The two candidates running in the 115th Assembly District special election debated at Mountain Lake PBS on Tuesday. While they agreed on many topics, some moments of disagreement stood out.
Voters are receiving campaign flyers from the Republican State Committee and the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, which are major donors to Republican Brent Davison’s campaign. The flyers claim the Democrat in race – Michael Cashman, who is the current Town of Plattsburgh supervisor – would be a “yes man” to Governor Kathy Hochul. The debate kicked off asking Cashman why he wouldn’t be a yes man, given that he would be the most junior member of the Assembly. Republican Davison, who recently retired as Troop B Commander for the New York State Police, was also asked why he wouldn’t be a yes man to Republican leaders, given their links to his campaign.
Cashman said he would be bipartisan and independent.
“Either one of us are going to be the most junior member of the Assembly,” Cashman noted. “I’m an independent thinker and I’ve worked very hard for the Town of Plattsburgh. As my time as the Town Supervisor we’ve worked in many ways in a bipartisan fashion with the Clinton County Republican-led legislative body. You have to put people over politics. That’s what I’m prepared to do.”
Davison criticized the Democratic majority in Albany before saying he would focus on voters’ needs.
“There’s no reason that I wouldn’t think that my opponent would vote right along, like his predecessor did, the majority of the time with the majority party in Albany,” Davison said. “The difference for me is I’m not in the majority party. And I don’t answer to anybody above me in Albany. I answer to the voters.”
The candidates were then asked for specific examples of where they disagree with their own parties. Cashman responded first.
“One of the things that is most concerning in this district right now is the Halt Act, okay. We differ right there.” Cashman continued, “The electrification goals for New York state are problematic. We do not have the grid here in the North Country. I could go on and on and on.”
Moderator Thom Hallock turns to Cashman’s opponent. “Mr. Davison?”
“As a law enforcement representative my goal is to repeal the Halt Act and the cashless bail,” Davison noted. “And I question my opponent, if he had a chance today to repeal both of those if he would do that?”
Cashman taps his podium as he replies, “Right now, in this moment.”
The North Country is home to a number of correctional facilities. Earlier this year, prison guards conducted a wildcat strike leading to Governor Kathy Hochul replacing correction officers with the National Guard, firing prison guards and prohibiting them from taking any state job. Cashman and Davison were mostly in agreement regarding the strike outcome. Cashman:
"What the governor did was vindictive and abhorrent,” Cashman stated. “What we really need to do is to get some of the other Assembly members up here into the North Country to see firsthand the conditions that they think they know about because they do not know what is actually occurring.”
Hallock turns to the Republican for a response, “Mr. Davison.”
“Well, I would agree with that. One of the first things that I’ll do as an Assemblyman is invite some of the lawmakers who came up with the Halt Act to come up and do a tour of Clinton Correctional Facility and see what it’s like to work there every day. I worked as a CO for a year-and-a-half. The law needs to be repealed today,” Davison asserted.
Both candidates are adamant that the Halt Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement and was a central issue in the strike, must be repealed. Republican Brent Davison:
“We need to start over from scratch and we need to involve all the stakeholders.”
“Thank you,” Hallock says. “Mr. Cashman?”
“I would agree. A ten-point plan was recently put out,” Cashman noted.
“I think the ten-point plan is a band-aid over a gaping wound,” Davison countered. “And it’s also too late. This is something that should have been put out maybe a year ago and we could have avoided the strike that occurred.”
Utilities in New York are coming under scrutiny as rates rise. Davison said the Democratic majority in Albany is part of the problem.
“First of all the electric mandates that are being put on the people of the North Country are not practical. They’re not attainable. We don’t have the grid to support it. They need to have exceptions for our area,” Davison said.
Hallock turns to the opponent, “Mr. Cashman.”
“I agree with my opponent.” Cashman added, “But what we need to do is to put guardrails on the Public Service Commission and NYSEG and our other power companies to put caps on how much they can charge individuals.”
“Any additional points Mr. Davison?” asked Hallock.
The problem is the one-party rule has created this problem,” Davison asserted.
Early voting in New York begins on Saturday October 25th and Election Day is Tuesday November 4th.
The debate will begin airing on Mountain Lake PBS on Friday at 8 p.m. and will also be online at mountainlake.org.
