Democratic Primary Candidates Duke It Out On Wide Range of Issues

NORTH FORK, NY - Tempers flared as two Democratic primary candidates looking to unseat United States Rep. Lee Zeldin went head to head in a debate Tuesday night.

Former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst and Dave Calone, chair of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, faced off at the event, held at Southold High School, was organized by the Southold Town Democratic Club. Both are seeking the Democratic Party nomination in the June 28 primary.

Tensions were high as the two answered a series of questions crafted and sent by residents in advance of the evening.

The evening was moderated by Catherine Peacock of the League of Women Voters.

Each candidate gave a brief opening statement. Calone kicked off the evening describing his work as a federal prosecutor at the United States Department Justice as a federal prosecutor. He is also the CEO of Jove Equity Partners LLC, a venture capital firm that helps start and build technology companies, founded the Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund, and serves as the chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission.

Calone said he was moved to run because he's so "angry about the work being done in Washington." Rep. Zeldin and the Tea Party Republicans, he said, have put health care and the environment at risk. "I believe we need to do better and I'm looking forward to taking him on in November."

Throne-Holst started off by taking aim at Zeldin. "We're going to win back the seat Lee Zeldin so wrongfully won," she said.

The former supervisor said she is the only candidate in the primary race who has run and won in four elections, defeating the Republican candidates and shattering a GOP stronghold on the Southampton town board.

Her story begins, Throne-Holst said, in the East End community when her four children were young — she has three sons and a daughter — when she founded the Hayground School, a place where kids of all demographics and nationalities come together to learn.

Fostering jobs

The candidates were asked how they'd go about fostering the creation of high paying jobs.

"The economy in this district is built on agriculture, service industries, health care and yes, tourism," Throne-Holst said. "And if we don't support and build that job base we are letting down what is the basis of our economy here."

Throne-Holst said as supervisor, she'd worked to revitalize economic development in some of Southampton's lower-income communities, Riverside and Flanders.

"With all due respect to my opponent here who talks about high tech jobs," Throne-Holst said of her four kids, ages 22 to 28, one is in the tech industry.

The agricultural industry needs to be supported with temporary visas that work and grant funding, she said; there is also a need to support service and health care industries.

She pointed to a hospital planned for Southampton Town at Stony Brook where nurses will be trained for health care professions. "These are the kinds of jobs that support the local community and work force here," she said.

Aquaculture, Calone said, is critical to future job creation, as is agriculture.

He pointed to a program he kicked off with Suffolk County Legislator Al Kruspski and former Congressman Tim Bishop, "Farmers for the Future,"to help garner funding for pricey farm equipment.

"It's that kind of leadership, identifying problems and helping to create jobs through a public/private partnership that's so important," he said.

In addition, he pointed out working with research labs such as Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Lab and creating the Long Island Emerging Technologies fund to help foster job creation.

Calone, who has three young children, said he wants them to be able to stay in the area when the time comes to decide.

Throne-Holst added that environment is very much a part of job creation and she said she conceived a clean water technology center that's up and running at Stony Brook. Water quality is the number one most critical threat to the environment today, she said, adding that she worked with the Regional Ecomonic Development Council on the idea of an incubator economic development and technology center to create a retrofit system for failing septic systems which are "choking" local waterways.

She added that as Southampton Town supervisor, the board preserved 4,000 of land and put in a "groundbreaking program" to provide additional levels of easements and restrictions on farmland so young farmers can purchase the parcels and keep them active in perpetuity.

Minimum wage debate

The candidates were also asked how they felt about a hike in minimum wage.

Calone said he feels a raise in minimum wage nationwide should mirror New York State's hike to level the playing field and he said raises should be indexed to inflation. He added that there is a disparity between tipped and non-tipped wage earners that needs to be made equal.

On the East End, Throne-Holst said, incomes vary dramatically from the wealthy Sagaponack community to Riverside, where 25 percent live on or below the national poverty line. "People are really struggling," she said. She said it's important to have a representative in Congress who understands the disparity and can work on programs for both constituencies.

Climate change

Both candidates blasted Zeldin on his stance regarding climate change.

"Lee Zeldin is on record as a climate change denier," Throne-Holst said. "How you can live, let alone legislate, on Long Island as a climate change denier is simply unfathomable to me."

As supervisor, Throne-Holst saw five named storms including Sandy and said the East End's economy is threatened by climate change and its cost to local businesses. "There simply isn't a business on the East End of Long Island that's' not affected by climate change," she said.

She said she supports the "landmark" Paris Agreement reached last year regarding greenhouse gasses emission mitigation and said the United States needs to be "a part of that leadership" in a plan for sustainability.

"We are on the front lines of climate change," Calone said. "Climate change is real and exacerbated by man's activity. We need to be leaders."

Zeldin, he pointed out, has voted "no" several times against the Environmental Protection Agency's clean power plan to reduce carbon emissions. "To take that vote when you are on Long Island, on the front lines of climate change, is ridiculous and terrible and why he needs to go — one of the many reasons he needs to go."

The candidates sparred on the issue of renewable energy.

Calone said in his work with the Suffolk County Planning Commission he created a master solar plan to meet the needs for renewable energy on Long Island that was adopted by all 10, towns; the plan has won awards, he said.

Throne-Holst countered, "We actually went further in the Town of Southampton," she said, saying the board did not adopt the code because they believed it added additional red tape. "We wanted residents to be able to solarize without an expensive permitting process."

To that end, she said the board vetted quality solar providers and put out a request for proposals, creating a program where neighbors could opt in and get a reduced rate; the vetted providers are listed on the town's website, she said.

Today, Throne-Holst said, "A record number of businesses and homes in the Town of Southampton are using alternative and solar energy. Those kinds of programs are what we need all over the country."

She added that municipalities need to "get away from a dependency on utilities such as" LIPA, now PSEG.

Calone said the Southampton Town board did adopt the code in December, 2011, and it's still on the town website.

Throne-Holst said the board put the town attorney at the disposal of the committee to craft that code but, once they saw it in effect, they felt "it added a layer of red tape," so they went a step further to vet and provide a list of reputable providers.

When asked how engaged a member of Congress should be in climate change, Calone said it's the role of a member of Congress to be very involved in an issue of critical importance. He pointed to the work done by Citizens Climate Lobby — which is pushing for a carbon tax and dividend system — and said currently, there is no penalty for those who create carbon pollution. Federal policies need to be in place, he said, adding that he has a record as a federal prosecutor of investigating individuals in the oil and gas drilling industries.

Federal subsidies into gas and oil drilling must be eliminated and put into renewable energy, he said.

Throne-Holst said as a member of CCL, she said one of the big issues is that the Long Island Power Authority has operated under a contract that gives away the ability to negotiate rates.

"My opponent was a board member of LIPA and voted for consecutive utility rate increases," Throne-Holst said. In addition, she said, Calone was one "leading the effort" on the proposed Caithness II—a combined-cycle, high-efficiency gas-burning plant that was said could produce 750 megawatts of power.

Although it was a better plant, it was a "$5 billion" proposal, she said, funneling funds away from renewable energy.

Calone said he began seven years ago as a volunteer on the LIPA board and said one of the reasons he signed on was to make renewable energy a focus for LIPA.

When he left four years ago, he said, LIPA had put out the largest renewable energy RFP in Long Island's history and was moving in the right direction.

"That doesn't take away the fact," that Calone was a leader in the Caithness II efforts, Throne-Holst said, which would have raised "utility rates by almost double digits" before it was complete. And while she said LIPA has come out with some new initiatives, taking Caithness funding off the table would lead to a focus on renewable energy.

Planned Parenthood

The opponents shared a firm stance on the need to fund Planned Parenthood.

"The federal government does not legislate around anything to do with male reproductive rights, so why the federal government thinks it has any place legislating around women's is to me, not only a mystery but unconscionable," Throne-Holst said. "Lee Zeldin has been one of the strong proponents in defunding Planned Parenthood," Throne-Holst said. "It's part of the reason we have to win back that seat" and focus on common sense, she said.

Calone said his mother has survived breast cancer twice and offering screening and services to others across the country who might not otherwise be able to afford it is critical. "Planned Parenthood," he said, can mean "a matter of life and death."

Tick-borne diseases

Calone said education is critical in teaching residents how to look for tick bites and said funding for programs such as the Shelter Island 4-poster program should be afforded.

"It is a crisis on Long Island," Throne-Holst said. With the Southold cull controversial, as Southampton Town Supervisor, she said a group was formed with representatives from the hunting, medical, animal protection and other communities to create a deer management plan. Also, Throne-Holst said in Scandinavia, a tick vaccine exists. "It has shown itself to be very effective. It couldn't get through the screening and approval process here, but it's something we need to advocate for." If elected, she said she's work in Congress to further seek the vaccine. "Why we don't have it here, for humans and pets, is a travesty," she said.

Privacy

The pair was asked how they feel about Edward Snowden, and how they feel about the issues of federal government and privacy of phone records after the recent case where Apple and the feds were locked in a stalemate about revealing phone records of the man alleged San Bernardino's iPhone.

Gun control, Throne-Holst said, is first and foremost. "We need to make sure guns are out of the hands of terrorists, out of the hands of people not able to make sound decisions." The goal is to work on a program to keep private information secure and ensure those perpetrating crimes are held accountable, she said.

Calone said he worked as a federal prosecutor to fight international crime and terrorism; he said he strongly believes in a warrant-based system, with probable cause required in a court before records are released.

Water quality

The candidates were asked about using the untapped 50 percent of Greenport's sewage treatment plant.

Calone said while there is a "unique opportunity" with the plant, local government oversight is needed to ensure there is no increase in density, which would "defeat the purpose."

He said he's been a leader in fighting back against water pollution and putting together water protection programs; the fish kills and red tides in Riverhead were symptomatic of a "real problem", he said.

Calone blasted his opponent for local "overdevelopment, particularly in Southampton," and said the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum endorsed him and not Throne-Holst.

Throne-Holst said the LIEVF has "gone astray, supported by Caithness." She has been endorsed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and former Congressman Tim Bishop," she said.

The federal government, he said, has "run off the field" and needs to "get in the game", paying for infrastructure and remediation.

Throne-Holst said the fear of supporting additional density is real and said as Southampton supervisor, the comprehensive master plan was updated regularly, with upzoning in several areas, preservation of more than 4,000 acres, and preservation of critically threatened wetlands.

The Southampton town board rejected two planned development districts, she reminded; the two that were approved, alllowing for work force housing and economic development. Both required advanced septic treatment systems, she said. She added that the Suffolk County Planning Commission green lighted both PDDs.

The town looked for technology that is affordable and be used where sewering is not an option, she said.

Throne-Holst discussed clean water systems that will go in and stop the flow of nitrogen already in the ground, critical in coastal areas; those systems can help create jobs, she said, not only locally but globally.

Calone fired back that the Suffolk County Planning Commission did vote against a number of development projects in Southampton and the goal was to "say 'no' to projects that don't make sense."

Immigration

When asked about a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Throne-Holst said it's "critically important. Our economy depends on it." Speaking Spanish to the audience, she spoke to the idea of deporting undocumented immigrants. "To think we are going to round them up, like Lee Zeldin thinks we should, and send them out of the country, there isn't enough money to do that — and it goes against the grain of who we are as Americans."

The immigrant community is critically important to the labor force and agricultural economy, she said.

Throne-Holst advocates improving the temporary visa program, a path to citizenship, and supports the Dream Act.

Calone shared a similar view, saying that that county is a nation of immigrants, including his grandmother from Italy.

He blasted Zeldin's vote to shut down Homeland Security because of the President Obama's executive action to free undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation. "Lee Zeldin was wrong to shut down Homeland Security because he didn't like it," he said. "We have far more to fear from shutting down Homeland Security" than kids who are just in the country going to school. He also supports the Dream Act, he said.

Social Security and Medicare

The pair also debated on Social Security and Medicare. Calone said he'd like to see the power of the federal government harnessed to bring prescription drug costs down.

Throne-Holst said for some elderly residents, Social Security is all they have. "To think we are going to take that away from senior Americans is a travesty."