Beacon Journal - 13th House hopefuls take issue

(Akron Beacon Journal)

House hopefuls take issue

Democratic candidates discuss their priorities

By Doug Oplinger

Beacon Journal staff writer

BRUNSWICK - Seven of the eight Democratic candidates for the 13th Congressional District participated in a forum in Brunswick on Wednesday that should leave voters with one clear observation: There are no two candidates who are alike.

The forum, sponsored by the Northern Medina County Democrats, posed a series of questions and gave each candidate 60 seconds to respond.

Asked what one issue they would tackle first, the candidates and their answers were: Capri Cafaro, retirement security and health care; Norbert Dennerll, health care; Mike Lyons, health care; Betty Sutton, corruption; Gary Kucinich, U.S. withdrawal from Iraq; Tom Sawyer, the economy and the Iraq war; and John Wolfe, the end of U.S. imperialism.

Candidate William Grace was unable to attend.

Lyons, an attorney and mayor of Richfield, said that most issues are complex, and there are no simple answers.

For example, while politicians debate whether Social Security should be privatized, he says they should be looking at the numbers.

The Bush administration has overstated Social Security's financial problems to make it appear that government should turn the problem over to private business, he said.

He also said that while the United States should withdraw from Iraq, there are consequences to a rapid withdrawal. There has to be a thoughtful plan, he said.

Cafaro, whose family owns shopping centers, agreed. She said that the United States should begin reducing troop strength by the end of the year but also recognize that it has ``created a situation of instability'' in Iraq that has to be replaced with democracy.

But she focused much of her attention on taking care of the elderly and expanding Medicaid into a national health-care program.

She said the Social Security program should be solvent, but that the administration is using the money for other purposes.

Sutton, a labor lawyer and former state legislator, focused on corruption. She said that Congress can't solve any problems unless the lobbyists are brought under control.

She also said that the number of energy-industry executives who populate the Bush administration makes it difficult to define a constructive energy policy.

Kucinich, a former Cleveland council and school board member, was adamant about Iraq. ``There is no issue more important than the war in Iraq,'' he said. ``We have to stop the war now.''

He said that troops should be pulled out within four months, and if not, Congress should cut funding so that the president has no choice but to withdraw.

Bush's concerns about a Social Security shortfall is nothing compared with the money going into the war in Iraq, he said.

Sawyer, who was in Congress 16 years before he lost his seat to redistricting four years ago, said that in the late 1990s the government was reducing the federal deficit. ``In the first 11 months (of Bush), they had blown it all,'' he said.

By ending the war, the ``kind of work that was in our grasp in the late '90s could be in our grasp again.''

Dennerll, an Akron attorney, said he is ``tired of seeing young people with rotten teeth, and young people without health care.''

He also criticized union leaders, saying they are not living up to their role as worker advocates.

Wolfe, an Akron attorney, was critical of Republicans who want to shift Social Security to Wall Street. ``I don't know why Republicans never liked Social Security.''

He said the federal government should provide health care, allowing businesses to be more competitive in the world market and invest more heavily in research and development.