(Another great post. Lots of great coverage in here. - promoted by phillip anderson)
On Tuesday, five of the seven candidates for Congress met up at the the Unitarian Universalists Society in Albany. Democrats Tracey Brooks, Phil Steck, Joseph Sullivan, and Paul Tonko and Republican Steven Vasquez were all in attendance. The debate's moderator, Dr. Robert Fropp, introduced himself as the chair of the Capital District Alliance for Universal Health care, recieving plenty of applause when he announced "I am definitiely not running for Congress."
One Democrat, Darius Shahinfar, and the other Republican, Jim Buhrmaster, were both absent from the forum. Shahinfar because his wife was giving birth to his second child at the time, and Buhrmaster to cast votes in his capacity as Schenectady County Legislator. The five candidates that remained were then given several questions that devled deep into one of the biggest issues of the primary.
To summarize most briefly, Democratic candidates Phil Steck, Paul Tonko, and Tracey Brooks are in support of a universal health care system, specifically supporting H.R. 676 for a national single payer system; Shahinfar also supports this measure based on previous comments. Republican candidate Steven Vasquez joined self-described conservative Democrat Joseph Sullivan in opposition to universal health care. While the meat of the debate featured a lot of policy and a little politics, the somewhat chaotic and very passionate nature of the questions posed by the audience at the end of the debate made it worth sitting through.
Below the fold, a full report of the questions and answers in yet another debate in this hotly contested primary.
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