Dan Maffei and Ann Marie Buerkle sparred and attacked each other, but neither offered specifics on how to rein in spending.
View full sizeCongressman Dan Maffei (left) counters a point made by Republican candidate Ann Marie Buerkle during their debate Monday at WSYR-TV Channel 9. At center is moderator Dan Cummings. Editor's note: This story was written by staff writers Paul Riede and Mark Weiner.
DeWitt, NY -- In the race to represent Central New York in Congress, one of the candidates is in tune with the people and the other is way out of the loop. The question is, which is which?
In a debate Monday that could set the tone for the rest of the campaign, U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, and Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle, of Onondaga Hill, both pounded away at the idea that the other is out of the mainstream.
Maffei said Buerkle listens only to one segment of the 25th District’s residents — her conservative supporters. Buerkle said Maffei is more aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi than with his constituents.
The debate at WSYR-TV (Channel 9), moderated by station anchor Dan Cummings, was the first in a race that will heat up over the next four weeks, with at least three more debates scheduled for next week. It was taped Monday afternoon but will air at 8 p.m. Friday and again at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Throughout the hourlong session, Maffei sought to present himself as well within the mainstream of legislators who have represented the 25th District, which is composed of Onondaga and Wayne counties and parts of Cayuga and Monroe counties. “This is a moderate district; it’s always been a moderate district,” he said. “The Republicans and the one Democrat who represented this district before me were moderates. I think it’s important that we have a moderate legislator.”
Meanwhile, Buerkle argued that she is the true Central New Yorker. “You’re a Washington insider who has lived in Washington, and you reflect the views of Washington,” she said, turning to her opponent. “You’re not in touch with the people here.”
Maffei, seeking his second term, enters the last month of the race with a 10-to-1 advantage over Buerkle in available campaign cash. He raised more than $2.2 million for his campaign and had $1.1 million left at the end of August, according to Federal Election Commission records. Buerkle raised about $340,000, and had $182,000 remaining.
Buerkle only recently began television advertisements. Maffei has been advertising for more than a month and will likely continue to run ads daily through Election Day, Nov. 2. Buerkle is counting on the debates and public forums to bring her message to voters.
The candidates sat side by side behind the Channel 9 anchor desk Monday, rarely looking at each other and barely exchanging words during commercial breaks. As the debate wore on, the tension between the two grew more palpable.
While each vied for the middle ground, the ideological gap between them could hardly have been more clear. Maffei touted the things that government can do right, such as the bill he supported — and Buerkle opposed — to fund the hiring of more teachers across the nation. Buerkle spoke of a government that has overreached — from the “failed stimulus” to the stalled cap-and-trade legislation to the health care reform bill.
“Dan thinks that the government has all the answers, and I rely on the American people,” she said. “I rely on the people who live in the district to know what’s best for their family, to know what bank to bank in, to make the choices they need to live.”
View full sizeRepublican Congressional candidate Anne Marie Buerkle (right) makes a point during her Monday debate with Congressman Dan Maffei in the WSYR-TV Channel 9 studio. Buerkle went on the attack over health care reform, which she wants to repeal. She accused Maffei and the Democrats in Congress of passing the bill without popular support. “What Dan did when he supported this health care bill is he sold the interests of the 25th District down the river and agreed to pay costs for Nebraska and Louisiana and other states in order to get them to support this bill,” she said. She said the bill would require the addition of 16,000 positions at the Internal Revenue Service.
Independent sources, including factcheck.org, have said that is a false claim.
Maffei called Buerkle’s statements “fiction” and suggested Buerkle may have picked them up from the Internet. But he hardly gave the health care bill a ringing endorsement, saying it is imperfect legislation that only began to fix a system that was heading for disaster. “We were heading off the cliff and we swerved,” he said. “We still have to do a lot more work to get back on the road. But at least we swerved, and that’s the most important thing. We took on this issue.”
Both candidates agreed that growing federal deficits are a problem, but neither voiced a lot of ideas on how to cut spending.
Maffei noted that he co-sponsored a cap on discretionary spending through 2013, a bill that passed the House but was altered in the Senate. And he said he voted against a funding plan for NASA — even though he is “a ‘Star Trek’ geek.” He said Buerkle had only one idea to cut spending — to eliminate the federal Department of Education.
“What specifically would she cut?” he asked. “It seems like we’re going back in time to an era of Bush economics, when you could have tax cuts not paid for, you could have spending on wars not paid for and somehow that doesn’t increase the deficit. That’s exactly what increases the deficit.”
Buerkle said repealing the health care bill would save money, as would reviewing the spending of all federal agencies. “This administration has created an entitlement mentality unsurpassed by anyone, and we need to cut back and figure out who we’re going to care for and how we’re going to do that,” she said.
She stood by her belief that the Department of Education be abolished. “Since the ’70s, our math and science and education scores have remained flat, and the Department of Education budget has increased 190 percent,” she said. “It’s not what’s working for our schools.”
As the debate wore on, the attacks sharpened. Buerkle said Maffei hadn’t held a public town hall meeting with his constituents since the health care bill passed. Maffei retorted that he had held two meetings specifically on the bill after its passage.
Maffei went back to 1994 in noting that Buerkle voted for a tax increase when she was on the Syracuse Common Council. Indeed, she did vote with the Republican-controlled council for a budget that raised taxes by 5.1 percent. But the council’s budget trimmed a bigger proposed tax hike.
Contact Paul Riede at priede@syracuse.com or 470-3260. Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.