The general election is less than a month away and candidates are eagerly campaigning for your vote. The Town of Cortlandt hosted a meet the candidates event for senior citizens at the Muriel H. Morabito Community Center on Tuesday where candidates from different contested races gave the case for why they should represent their respective district.
Attendees included; incumbent Mike Lawler and former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones for Congressional District 17, incumbent Peter Harckham and candidate Gina Arena for Senatorial District 40, incumbent Dana Levenburg and candidate Michael Capalbo for Assembly District 95, and John Sarcone III and Susan Cacace for district attorney.
The event started at 11 a.m. and was moderated by supervisor of the Town of Cortlandt Dr. Richard Becker. Each candidate presented for approximately ten minutes and were asked to refrain from making personal comments about their opponents while audience members were asked to save comments and questions until a mingling period afterwards.
Lawler and Jones bid for Congressional District 17
As the first presenter of the event, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler encouraged voters to pick him due to a track record of working across the aisle on bipartisan legislation. He included examples of the following bills he supported: the Special Envoy for the Abraham Accords Act, the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, and the Undetectable Firearms Act, a bill to extend legislation in effect since 1988 that makes it illegal to manufacture and sell a gun less than 3.7 oz of steel and can evade a metal detector.
“We’re not going to agree on everything, and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Lawler said. “We live in a democracy, in a constitutional republic, and it requires robust debate and discussion. And I think oftentimes our debate has gotten so forced, our politics so corrosive that we can’t actually have and engage in a free exchange of ideas so that we get the best policy. Which is why as a member of Congress, I have greatly worked to make sure that your voice is heard.”
Lawler said since getting elected he has visited every municipality in the district multiple times, that his office closed 4,500 individual constituent cases, brought back $20 million in benefits constituents were due from the VA Social Security, Medicare, and IRS, and brought back $30 million to the district for community projects.
In addressing targeted political ads, Lawler denied ever voting for banning abortion nationwide or cutting Social Security and Medicare. Lawler voted in support of legislation that would have doctors face criminal penalties for failing to resuscitate babies born alive during abortions, though federal law already requires a baby who survives an attempted abortion receive emergency medical care. Lawler previously said he personally opposes abortion except in cases of rape or incest, and released a statement on Monday criticizing the Supreme Court for not protecting a pregnant mother’s ability to have a safe and legal abortion in Texas when their life or health is at risk.
Former U.S. Rep. Jones, in encouraging constituents’ votes, said they deserve a congressman who is focused on lowering costs and restoring freedoms like the right of women to make their own health decisions.
The Democrat highlighted some of his legislation he worked to get passed in his term, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered insulin prices, the American Rescue Plan Act, also called the Covid-19 stimulus package, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act which has put billions of dollars in repairing roads and taking lead out of water.
“Unlike most members of Congress, I don’t come from money or from a political family,” Jones said. “I know what it’s like to struggle in this broken economy, and for that reason for me policy is personal.”
Jones said when he was in Congress he always voted to fund police and supported the assault weapons ban, something he said would help keep the public safe in the face of recent shootings like the mass shooting of a school in Georgia where a 14-year-old teen shot 11 people and killed two students and two teachers with an AR-15 style gun.
The former congressman critiqued Lawler on supporting bipartisan legislation, saying that he is currently joining Republicans in blocking a bipartisan border security bill in the Senate. This, he said, is because former President Donald Trump wants it to remain an election issue. On the other hand, Jones said he has stood against “extremism” in his party during the Democratic Primary by endorsing Westchester County Executive George Latimer over now former Rep. Jamaal Bowman who accused Israel of genocide.
“I’m so excited to be on the ballot to restore serious results going into the leadership,” Jones said. “And not the chaos and extremism and the incompetence that we are currently seeing down in Washington from (Speaker of the House) Mike Johnson and the Republican majority.”
State Senate District 40 Race
Leading the senatorial presentation was incumbent Democrat Pete Harckham who started off by summarizing some of the work he’s done since becoming a state senator in 2019.
“Six years ago, you sent me to Albany because we wanted to break the cycle of absence of progress in the Republican senate for the past eighty years, with the exception of a two year difference,” he said. “And voters were tired of that. They wanted meaningful change, and we have made meaningful change.”
Some of that change he was part of, he said, was helping to pass early voting, extending background checks for guns with the Red Flag Gun Protection Law, bringing $210 million in new state education aid, and protecting reproductive rights by helping to codify Roe V. Wade into New York State Health Law.
Closer to home, he highlighted bringing over $280 million in transportation improvement projects, brought $30 million in discretionary grants with $9 million of that going to first responders, and passed legislation to protect opioid settlements funds in a lockbox so that they would go for treatment, prevention, harm reduction, and recovery services.
His challenger, Gina Arena, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines, and also ran two years ago. Some of the issues she said are the most important to her are keeping trans girls out of girl’s sports, the affordability crisis, crime, veteran care, and the opioid crisis which is especially personal to her because one of her daughters had a relapse last year.
“I was told opioid addiction does not fall under mental health,” Arena recalled when her daughter was hospitalized. “ ‘I’m sorry Mrs. Arena, we can’t put her into a program because she doesn’t qualify because she’s not having a mental health issue.’ To me, that was appalling and something that really needs to be looked at in this state in my eyes.”
She criticized the state for putting $2.4 billion into the migrant crisis in New York.
“When are we going to take care of who lives here? When are we going to take care of our children?” Arena asked. “I have been a very caring person. I am very empathetic to all walks of life, but when you see people suffering who can’t make ends meet something has to change.”
State Assembly District 95 Race
Starting off the Assembly presentations was former Ossining town supervisor and incumbent Democrat Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg who began by challenging “fear mongering” from other candidates.
“What we have right here in our beautiful backyard is an incredible place to live, work, play and thrive,” Levenberg said. “And we’ve been working so hard here in New York State to make sure that we can keep that for everybody. From protecting the environment and protecting our Hudson River, to making sure that people can afford their prescription drugs, to making sure that they don’t have co-pays for insulin, something that we were able to get done last year, and making sure that people’s utility bills are coming down.”
Levenberg added that the opioid epidemic has turned the corner due to the work that’s been done in the state Senate. Other work she said she supported was bringing $70 million to the district for infrastructure, $7.5 million in state grants to her district, and $20 million for repairing and repaving Route 9A.
Issues that she said were important to address included making sure seniors get their benefits such as Medicare, veteran care, and the housing crisis, which during her term she introduced legislation that would require municipalities to put together a housing plan that takes input from constituents and thoughtfully attacks the problem head on, she said.
Her opponent, Michael Capalbo, a Republican, said that he is running to challenge a “single party” rule that he says has put New York in a state of decline. He said that Democrats have used irresponsible and divisive rhetoric toward Republicans and MAGA Republicans.
“They have the luxury to sit on their high horse and look down at them,” Capalbo said. “This is not right. We need a government by the people, for the people, where everybody feels like they have a seat at the table, and we don’t have that right now. If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Capalbo also challenged claims that former president Trump told people to drink bleach during the Covid-19 pandemic and that he was associated with The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Trump has claimed to have no connection to the project, but 140 former advisers have been involved according to CNN.
District attorney candidates race for empty seat
The Westchester County District Attorney seat is left vacant after outgoing incumbent Mimi Rocah announced last year she would not seek a second term. That position is being eyed by former Democrat judge Susan Cacace and Republican lawyer John Sarcone III.
Cacace, a former assistant district attorney, said she is running for the position because she has always been passionate about criminal justice. The candidate said she has received endorsements from every police department across Westchester county and if elected one of her priorities would be prosecuting sex crimes.
“There’s been some talk about crime being down,” Cacace said. “I’ve seen crime throughout my last 34 years as a judge. I’ve presided over sex offense cases. I conferenced every other crime that you can imagine; homicides, burglaries. Crime is still up in Westchester.”
Her plan includes putting more resources into the Sex Crimes Unit and Bias Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office, tackling the opioid crisis by having a designated Narcotics Division within the office, and working with federal authorities on developing long term investigations on gun trafficking from other states.
Her challenger, John Sarcone III, who was a former appointee to the U.S. General Services Administration by former President Trump, blamed Albany Democrats for high levels of thefts, burglaries, and violence in southern Westchester.
“The Democrat majority in Albany, what are they putting out? Filth and everybody knows it,” Sarcone III said. “The revolving door of crime. ‘We can’t change anything.’ We can have all kinds of sit downs and education, meetings, and go to school.’ Doesn’t do any good because you’re not protected.”
Sarcone III did not list any specific measures he would do if elected as district attorney and claimed there was a globalist society trying to take away constituent’s rights and voice to protect illegal immigrants.
Voting information
The general election is on Nov. 5 with an early voting period of Oct. 26 to Nov. 3.
Voters will also be faced with a statewide ballot proposal seeking to update the Equal Rights Amendment for the first time since 1938 to include new protected classes including ethnicity, disability, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy.
Supporter of the proposition such as state Sen. Harckham said it would codify Roe V. Wade and reproductive health care in the constitution, as well as protect more classes from discrimination beyond just race, color, creed, or religion.
Meanwhile opponents, such as Arena, say the law is too open ended and leads to the possibility of losing parental rights or say if a child decides to change their gender.
Want to register to vote? Go to https://elections.ny.gov/register-vote
