Government & Politics

Here Come The Candidate Debates

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The Jones/Lawler race moves to the debate stage

September 15, 2024

By Barrett Seaman and Solace Church–

In an election year, autumn is debate season, leading off with a big one between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris this past week. That one was seen by some 67 million voters across the nation.

Whether or not there will be another presidential debate remains to be seen, though Trump now says he doesn’t need one. There are plenty of other political debates and forums upcoming. (See box). The League of Women Voters routinely hosts candidate forums up and down the ballot. On the Congressional level, Democrat George Latimer will face off against Scarsdale Republican nominee Miriam Flisser for the 16th District seat on October 17th, conducted by the League.

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One the League will not host, however, is between incumbent Congressman Mike Lawler and his challenger for the 17^th District seat, former Representative Mondaire Jones. The League had scheduled that for October 21st, but then Lawler said he couldn’t fit that into an already busy debate schedule. Instead, his staff suggested that the League pair up with one of three televised debates he had separately agreed to.

“I told them that the League does not partner regarding our candidates debates,” responded Westchester League president Kathy Meany. She countered that “not holding an in-person event in Westchester is a disservice to our voters. We link Putnam and Dutchess with our Westchester events too, so (as far as I know today), there are no in-person events in those locations either.”

Jones takes it to Lawler on guns (photo by Solace Church)

What Rep. Lawler has said instead is that he has agreed “in principle” to four debates. The three televised debates would be hosted by local TV channels, News12, CBS2 and Pix 11, while the fourth and final debate would be before a live audience at the New City Jewish Center on October 27, just nine days before election day and after many voters will have cast early ballots.

The Jones campaign has said their candidate will be there for the three televised debates but had not, as of this writing, received an invitation to appear at the Jewish Center. “We are considering other opportunities for forums and debates as well,” says Jones campaign manager Shannon Geison.

Until a debate schedule is nailed down, the two are continuing to lob rhetorical grenades at one another. At a press conference in Nanuet last week, Jones used the school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia as a prompt to call out Lawler’s voting record on gun control. “Mike Lawler’s record on gun violence and gun safety is abysmal, extreme and out of step with the values of voters and residents here in the lower Hudson Valley,” Jones said. “You would think he was representing a district in Mississippi or Texas.”

“In Congress,” Jones went on, “he has done nothing to look out for the safety of New Yorkers, instead, he has consistently sided with the gun lobby. One of the most alarming examples of Mike Lawler’s disregard for public safety is his vote for the NRA-endorsed pistol brace accessory rule.”

Lawler, meanwhile, has returned to Washington to assist, his campaign says, Speaker Mike Johnson in gaining passage for a spending bill, an issue that once again has the Republican caucus at odds with itself. While he is there, Lawler is piling up examples of his legislative involvement on a range of foreign and domestic issues, stressing the ones that bolster his claim to be a bipartisan candidate.

Along with Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL-23) and more than twenty others, he is co-sponsoring the Stand With Israel Act that would withhold U.S. funding for UN agencies that expel, downgrade, suspend, or otherwise restrict the participation of the State of Israel. “We should not be giving a single cent to any UN agency that diminishes the status of Israel,” Lawler wrote in a press release promulgated back in the district.

He also introduced a “Justice For 9/11 Act” that would prevent the Biden-Harris administration from offering plea deals to the 9/11 terrorists by requiring a trial and ensuring the death penalty remains an option in sentencing. Again in the foreign policy field, Lawler introduced a “Remote Access Security Act” aimed to prevent China from exploiting U.S. innovation through the cloud.

On the domestic front addressing a key issue in his race against Mondaire Jones, Lawler claimed that he was one of the first Republicans to sign onto a Democrat-sponsored bill, the “Access to Family Planning Act,” that codifies federal protections for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) as well as a bill that will require private insurance companies to cover treatments for infertility. He will almost certainly focus on his stance on IVF when challenged on reproductive rights in the upcoming debates.

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