The gubernatorial and Congressional races may be getting more attention, but many important down-ballot races will be decided November 4th as well. The Champlain Valley Business and Professional Women’s Club held a Meet the Candidates event Thursday night in Plattsburgh. Candidates for the Assembly and Town Council discussed their platforms and answered questions.
Two candidates are running in the race for the 115th state Assembly district: Incumbent Republican Janet Duprey and Conservative challenger Karen Bisso. The Plattsburgh Town Council election will fill the remaining three-year term of a departing member. Republican Tom Metz is pitted against Democrat Meg LeFevre.
The four were given up to 10 minutes to explain their platforms and positions. Town Council candidate Metz led off with an outline of his plans for budget stability. “The town can help bring businesses here by insuring that we have the infrastructure in place to attract them. Roads, water, sewer and reasonable tax rates. But we need to demonstrate sound fiscal management of government operations.”
This is the first time Town Council candidate Democrat Meg LeFevre has run for office. “It’s so important to market our area as a tourism destination to build our tax base. Also, for me especially, it’s engaging with my generation and helping them to want to be involved in the same capacity. I’m sort-of tired of being the youngest one in the room all the time. I also agree that the town board needs balance. I will bring that because there are no women on the board right now.”
This is the second time candidate Karen Bisso has challenged incumbent Assemblywoman Janet Duprey. Bisso lost the Republican primary this year and is running as a Conservative. “Currently our system does little to nothing to address real issues, but instead uses slight-of-hand to distract us from a poorly recovering economy. They operate in divisiveness instead of in unity. I hope to change how the North Country participates in this system.”
Duprey emphasized her bipartisanship. “A great deal of my success in Albany is my ability to understand a wide variety of issues and listening to all sides of every issue prior to making a decision and changing my mind when it’s appropriate. Although some people have criticized me for being too bipartisan, I believe my ability to work with others serves the constituents well.”
Most of the questions from the audience targeted the Assembly candidates.
How the two candidates would deal with the Common Core education standards illustrated both commonalities and differences. Conservative Bisso, a teacher, calls the program disastrous. “It is a bad program. It is not doing good things for children. We have not seen the long-term ramifications of it yet. It treats our kids as if they’re business products.”
Incumbent Duprey is not pleased with Common Core and worries over a potential pullout. “I think that New York State did a terrible job of implementing the Common Core. My biggest concern is that we are taking the creativity away from our teachers and our students and that the teachers in fact are being required to teach to a standardized test. We got almost a billion dollars from the federal government to implement Common Core. If we have to pay back a billion dollars I don’t believe it’s going to come from anywhere other than education.”
The Assembly candidates disagreed on a number of areas, but there were a few areas of consensus. Both support drug testing for Medicaid recipients. Both oppose the SAFE Act gun control law and legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. The only vitriolic exchange occurred as Duprey discussed the state’s stalled Women’s Equality Act. “The Womens’ Equality Act does not extend abortion rights into late term abortions. It absolutely does not. It’s a fallicy.”
A woman in the audience shouted: “Oh yes it does!”
Duprey stared at the woman. “It does not.”
And the woman retorted “You ought to reread your bill.”
Duprey later said this was the first time she’s experienced someone in the audience being rude during a debate or forum. “Certainly there was a woman who was out of line. It wasn’t up for the audience to participate in this discussion. Usually people are more polite and more respectful. They are passionate issues. But I know the bill. I guess I maybe get a little impatient with people trying to distort what we’re doing.”
Following the forum, Bob Metz expressed concerns that voters are unaware there are three statewide ballot proposals. Proposal One would revise the state’s redistricting procedure; it has divided good government groups. Prop Two would permit electronic distribution of state legislative bills and number three is the Smart Schools Bond Act.
