Politically
progressive people in Webster and most parts of Penfield and Irondequoit must
be mourning the fact that Congressional redistricting took them out of liberal
Democrat Louise Slaughter’s 28th District. They’re now in the dark realm known
as conservative Republican James Walsh’s 25th District.
           Walsh, who’s running for an eighth
term this year in a district that also includes Wayne and Onondaga counties and
several towns in Cayuga County, is a progressive’s worst nightmare. A signatory
to the odious “Contract with America” in 1994, Walsh opposes abortion and is a
death-penalty advocate. He recently voted in favor of granting President George
W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq, despite acknowledging that Saddam Hussein
poses no immediate threat. He’s supported funding a Star Wars-style missile
defense system, opposed ratification of Kyoto Treaty provisions aimed at
curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and voted against raising fuel-efficiency
standards for cars, light trucks, and SUVs.
           In 1999, Congress voted on a bill to
provide funds to the District of Columbia and approve the District’s budget.
Among the legislation’s provisions: banning the use of federal money for needle
exchange programs or domestic partner health insurance benefits, and blocking
implementation of a locally approved ballot initiative legalizing the medicinal
use of marijuana. Walsh voted in favor of the bill, which passed on a
more-or-less party-line vote. That same year, Walsh opposed a measure to allow
gay couples in the District to adopt a child.
           We offered Walsh ample opportunity
to explain his positions to City readers in a phone or in-person interview, but were informed by his staff that
the Congressman couldn’t spare the time, even after the House adjourned in
mid-October.
           Walsh’s opponents in the race this
year are Stephanie Aldersley, the embattled Democratic Minority Leader in the
Monroe County Legislature, and Fran Gavin, a graduate student at Syracuse
University running on the Working Families Party line. Neither candidate has
the resources and name recognition necessary to pose a serious challenge to
Walsh, though both have ideas progressive voters can embrace.
           Aldersley and Gavin are both
pro-choice and support gay rights and gay marriage. Neither supports an
invasion of Iraq, but for different reasons. “I do not believe that the
president has yet provided us with a rationale for preemptive first-strike,”
says Aldersley, “and I don’t believe that American or international law
provides for preemptive first strike in any case.” She’s also concerned that
Bush hasn’t developed an exit strategy in tandem with his invasion plans. “I
would have to see that before I would be able to vote for the resolution”
granting him authority to invade, she says.
           Gavin, a 41-year-old disabled vet,
is opposed to using ground troops in Iraq, but wouldn’t mind dropping a few
bombs on buildings we suspect may contain weapons of mass destruction. “Like
Clinton did with the strikes in the Sudan and Afghanistan, you make an isolated
strike, you remove that facility,” he says. (Of course, it turned out the
Sudanese facility was actually a pharmaceutical plant. And the strike in
Afghanistan certainly didn’t make the world a safer place.)
           “I think we’d be much better off
pursuing the al Qaeda, finishing off the job there,” Gavin says. “Go into
Pakistan. If that’s where these guys are hiding, let’s go in and get them and
take care of one problem at a time.”
           Asked how the US can foster peace
between Israel and Palestine, Aldersley and Gavin both say they support the
creation of a Palestinian state and criticize the US’s seemingly unconditional
support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hawkish government.
           “I think the US has to do a far
better job of discouraging Israel from populating the settlements,” Aldersley
says. “I’m of Jewish heritage myself, but I do not support the Sharon
administration. I think they’ve been far too harsh and provocative. Sharon
himself has been a provocateur…. I believe that you can be supportive of Israel
without supporting the Sharon administration.”
           Aldersley is also highly critical of
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, but, unlike Gavin, she stopped short of saying the
Palestinian leader should be removed. Gavin also thinks Jerusalem should be put
under UN control. “That way, you have all three faiths that can practice
openly, freely, in Jerusalem, and no individual has claims to it,” he says,
“kind of like the Vatican City is in Rome.”
           Both Aldersley and Gavin oppose
privatizing Social Security — “How would you like to have your grandma’s
money in Enron?” Gavin quips. They also have similar views on solving the
health-care crisis. Both support universal health care in theory, but have
concerns about the effect such a system would have on the economy. Instead,
they speak of creating a system in which doctors and nurses get government
salaries (“It can be a fairly high salary,” Aldersley adds), and hospitals
receive block grants based on their individual needs and expenses.
           Gavin supports Medicare coverage of
prescription drug costs. “We’re being basically bent over the barrel backwards
by the pharmaceutical companies,” he says. He’d like the government to bulk-buy
pharmaceuticals for all Social Security recipients, veterans, and others
receiving some form of public assistance. Aldersley advocates setting up
prescription drug payments on a sliding scale and making low-cost drug
insurance available.
           When it comes to illegal drugs, both
candidates stand in stark relief to Walsh, who’s voted to beef up interdiction
efforts by deploying the military along our borders. Aldersley says the way to
reduce demand is “ultimately through a program of regulation and legalization.”
           Gavin says drug interdiction efforts
are “the cause of racial profiling,” and says the bulk of federal funds
currently being wasted on interdiction efforts should be allocated to drug
treatment for hard-drug addicts. He would legalize the use of marijuana.
           “Most of these young black kids in
the inner city aren’t dealing heavy drugs or lots of drugs,” he says. “Yeah,
they’re pushing a little weed. Yeah, crack’s now made its way in there. But if
you had a legal alternative like marijuana, then you can beat these other problems.
Then you can treat drug addicts for heroin and for cocaine. To send somebody
that smokes marijuana to a rehab clinic is useless. It’s not an addictive
substance.”
           After Aldersley and her allies in
the County Legislature’s Democratic caucus ousted José Cruz as minority leader
last summer, Mayor Bill Johnson wondered aloud how she and her fellow
“conspirators” could ever expect to receive political support again. Sure
enough, county, state, and national Democratic Party leaders have since left
Aldersley high and dry, refusing to provide significant funds for her bid to
unseat Walsh.
           While we agree with Aldersley’s
stand on the issues and feel she would be a capable member of Congress, we have
serious concerns about her actions in the Monroe County Legislature.
Aldersley’s political ladder-climbing has caused discord among local Democrats.
That’s particularly unfortunate given the county’s budget crisis, when a
unified Democratic caucus could help protect important social programs from the
Republicans’ budget ax. Her bid for Congress came shortly after she assumed her
seat as Democratic Minority Leader. It’s a position that desperately requires
her focus. And we can’t help but wonder if her campaign for Congress has
distracted her from her duties in Monroe County.
           Gavin’s had his own falling out with
Democratic Party players in his neck of the woods, which is what led him to the
Working Families Party. However, the Working Families folks haven’t done much
for him, either.
           Perhaps, like us, they know his heart’s
in the right place, but recognize that his reasoning is often flawed.
           Or maybe they just don’t know who
Gavin is. In early October, we contacted a party organizer in an attempt to
reach “Francis Gavin” (his full name). “I don’t know anyone who has her
number,” the party member said.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2002.
