After Amo

The
hottest ticket in town is the congressional seat occupied by Amo Houghton.

            A cavalcade of Republican candidates
is courting the 29th district seat, held by Houghton since 1987. Houghton, 77,
is stepping down when his term ends this year.

            In the chase are MonroeCounty legislator
Mark Assini; Rochester businessman
Geoffrey Rosenberger; Bill Nojay, chair of the
Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority; and state Senator Randy Kuhl of Hammondsport. Contemplating a run are county
legislator Bill Smith and former legislator Sean Hanna. Also considering a bid
is state Assemblyman Brian Kolb of Canandaigua.

            Smith and Hanna didn’t return calls
for comment on this story. Kuhl didn’t respond to
questions submitted through a spokesman in time for publication.

            A press release issued by Kuhl’s campaign says that the senator’s candidacy “will be
defined by proposals to bring… the district fully into step with an
all-encompassing quest for greater security.” That includes homeland security,
job security, the security of an “accessible and affordable health care
system,” and the security of a “high-quality system of education.”

The only Democrat who has expressed
interest in the seat is Samara Barend of Corning.

            Assini
describes himself as a “Ronald Reagan Republican.” As a congressman, Assini says he will work to reduce taxes and fight to make
permanent the Bush tax cuts and to repeal the estate tax. He wants to work with
Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli on a plan to
allow counties to control the cost of Medicaid.

            “They would, in essence, limit
eligibility requirements if the county could not afford the program, because
that is the number-one issue in this state,” Assini
says.

            Assini
also supports policies “that reduce the cost of insurance for both employer and
employee.”

            Assini is
anti-choice except in cases of rape, incest, and when life of the mother is in
jeopardy. Asked if he supports the invasion and occupation of Iraq, he
responded, “I supported the breaking of the Al-Qaeda
network, yes.” The Iraq action, he
says, is part of that effort.

            Assini has
been campaigning for a year which, he says, gives him an advantage over his
competitors.

            “I’ve made significant inroads
throughout the congressional district,” he says. “I have a very strong
organization in place in all the counties [in] the district.”

Rosenberger is
co-founder of Clover Capital Management in Pittsford. He ran an unsuccessful campaign
against Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter in 1996.

            Rosenberger is “not big on labels,”
but calls himself a “traditionalist” who believes in traditional values.

            The number-one issue in the 29th
district, he says, is jobs. Clover Capital Management employs 39 people.

            “My track record of creating jobs
gives me a leg above everybody,” he says. “I know what it means to leave a
comfortable job and go out on your own and take risks.”

As a business owner, Rosenberger says
he knows how to deal with regulatory bodies and “governmental red tape.”

            Rosenberger recently retired from
Clover to concentrate on his congressional bid.

Tax increases are the second-biggest
issue in the district, he says, putting the blame largely on unfunded mandates
handed down from Albany. Since Kuhl is a state senator, Rosenberger says Kuhl shares the blame for those tax hikes.

            Rosenberger is anti-choice except in
cases of rape, incest, and when life of the mother is in jeopardy. He is
opposed to federal funding for abortion “and I believe that parents should be
notified when their child is having a surgical procedure.”

            Rosenberger supports the Iraq invasion.

            “I certainly believe that we have to
do what is necessary to make America secure and I
believe that the effort in Iraq is designed
to do that.”

RGRTA Chairman
Bill Nojay describes himself as “a fiscal
conservative and a deficit hawk.”

            The top priority for the 29th
district is jobs, Nojay says.

            “We’ve got a very difficult economy
throughout Upstate New York,” he says. “If you look at the underlying problems,
it’s job issues. Frankly, those issues also impact the city of Rochester. The reason
we have the level of poverty that we have is because there are no jobs.”

            Nojay
would create jobs by lowering taxes “and reducing the regulatory burdens on
businesses that try to do business in Upstate New York.”

            Tax increases are job killers, Nojay says.

            How he feels about abortion is
irrelevant, Nojay says, because the Supreme Court
ruled on that issue 30 years ago — making abortion legal in the landmark Roe
vs. Wade case.

            “Now the issues in the abortion
debate are going to be primarily in areas such as partial-birth abortion —
which I oppose — and parental notification, which I support,” he says.

            Nojay
supports the Iraq invasion.

            “Saddam Hussein was a brutal
dictator who threatened world security,” he says. “He had to be removed or else
he and his sons in the years to come would have further terrorized the world.”

            Nojay is
giving up leadership of his newly created political action committee — We The People USA — to run for Congress.

Kolb is a very
conservative Republican on fiscal matters and “conservative to moderate”
on social matters “depending on the issue,” he says.

            It is his business background and
job-creation record that sets him apart from the other candidates in the race,
Kolb says.

            “My entire background is probably
more diverse to reflect the types of issues that one would face in Washington,” he says.
“I’ve traveled internationally and done business internationally. And I think
that — in a global economy — would be a huge asset.”

            Kolb is co-founder of the North
American Filter Corporation and former president of Refractron
Technologies — both technology-based businesses in Newark, WayneCounty.

            Kolb is anti-choice, except in cases
of rape, incest, and when life of the mother is in jeopardy.

            He supports the invasion of Iraq.

            “It’s a tough struggle because you
have a very strong anti-change faction that exists in Iraq that does not
want to have a free Iraqi people,” he says. “If they’re successful in terms of
driving out the United States, there’ll
never be any hope in the Middle East to remove the
terrorist regimes that have existed.”

            The 29th Congressional Districtcovers parts of
eight counties from CattaraugusCounty,
along the Pennsylvania
border to ChemungCounty
and north to southern MonroeCounty.

This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2004.