Dueling Dems Save Strongest Blows for Zeldin

Two Democrats hoping to run for the House of Representatives in November articulated nearly identical views on First Congressional District, national, and international issues at a forum hosted by East Hampton Democrats at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett on Feb. 3. Whoever wins the primary election on June 28 will face incumbent Representative Lee Zeldin, who intends to run for re-election.

Anna Throne-Holst, a former supervisor of Southampton Town, and David Calone, an investment banker, former federal prosecutor, and chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission who lives in Brookhaven, took turns in a collegial discussion moderated by Charles Hitchcock, a  former Democratic Committee chairman. 

But they came out swinging against Mr. Zeldin, a freshman Republican. “It’s so frustrating to see what Tea Party Republicans are doing to our country, putting the environment, the economy, women’s health, and the education system at risk,” Mr. Calone said in an opening statement. “The worst part is our congressman is at the head of the parade.”

Mr. Calone, who graduated from Harvard Law School, said Mr. Zeldin had voted against the Clean Power Act, submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency to restrict carbon emissions from utility plants. “We need a representative in Congress who understands our first job: preserve, protect, defend the environment,” he said.

In attacking Mr. Zeldin, Ms. Throne-Holst, who worked at the United Nations after earning a master’s degree in human rights and conflict resolution, said he “has a track record in Congress he’s going to have an impossible time defending in this district. We have a member of Congress who is a climate change denier, and we live on Long Island, where our economy is our environment.”

Both candidates spoke at length about the environment. Nitrogen loading in waterways, which promotes harmful algal blooms, is a grave threat to the district’s way of life, Ms. Throne-Holst said, citing her pitch to the State Regional Economic Development Council to develop affordable, on-site sewage treatment technology. As supervisor, Ms. Throne-Holst was a proponent of the partnership between Southampton, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Suffolk County to establish a state Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University.

“We know that climate change is impacting us,” Mr. Calone said. “We need to make sure we have a member of Congress who’s working to fight climate change every day.”

Ms. Throne-Holst called for a regional plan allowing homeowners and businesses to implement renewable energy sources such as the Solarize Southampton effort introduced last year. “We have to deal with storm resiliency and energy independence,” she said. “We need to get away from being dependent on LIPA,” she said of the Long Island Power Authority.

“Climate-change resilience is at the very basis of how to plan for our future. It is going to fundamentally affect every one of our lives,” she said, complaining that it was “one of many things” Mr. Zeldin “isn’t even talking about.”

The candidates argued for measures to reduce income inequality, with Mr. Calone proposing healthy labor unions and greater exposure of students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. The minimum wage should be higher, he said, with future adjustments tied to inflation. Ms. Throne-Holst agreed, adding that “we need to fundamentally reform how the school system is being financed in the entire country,” given the disparity between the quality of public education in affluent and poor communities. She urged universal prekindergarten and daycare. She also agreed that the minimum wage should be increased.

Asked about gun control, Mr. Calone referred to Mr. Zeldin’s vote last year against allowing debate on legislation that would prevent suspected terrorists from legally purchasing guns. “We need someone who will stand up to the gun lobby,” he said.”We need to reframe the debate,” he said. “Then, we will win.”

“We have to treat gun safety and gun control the way we’d treat a public health crisis, because that is what it is,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “We talk about viruses that haven’t killed 300,000 people the way guns have in this country in the last decade.”

The candidates also took aim at the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited political spending by corporations, unions, and individuals. Ms. Throne-Holst said, “Corporations can buy elections today. No one even has to be told who is buying, because of Citizens United.” It is the responsibility of Congress, she said, to ensure full disclosure of campaign spending, and she advocated for publicly funded elections. “I don’t think anybody should be permitted to put their own money in,” Mr. Calone agreed, urging a concerted effort on campaign finance reform.

With respect to foreign policy, both candidates advocated greater use of diplomacy, economic assistance, and a cautious approach to the use of force. “Absent imminent threat, there are other measures we can take,” Mr. Calone said. “If we pursue peace, war is always an option, but if we pursue war, peace is not.”

“We have to be part of an international solution that has a very clear sense of where we go in, how, and a plan for keeping people safe, making sure that if there is a change in government it works, and we are not leaving people to fend for themselves and get obliterated at the hands of their own people,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. Both candidates called for  taking in more refugees fleeing civil wars in Syria and other Middle East countries.

Mr. Zeldin is a member of the House Foreign Policy Committee and seeks to visit Iran.

Mr. Calone has received more endorsements than Ms. Throne-Holst from elected officials, including East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Peter Van Scoyoc, Sylvia Overby, and Kathee Burke-Gsonzalez of the town board. Other endorsements are from Southampton Town Councilman John Bouvier, State Assemblyman Steve Englebright, and Suffolk Legislators Bridget Fleming, Al Krupski, Rob Calarco, and Sarah Anker.

Those endorsing Ms. Throne-Holst’s candidacy include New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and five New York members of the House of Representatives, as well as Representative Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

Jeanne Frankl, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democrats, said after the forum that they would consider whether to endorse one of the candidates at its next meeting. “We think it’s an important conversation, and a preparation for the big campaign in which the winner will have to have our support to beat Lee Zeldin.”

“We’ll be ready for it,” Mr. Calone said of the general election and an expected onslaught of negative advertising. “But elections are about incumbents. What kind of job has Lee Zeldin done for us? Anna and I agree, he has not done a good job at all.”