Congressional Candidates Meet the Public

COURT HOUSE – The League Of Women Voters (LVW) for Cape May County held a “Meet and Greet” with a majority of the 2nd Congressional District’s candidates Oct. 28.  
Incumbent Republican Frank LoBiondo, and challengers Democrat David Cole, Libertarian John Ordille, and Independents Steven Fenichel and Gabriel Franco gathered at Sand Barrens Golf Club to make last-minute pitches to voters. Absent was Independent James Keenan.
Five topics were discussed: the U.S. economy, the fate of Obamacare, national security, the polarization of the country and gridlock in Congress, and specific issues facing the 2nd District.
Economy
LoBiondo’s discussion of the economy played heavily upon his actions to protect jobs, citing his preventing the relocation of the 177th Fighter Wing from Atlantic City to Oklahoma and the Coast Guard Training Center from Cape May to California. Both bases provide jobs directly and indirectly to Atlantic and Cape May counties.
Democrat contender Cole, a software engineer, and former Obama White House employee said that the new economy offers many challenges. Overcoming these requires a “doubling down on infrastructure investment” accompanied by increased digital opportunities for businesses and a focus on alternative energy use.
The Herald asked Cole about his plan to close federal tax loopholes. The gaps targeted would be the ‘carried interest’ and the ‘overseas profit’ loopholes, accompanied by a 30 percent minimum tax rate on individuals making over a million dollars a year, also known as the ‘Buffet Rule.’
John Ordille, a former employee of United Parcel Service, champions the libertarian belief that any form of taxation is “theft.” Ordille has advocated a low personal flat tax rate for citizens while putting the onus of revenue income on higher tax rates for businesses.
As an immigration lawyer and former Christian missionary to South America, Independent Gabriel Franco’s view of the economy has become shaped by the belief that money is the root of all evil.
Franco said when the courts of the land ruled that “money was speech and corporations were people,” a reference to the respective Supreme Court rulings of Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the electoral voice of citizens was effectively lost.
Physician Steven Fenichel, also an Independent, has drawn from his experiences as a human rights activist in forging a strong belief that income inequality is the greatest curse within the economy. Referencing the high rates of unemployment and home foreclosures in South Jersey, Fenichel proposed a living salary, an immediate rise in the minimum wage to $15, and free healthcare and free higher education paid for by taxes on Wall Street transactions.
The issue of minimum wage came up later during questioning. LoBiondo is on record as voting for minimum wage hikes in the past. Cole told the audience that a rise was more beneficial than tax breaks to the rich. Ordille offered the only hint at opposition, stating that elevating the minimum wage would harm businesses that could not increase revenues to cover the added expense. Doubting that corporations would freely offer fair pay to employees, Franco supported a raise but said it had to be tied to the rate of inflation and cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs).    
Affordable Care Act
The subject of Obamacare was discussed.
LoBiondo did not comment on the controversial act but has consistently been an opponent of what he has called “an unconstitutional” and “unprecedented” attack on the freedoms of Americans.
Cole confirmed that “healthcare costs are getting higher.” While offering no solution at the meeting, Cole’s website states that the candidate supports “important reforms like banning rate hikes that charge women more and allowing insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions” and advocating increased “competition in the healthcare marketplace by offering a voluntary Medicare buy-in.”
The criticism of Obamacare continued with Ordille. Saying that the law was “creating more misery” because it had not addressed the issue of rising costs from the very beginning, the Libertarian told the audience he would scrap most of it and give the private market a greater role.
National Security
No other issue discussed set LoBiondo apart from the others as that of national security.
LoBiondo, who voted for the Iraq invasion in 2003, made it a point to stress the need for improved veterans’ care. He discussed the lack of quality and timely assistance from a national suicide hotline for veterans that was corrected, the construction of a new VA clinic in Vineland, and his idea of a veteran healthcare card that would allow its bearer to go to any VA clinic or medical facility of his or her choice.
Cole did not provide any comments on national security, but when asked about foreign policy goals, one issue discussed was the threat posed by ISIS, which he said must be defeated in the social media arena. The Democrat stated that politicians should have “no role” in deciding intelligence matters and that the trust between the intelligence community and private businesses needed to be repaired following the revelations of NSA spying.
Two of the candidates found themselves in the sights of veteran activist and radio show host, Joe Griffies of Rio Grande.
When Ordille, who views the Iraq war as a mistake, said he would keep American troops out of conflict, Griffies accused the Libertarian of copping out and ignoring the view that America has been a “warring country” throughout much of its history.
When pressed to answer how he would care for veterans, Ordille said he would push the VA to keep clinics opened longer and on the weekends and would focus on “bringing care to veterans instead of veterans to care.”
Griffies also took issue with Fenichel who was asked, “Your first day in Congress, what would you do to keep terrorists overseas and not in Cape May County?”
Fenichel said that he would avoid “wars based on lies” and that the “bad guys are victims of our drone attacks” which only serves to create more terrorists.
The comment left the Vietnam veteran as disturbed as when Fenichel earlier claimed the number one national security threat was global warming. The Independent doctor’s stance is similar to that of President Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who have claimed that the rise in global temperatures was exacerbating “poverty, social tensions, and further destabilizing weak governments.”
One issue related to national security that the audience wanted to discuss was that of illegal immigration.
The Republican did not address the issue directly but is on record as voting for amnesty. Cole admitted the issue was a “serious concern” and said a combination of immigration reform and making U.S. workers more competitive in the global market would ease the problem.
Franco said he saw a lot that was “fundamentally wrong” with the current immigration law. He advocated a system similar to “Australia’s point system,” which the BBC describes as being “based on the [alien’s] personal attributes and ability to contribute to…society – most obviously, through their occupational status.”
In a follow-up phone interview, Fenichel said the plight of undocumented workers had to be addressed, and he advocated a path to citizenship.
Saying that globalist trade agreements like NAFTA had forced workers to migrate in search of work, Fenichel accused corporate backers of such deals as “betraying American workers.”
Ordille proposed an immigration plan calling for an across the board time limit for all immigrants to fill out immigration forms. Those not filling out the form or found to have criminal records would be deported.
Polarization, Deadlock
On the issue of increased political polarization and overcoming legislative loggerheads, LoBiondo stressed his ability to get things done through bipartisan cooperation.  
“We’ve done a lot together,” LoBiondo said as he went on to talk about the removal of Garden State Parkway traffic lights, the replacement of the Ocean City-Longport Bridge, securing of $54 million for improvements in Wildwood and FEMA grants, reducing EPA fines pertaining to Cape May, and the renewal of operations at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center.
Cole echoed his opponent’s preference for bipartisanship, saying that “to solve problems, you need to unite.”
Ordille indicated his willingness to work with all parties, saying what was needed was “voter involvement and all party’s dialogue.”
Fenichel was more combative, “I wouldn’t bring the parties together; I’d bring the country together.”
Franco stuck to his claim that nothing would change until money was removed from politics.
To contact Christopher Knoll, email cknoll@cmcherald.com.