Two weeks away from the Democratic primary on June 23, the race for New York’s Congressional District 17 is ramping up, with five candidates still in the running hoping to unseat Republican incumbent Mike Lawler in November.

The League of Women Voters of Westchester and Rockland held a virtual candidates forum via Zoom on Wednesday, June 3, with all five candidates — John Capello, Cait Conley, Beth Davidson, Effie Phillips-Staley and Mike Sacks. The event was moderated by Marcia Brewster of the League of Women Voters of the Rivertowns.

Candidates answered resident-submitted questions and discussed Congress fulfilling its responsibilities of domestic oversight, immigration enforcement, lowering the cost of living, access to healthcare, congress’s role in foreign policy actions regarding current wars and conflicts, artificial intelligence (AI), and changes to the Supreme Court, such as term limits.

To learn more about candidates, read Peekskill Herald’s Feb. 18 election story here.

Candidates discuss immigration enforcement

Asked how they would work to address current tensions surrounding immigration and immigration enforcement, candidates discussed their respective approaches.

Conley, an army special ops combat veteran and senior executive at the U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, said it was important to ensure the rule of law applied to all including federal agents, cabinet officials, and “even our president.”

“What we have seen in this administration is such an egregious abuse of power, where we are watching as federal agents on American streets harass, assault and even murder the very people they’re sworn to serve and protect,” Conley said. “That is unhinged and un-American. We need investigations deep into every level of leadership inside of ICE, which needs to be reined in and completely overhauled.”

Capello, a pilot who served 25 years in the United States Air Force and served two tours as a diplomat at U.S. embassies in Israel and Serbia, said a reform of ICE was necessary, splitting immigration enforcement from civil immigration compliance issues.

“We need to take a long, comprehensive look at what it means for immigration in this country, and that means providing a clear, fair path to citizenship,” Capello said. “People need to know what path they need to take to come to the United States. This is in the interest of the United States, it’s in the interest of our economy, and it’s who we are as a people.”

Sacks, a lawyer-turned-television reporter covering political and legal affairs across the federal government, said he was for abolishing ICE and building toward structural reform.

“We need to build a movement of politics toward getting back to having the opportunity to pass comprehensive immigration reform that’s humane, that builds up security at the border, and has a pathway decision ship for Dreamers and those who’ve been here for longer than some of us have been alive,” Sacks said. “The way we do that, we come in 2029 ready to go, ready to pass those laws, ready to confront the Supreme Court if it gets in the way.”

Davidson, a Rockland County legislator and chair of the Environment Committee and Task Force on Water Resources Management, said she introduced a bill called the Safety and Dignity for All Act, which would limit how police and city employees work in cooperation with ICE.

“People constantly ask what Mike Lawler’s red line is, and I’ll tell you what my line is. I would never work for any company that helps Donald Trump and ICE track, target or detain immigrants, spy on you as citizens,” Davidson said. “I will always protect our civil liberties and our immigrant neighbors here in the Hudson Valley and in Washington, D.C.”

Phillips-Staley, a Tarrytown trustee and lifelong worker in the nonprofit sector focusing on social justice, said she believed there was a necessity to have a department that manages immigration and naturalization, but said she was in favor of abolishing ICE and replacing it with a “humane system.”

“The way ICE has evolved in the last 23 years has been toward cruelty, has been toward the separation of families, has since been weaponized by the president of the United States as a paramilitary force that abuses American citizens and non-citizens alike, separates families, puts them in private prisons that cannot be monitored for their safety,” she said. “Anyone who experiences any kind of abuse, whether it’s lack of food or rape, has no recourse. That must be abolished.”

Candidates discuss Congress’s role with AI

With the rising use of AI creating concerns over the impact on the job market and the environment, candidates were asked what role Congress should play in relation to AI.

Phillips-Staley said she would convene experts who understand the technology and from there begin to regulate how to ensure that the technology works for the people versus the profit of companies.

“We have a technology that is advancing so quickly, that’s transforming so fast, that I sometimes worry if Congress, as an institution, has the capacity to even keep up with it in the first place, but it’s something that we must do,” Phillips-Staley said. “I have a 19-year-old son who just came back from his first year in college, and the way he is trying to plan his future is actually very frightening because we’ve allowed an industry to charge ahead, focused on its own financial advancement, without thinking for a minute about the impact on labor within this country.”

Conley said federal regulation was needed to rein AI in and ensure it is used for good and not public harm. She said she believed Congress failed to regulate social media companies and that they cannot afford to fail again with AI.

“You shouldn’t allow an AI model to teach someone how to build a chemical or biological weapon, to build a bomb,” Conley said. “These are things that should be common sense and aren’t political. Regulating AI shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s a public safety and service issue… I promise to lead the charge on regulating AI companies so we don’t suffer, and instead we see it be used as a force for good to do things like cure cancer and reverse climate change.”

Capello called for guardrails and regulations for AI, saying it could not be left up to the industries who have an interest in it.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s a drilling company or somebody that produces metal,” he said. “The fact is these companies cannot be made to regulate themselves, and the fact that the administration, the president, wants to reduce or minimize the rate rules and regulations is not the right direction. And this is where Congress has an absolute responsibility, and it goes back to again the structural foundational issues of the influence that money will have in the decision-making process.”

Sacks advocated for a jobs program for people to find work that AI robbed them of, having an “OSHA for AI” which would inspect generative AI companies, and having a global framework to make sure national security is protected and respected in all countries that are working with AI.

“We’re sort of like triceratops and T. rex fighting over our patch of land,” Sacks said. “And then we look up and there’s a meteor coming and that meteor is AI, right? It’s going to be a massive technological, national security, economic disruption.”

Davidson acknowledged the opportunities created by AI, but said they needed to invest in protecting the workforce, have better protections for AI, and implement independent safety testing for new powerful AI models.

“I’d love to see a national data privacy law and enhanced consumer protections,” Davidson said. “We’re seeing surge pricing on everything from groceries when you go to Instacart, just like gas or airline or hotel prices, and AI is making that possible, and really hurting small businesses. We need better regulations and penalties for things like deepfakes.”

Election information

Primary election day is Tuesday, June 23, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Early voting begins on Saturday, June 13, and continues through Sunday, June 21. 

For information on registering to vote, your voting location, or timing on the early voting days, Brewster encouraged consulting Vote411.org, calling the district clerk, or looking at the district website under voting.

To view the full candidate’s forum, click here.