Republican incumbent Mike Lawler and Democrat challenger Mondaire Jones squared off on Oct. 16 in their bid for New York’s 17th Congressional District seat in the Hudson Valley.
The 17th Congressional District encompasses all of Rockland and Putnam counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess where 59.6 percent of residents voted for President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections.
The debate aired on News 12 Westchester just weeks before the Nov. 5 general election, which will also decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Tara Rosenblum, News 12’s lead reporter, was the moderator.
“Their race is a crucial battleground that could determine the balance of power in Washington, D.C., for years to come,” she said.
Currently, Republicans hold a slim majority of 218–214 in the House.
An Emerson Collge/PIX11 TV survey between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 shows a close race. Lawler is leading Jones 45 percent to 44 percent.
A digital coin toss determined that Jones, a former congressman who previously represented District 17, would present his position first.
In his opening statement, Jones said he wanted to restore women’s reproductive rights and protect Social Security and Medicare for the long term.
He also addressed the chaos at the border. “I want to make sure that we pass the bipartisan border security bill pending in Congress right now that my opponent is blocking,” the Democratic candidate said.
Bill S.4361, also known as the Border Act of 2024, would expand Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority to address the processing of non-U.S. nationals and provides supplemental appropriations for related purposes, as well as provides DHS emergency authority to remove or prohibit the entry of certain non-U.S. nationals within 100 miles of the southwest land border.
Republicans generally opposed it because they favor H.R.2., also known as the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would limit parole for non-U.S. nationals by outlining reasons for which parole may be granted.
“We don’t support open borders and amnesty for criminal illegals,” Lawler rebutted in his opening statement.
The Republican candidate also said he doesn’t support socialism, congestion pricing, and government-run healthcare.
After their opening statements, the candidates were pitched questions from the district’s constituents for which they had 90 seconds to answer.
When one viewer asked what the opposing candidates would do to address climate change on a federal level, Jones touted his support of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for its investment in clean, renewable energy.
“I’m someone who actually delivered legislation that combats climate change,” Jones said. “We have to make sure our communities are shored up, that they are heartened, and that we have the capacity to withstand these increasingly frequent and severe weather events.”
The IRA included some $240 billion for clean energy, according to a White House statement posted online.
Lawler denied the allegation lodged by Jones that he had once mocked climate change on Twitter before he ran for Congress.
“I believe in climate change,” Lawler said. “It is real.”
He also noted his policy contributions to environmental protection. “As a member of Congress, I have brought back critical funding to support clean water sewer infrastructure improvements. I have fought to block barges from coming up the Hudson River. I have fought to block the discharge of toxic wastewater into the Hudson River.”
Both candidates presented differing views over a range of issues, including public safety.
“Cashless bail was the single, stupidest piece of legislation that has ever been enacted into law, anywhere,” Lawler said. “Three quarters of those being arrested are migrants.”
New York state’s 2020 bail reform laws eliminated cash bail and expanded pre-trial release for some misdemeanor and felony charges. About 22 percent, or 4.4 million, of the population statewide is made up of immigrants, according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s A Portrait of Immigrants in New York report.
Jones has said he wants the government to invest in alternatives to incarceration, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, abolish private prisons and the federal death penalty, and denied Lawler’s allegation that he advocated to defund the police.
“I never voted to cut funding for law enforcement,” Jones said. “We have to make sure we continue to fund our police.”
FEC data shows Jones leading financially with $4,312,536.71 in cash on hand compared with Lawler’s $3,930,455.81, and Lawler holding a slight edge in contributions with $5,736,579.61 compared to $5,540,543.21 for Jones.
Both candidates shook their heads in disagreement when poked with barbed comments by their opponent.
For example, Lawler criticized Jones for being an alleged avowed socialist and extremist, to which Jones rebutted, “We’re going to hear a lot of lies tonight … I never called myself a socialist.”
When Jones accused Lawler of a pattern of racism for refusing to participate in a candidate’s forum hosted by the NAACP and appearing in blackface at a 2006 Halloween party, Lawler responded, “I recognize why people were upset. I said sorry both in The New York Times and on TV.”
From The Epoch Times