Voting in New York's midterm elections begins in less than three weeks. The race taking center stage in the Adirondacks is the state's 21st Congressional District. WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley recently sat down with the Republican candidate Anthony Constantino to discuss a number of issues, including why he is using artificial intelligence in his campaign ads.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Constantino: I got involved in politics because I was concerned with Democrat policies that were hurting the citizens, hurting New York State, really hurting the country. And I'm running against a guy supporting the Democrat Party. He wouldn't repeat Democrat Party's platform, so I used AI. I labeled it as AI, and I had him state the Democrat Party's — a lot of Democrat Party's — platform.
Bradley: There's been a lot of debate lately over the use of AI, not just in political campaigns but across all sectors, basically. Would you support regulating or placing any sort of guardrails on AI?
Constantino: I'd love to talk to the nation's AI leaders about this particular topic. I have a great relationship with SpaceX AI — one of the leaders, Elon [Musk] — and we also have a good relationship with OpenAI through my company. And you know, I'd love to talk to the people that are working on AI to understand this topic. I don't like the fear-mongering about it, and so I want to have an open mind with regards to to AI and do what makes sense for the citizens. I think AI is going to help people create jobs. It's going to help people increase wages. It's going to help reduce waste in the government, bring down taxes, and do a lot of great things. It's also going to help us get better medical care and help us get better service in general across all industries. So, you know, I think we've got to be positive towards AI and have an open mind and understand it as best we can.
Bradley: Anthony Constantino, Flock cameras are a big issue in New York State and across the country. What role do you think the federal government should have in addressing the controversy over Flock cameras?
Constantino: Flock seems like a local issue to me, and you know, I can see both sides of the issue. You know, I want people to be safe. I think the role of government is to keep us safe. Also, I'm a big privacy guy. At my own company, Sticker Mule, I never installed security cameras in the factory. I wouldn't want to have a camera looking at me all day while I was working. And so, I can see both sides of this perspective. And I think it's up to each municipality to decide what their needs are.
Bradley: The North Country is affected by the tariffs that have been imposed on Canada. As a congressman, what would you do to mitigate the impact of tariffs, or perhaps restrict the tariffs in any way?
Constantino: You know, we want strong relations with Canada. Canada tariffs us, so we want to get their tariffs removed. So, you know, ideally, there's free trade, and they're not tariffing us, and we're not tariffing them. I think President [Donald] Trump's working towards that. I want to help him get a deal done.
Bradley: The authority to impose tariffs is congressional, not with the executive. How would you respond to that as a congressman?
Constantino: Rule by committee is always chaos, and so I don't want to take negotiating power away from the president. That would be of any president. You know, this isn't a President Trump thing. You don't want your president in a weak situation when he has to negotiate with other countries that don't have to go to Congress, you know, to negotiate.
Bradley: Another topic: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Would you advance any sort of controls on ICE?
Constantino: I think we should look at ways to innovate in law enforcement so that all law enforcement can do their jobs more effectively. And you can't just not have law enforcement, but you want the officers to be safe. And when they're making arrests, you want the other person safe as well, ideally. It's a difficult situation. I have a lot of empathy for officers. I think the solution is [to] innovate, have empathy for the officers, and ideally, keep the border secure so that you know we don't have the situation we have right now.
Bradley: Well, Anthony Constantino, immigration reform for decades has been an issue for Congress. What reforms would you advocate for in immigration reform, and not necessarily focused on ICE stuff?
Constantino: That's a great question. So I already said, day-one legislation, I'm calling it Operation Overhaul, cause I want all of our systems to get a software upgrade. In the private sector, software is making it easier to do all sorts of things. So, it should be easier to apply for immigration into the United States of America, so that we can accept more legal immigration. And I would like to invest in the systems — the immigration systems — so that the process is a lot easier.
Bradley: The rating agencies, Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball, recently adjusted NY-21 from solid Republican to likely Republican, which is a slight slide towards the blue, even though it is still, as they put it, likely Republican. How confident are you about being able to win in this national political climate?
Constantino: I think the people that write the Cook Report — and a lot of political people that live in a bubble — they write these reports very quickly, and there's human error and everything, so I think that report's an error, and the betting market doesn't buy it at all because that report came out and the odds stayed the same. If that report meant something, the betting odds would have changed.
Bradley: The congressional district, New York 21, is one of the largest east of the Mississippi. What's the biggest thing you're learning as you travel through it?
Constantino: That the cell phones don't work so well. That's probably the biggest thing. I want it [on] day one. I've already talked to leadership. I want funding for cell service, for internet service. Again, there's a great innovation with Starlink technology. I think we could probably look at using that up here. I want to work on that day one. I want to get funding to improve internet service [and] cell service. It's an economic issue. It's also a public safety issue. You know, people go on long trips where the phone's not working, and you know, if your car breaks down, what do you do?
