Candidates for the 6th Congressional District, from left, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Assemblywoman Grace Meng and Dr. Robert Mittman sparred in a debate last Thursday about I.D. laws for voting and NYPD surveillance. Forum Newsgroup photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.
The four Democratic hopefuls vying for an open seat in Queens 6th Congressional District sparred on a host of local and national issues in a debate last week.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Assemblywoman Grace Meng and Dr. Robert Mittman took questions in front of more than 100 people gathered for the Juniper Park Civic Association’s forum on Thursday, June 14.
Large rifts emerged among some of the candidates over issues such as requiring a photo I.D. to vote and the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims and other groups.
The crowd booed both Lancman and Meng when they said voters should not be required to show photo identification to cast a ballot.
Crowley and Mittman took the opposite stance.
Meng took fire from Lancman when he accused her of being the only candidate at the table to say she would have voted to de-fund the NYPD in Congress if the surveillance program reported on by the Associated Press were unconstituional.
“I think that right now there are cases throughout the city … where people are being targeted, people are being stopped simply because and only because of the way the look or where people suspect that they come from. I believe that America is a country where we value our freedom and no-one should ever be targeted because of how they look or where they came from,” Meng said.
At one point Crowley insisted the NYPD uses quotas despite what Commissioner Ray Kelly says publicly.
She said she supports stop and frisk as a tool but says it’s used so prevalently because of a lack of officers.
“We need more cops in this city. And that’s the bottom line.”
She also tried to position herself to the right of her rivals.
“I’m a much more moderate Democrat than my opponents,” she said.
She staunchly opposed Lancman’s plan to lift a Social Security tax cap on individuals earning more than $110,000 a year. And she drew praise from the crowd when she said photo I.D. should be required to vote.
Through the night, Lancman and Crowley took a few swipes at each other.
At one point, Lancman dug at Crowley, correcting her for calling the MTA a state-run agency.
“The MTA is not a state agency. The A in MTA stands for authority. It’s an independent authority,” he said.
Crowley returned the jab later by saying Lancman would hurt middle-class families in Queens if he were elected.
“My plan is to strengthen the economy and get people back to work, not raise taxes on the middle class,” she said. “That’s Rory Lancman’s plan, and I think it’s a bad plan.”
Mittman was arguably the most animated through the night, at one point holding up a sign to illustrate the national debt. A few times during the night, he stood up and yelled that spending needs to be reeled in.
“The first thing I would do is cut military spending,” he said.
Toward the end of the night, some members of the crowd seemed to grow tired of is antics, yelling at him to answer the question when he refused to say whom he would vote for if he weren’t running.
“If you vote for any of the three, you’ve got the same thing,” Mittman said, calling his opponents career politicians.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
