Congressional candidates spar over economic bailout package
Democratic congressional candidate Alice J. Kryzan on Monday accused her Republican opponent— Christopher J. Lee — of being “silent” on the nation’s economic crisis.
And indeed, following the vote on the financial industry bailout package, he was.
The Lee campaign would not say how he would have voted on the $700 billion bill, which was defeated on the floor of the House of Representatives by a vote of 228 to 205. The Kryzan campaign, meanwhile, was quick to express its views.
“If she were a member, she would have voted for it,” said spokeswoman Anne Wadsworth.
Lee spokesman Nicholas A. Langworthy, however, said the issue should not be subject of partisan “bickering.”
“It’s Congress, it’s Wall Street and it’s greed that have gotten us there,” he said. “It’s a failure from the president on down.”
Langworthy did say that whatever does emerge from Congress cannot amount to a “blank check without oversight and accountability.” When pressed, however, he would not express the candidate’s views on how he viewed the bailout package.
“Chris is not a member of Congress right now,” Langworthy said.
However, two other Republican congressional candidates — Daniel J. Humiston and David Crimmen — said they opposed the measure that was before the House on Monday.
“We didn’t benefit from the excesses these people have received over the years and now they’re asking us to bail them out,” said Humiston, the Republican candidate against Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, who voted for the package on Monday.
“From a taxpayer standpoint, it’s really hard to swallow,” Humiston said.
And Crimmen, who is opposing Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport— who also voted for the bill — said the package posed too many questions.
“This is too much of a rush to judgment,” he said.
Lee’s stand is drawing flak from Kryzan, who accused him of avoiding concrete stands on several issues.
“This silence from Lee is nothing new,” Wadsworth said. “He has chosen to avoid real stands on almost any issue, preferring bland platitudes to concrete proposals.”
Wadsworth said Kryzan viewed the defeated bill as a plan that would have stabilized the market, ensured regulation, ensured that taxpayers receive their fair share of profits from companies they bailed out, that CEO compensation was limited, and provided for independent oversight.
“Chris Lee has made deregulating our economy a centerpiece of his campaign,” Wadsworth said. “Now that we’ve seen the disastrous result of continuing Bush’s failed policies, he has nothing to say. The people of this district need answers, not knee-jerk deregulation rhetoric.”
