Republican
Congressman Tom Reynolds has plenty of time outside his legislative schedule to
schmooze with wealthy donors on the golf course and feast with fat cats at
fundraising dinners. The two-term Erie County Congressman, whose new district
includes most of Greece and the southern slice of Monroe County, is charging to
the front of the herd in the Elephant Party thanks to his ability to raise tons
of cash for Republican candidates here and nationwide.
           Unfortunately, Reynolds apparently
couldn’t spare even a few minutes to share his views with City readers in his new district. Calls to his office requesting a
short interview were not returned.
           Thanks to his fundraising skills,
he’s poised to earn the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional
Committee. From there, he can spend even more time putting for dollars to help
Republican candidates all over the country.
           Reynolds is anti-abortion. Like his
Republican colleague, District 25 Congressman Jim Walsh, he’s flexed his
conservative muscles on the record by voting to prohibit federal funding for
needle exchange programs, domestic partner benefits, and medical marijuana
distribution in DC. He also voted against allowing gay couples in DC to adopt
children.
           Reynolds voted in favor of the
resolution authorizing President Bush II to invade Iraq. He’s previously voted
to waste money and diplomatic goodwill on a Star Wars-type missile defense
system, as well. If Bush wanted to build a Death Star, we suspect Reynolds
would also be on board, both politically and literally.
           On environmental issues, Reynolds’
record is mixed. He voted in favor of raising fuel-efficiency standards on
cars, light trucks, and SUVs (a measure, ultimately rejected, that also
included incentives for developing alternative fuels), and cast a “yes” in
favor of implementing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. But he also voted
against a measure to prohibit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.
           We endorse Democratic challenger
Ayesha Nariman over Green contender Paul Fallon to replace Reynolds. (We had no
luck locating Right to Life Party candidate Shawn Harris.)
           We believe Nariman, a financial
advisor and first-time candidate who lives in Williamsville, is the better
choice. Originally from Bombay, India, she’s articulate, knowledgeable, and
committed to tackling and mastering the complexities of issues like Social
Security’s solvency and tax reform.
           Fallon is more progressive on social
issues, but his thinking on a number of topics seems scattered and more
reactive than substantive. He does, however, get kudos for showing up at a
campaign press conference naked (the idea: he has nothing to hide).
           Nariman is pro-life on “a personal,
religious level,” but says, “I do not think I have a right to impose my
position on everyone else.” She says she would work to minimize abortions by
giving family counselors and adoption agencies a presence at abortion clinics.
           Nariman supports equal rights and
benefits for gays and lesbians, but hedges on the subject of gay marriage.
“Maybe call it something else,” she says, “some sort of partnering where they
would have all the legal rights of a [hetero] couple. But don’t push it on the
heterosexual community that it has to be the same word, the same idea of
marriage.”
           Opponents of same-sex unions “say
that having homosexuals come into the marriage issue would destroy marriage as
it is sanctified,” says Nariman. “But actually, the heterosexuals have done a
great job of destroying marriage, so I don’t know why they want to blame the
homosexuals.”
           Fallon, a lawyer who lives in
Amherst, is pro-choice and supports gay marriage.
           On the issue of Iraq, neither Fallon
nor Nariman supports a preemptive strike against the country. Nariman says an
invasion should be “the last resort.” If Iraqi acceptance of UN weapons
inspections is not forthcoming, “or if it is forthcoming and we find that
[Iraq] has large numbers of chemical, bio-chemical, and the start of a nuclear
weapons program, then we probably need to do something,” she says.
           Fallon says the theme of his
campaign is “jobs, not war.” He opposes military action against Iraq for
strategic and economic reasons (“It’s probably too expensive,” he says) and
adds, “I truly believe that this is about politics, and it’s about oil and
domination of the Middle East.”
           Both Fallon and Nariman think the
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is right before our eyes, if only
we had the political will to open them. “I think it’s very simple,” Fallon
says. “Tell Israel, ‘Get out of the occupied territories, follow the UN
resolutions that are in place, stop your settlements, or we’re not giving you
anymore money.’ That’s it.”
           Nariman advocates confining Israel
to its pre-1967 borders, creating a Palestinian state, giving the Palestinians
East Jerusalem, and keeping both sides separate and protected — by military
means, if necessary — against aggression perpetrated by the other. “It’s a
very easy solution,” she says. “We lack the will to do it right.”
           Nariman and Fallon both oppose the
privatization of Social Security and support Medicare coverage of prescription
drugs and the use of marijuana for medicinal means.
           Nariman would decriminalize, but not
legalize, currently illegal drugs. Fallon has a slightly different take. “Treat
the drug problem as a medical problem,” he says. “Recognize that things like
marijuana should be controlled… The demand is always going to be there and
these gangsters running around the world are going to make money on the illegal
drug trade if we don’t step up and control it.”
           “I’d like to stay away from the word
‘legalize,’ because as soon as you say ‘legalize,’ people say, ‘Well, you
wouldn’t want your surgeon smoking pot before he was going to operate on you,'”
he continues. “It’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t want him drunk, either.”
           Interestingly, it’s Nariman who
specifically wants to make her district the first in the nation to rely
entirely on renewable energy sources. And with her dual degree in math and
physics from the University of Bombay, we believe she understands the technology’s
potential.
           Fallon also supports developing
renewable energy technology, especially solar power, but he sounds more like a
tripping hippie than a scientist when talking about it. “There’s this huge,
huge thing in the sky that’s just pouring out energy like all get-out,” he
says. “There’s gotta be way just to hook up to that somehow.”
           Yeah, dude, no doubt. Hey, don’t
Bogart that government-controlled controlled substance.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2002.
