate, hosted by the Southold Town Democratic Club:
The economy and jobs
Throne-Holst:
“It’s important to understand what this economy is built on. It’s built on the service industry, the health care industry and yes, tourism, second-home ownership and the environment. If we don’t support and build that job base, we are letting down what is the basis for our economy here.
Calone:
“We must make sure our environment is working. Our environment is critically important, for tourism and other critical industries. Aquaculture is one of them.”
“Agriculture is important. We have an aging farming population. One of the reasons is how expensive it is to go into farming, which requires buying equipment like tractors and hoop houses. I helped local farmers access a state program that provided 20 percent of the funds for capital equipment purchases.”
“I have experience identifying the problems and helping create jobs through public-private partnerships.”
Minimum wage
Calone:
“I support raising the minimum wage, making it predictable as New York State has done, and making it indexed to inflation so we don’t have this fight every time.”
“I would expand the earned income tax credit for working families.”
Throne-Holst:
“I support raising the minimum wage. Economic research demonstrates it helps businesses do better. They become more profitable. There’s a net positive in cost to the society- people no longer reliant on social service benefits funded by taxpayers.”
Climate Change
Throne-Holst:
“Lee Zeldin is on record as a climate change denier. How do you live on — let alone represent Long Island as a climate change denier. It’s unfathomable. This is an economy that’s threatened by climate change. There simply isn’t a business on the East End that is unaffected by climate change.”
Calone:
“We are on the front lines of climate change. It is real. It is caused, or at least exacerbated, by man’s activities. Lee Zeldin has voted against the EPA’s clean power plan to reduce carbon emissions across the country. That’s ridiculous.”
“I am a leader in renewable energy in Suffolk County. Solar providers came to us about every town in Suffolk County having different rules for solar installations. We put together a [model]code that streamlined the process for solar panels. We also wrote a wind code and geothermal code.
Throne-Holst:
“We went further in Southampton. We did not adopt that code because it created more red tape. We handled it differently. We put a list of vetted solar providers on our website, so residents and neighborhoods could opt in to it easily.”
“My opponent as a LIPA trustee led the RFP process for the second Caithness plant, a $5 billion fossil fuel burning plant.”
Calone:
“As a federal prosecutor, I investigated and prosecuted folks in oil and gas. I saw how they’re benefiting from federal subsidies. We need to eliminate them and put more money into renewable energy.”
“I was responsible for the largest renewable energy RFP in LIPA’s history. I support moving to a more decentralized system and moving away from a carbon-based economy.”
Planned Parenthood
Throne-Holst:
“The federal government does not legislate anything around male reproductive rights. Why the federal government thinks it has any place legislating around women’s reproductive rights is not only a mystery, it is unconscionable.”
Calone:
“I can speak from personal experience. Planned Parenthood also provides breast cancer screening and my mom survived breast cancer twice. It’s only because of early screening that she’s alive today. Planned Parenthood is not just an important issue, it’s a matter of life and death. We need to do a better job of getting the types of services Planned Parenthood provides to all parts of the country.”
Tick borne diseases
Calone:
“There has been mixed success with the things that have been utilized. The sharpshooting effort was not particularly successful. At the end of the day we need to do more on the four-poster side of things. Also need to make sure we do screenings, including our pets, to remove ticks before they can infect.”
Throne-Holst:
“Sharpshooting was very controversial. We put together a group – including the hunting, medical and animal protection communities — to work out a deer management plan. We looked at everything — four-poster, sterilization, culling — to come up with a comprehensive plan that’s based on science. And we know it’s not so much a deer problem as a rodent and bird problem.
Balancing privacy and national security/law enforcement
Throne-Holst:
“The government needs to work with the tech industry to make sure technology is being developed that meets those needs and protects privacy rights.”
“We need to make sure guns are out of the hands of terrorists, out of the hands of people who are not able to make sound decisions, who have a violent past. We need common sense gun safety legislation closing the loopholes — the internet and gun shows.”
“We must make sure our private information is protected, but that people who are perpetrating terrorism and crimes are held accountable.”
Calone:
“We must retain a warrant-based system and protect the role of the judiciary.”
“In speaking with the technology community on this issue, I believe the solution a will be a single key for each person’s phone that’s not allowed to be touched by the government unless a court-ordered warrant is issued for that phone.”
Wastewater treatment
Calone:
“We need to make sure the federal government gets back in the field with funding for infrastructure — sewage treatment plants and advanced septic systems.”
Throne-Holst:
“We need town boards to make sure their comprehensive plans are updated regularly, to make sure new sewer capacity doesn’t result in increased density.”
Immigration
Throne-Holst:
“A path to citizenship is critically important. Our economy depends on it. I support Presiden Obama’s executive orders. I support the Group of Eight plan, which is sage and sound.”
“Fifteen million people — to think we’re going to round them up and ship them out as Lee Zeldin wants to do. Look at the balance sheet – look at the cost of that.”
“There isn’t a business on Long Island that doesn’t understand how critically important labor is to us and how critically important the immigrant community is to that labor.”
Calone:
“I support DACA and DAPA. Lee Zeldin voted to shut down Homeland Security because he opposes DACA and DAPA.”
“We have people who graduate from our schools who then have to leave after getting that great education in the U.S.”
“We should staple a green card to every engineering degree we issue in the United States. If folks want to stay here and build the next generation of American jobs and the next generation of American companies, we should let them.”
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Calone:
“We need to strengthen our systems. I support extending the cap on income for social security.”
“It’s important to allow the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices, which it is now not allowed to do.
“We need to look at the possibility of allowing people to buy into the Medicare system as an option. We need to allow people to purchase insurance across state lines. And we should establish a reinsurance program for catastrophic illness.”
Throne-Holst:
“We need to put the next step of the Affordable Care Act in place, to reduce the cost of health care and expand the availability.”
“Health Republic went out of business because the Republicans refused to release the funds that were part of the Affordable Care Act to stabilize the marketplace plans as they were figuring out risk when just underway. Everyone knew it but it was not appropriated for them — or it would still be there today.”
