Republican Congressional Candidates Discuss Platform

Five Republican candidates spoke before the Garden City Republicans Club with the same message: get Carolyn McCarthy out of New York's 4th Congressional District.    

Candidates Rich Petrone, Frank Scaturro, James Garner, Peter Zinno and Dan Maloney discussed fixing the economy and shrinking governmental institutions, saying they have the "power to harness the enthusiasm that President Barack Obama gained during his campaign."

Candidates said McCarthy is "out of touch" with her constituents and that she did not spend enough time in her district. McCarthy voted in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the Stimulus, last February, as well as the Troubled Assets Relief Program Reform and Accountability Act.  

McCarthy has served the 4th Congressional District since 1996, most recently defeating Mayor Jack Martins of Mineola by more than 50,000 votes to win re-election in 2008.     

Rich Petrone is entering politics for the first time. An 11-year resident of Garden City, Petrone graduated from SUNY Albany with a degree in political science and is the current senior vice president at Lighthouse Financial Group. He is also a former sales trader at Bear Stearns, the collapsed investment bank.    

"I'm seeing things that I've never seen before," he said. "It's not news to a lot of you locally because a lot of you are going through economic pain."

Petrone spoke about the extreme height of the stock market and how that bubble burst and, again, how the economy fell after the housing market crashed.    

"It was created by us, too. It was created by people who took the money, who said, 'I have an extra 300 grand and I'm going to go out and buy something,'" he said.

Petrone said people have to fix their own problems instead of relying on the government to help them. "The only way a democracy works is when we get involved. The government doesn't solve our problems, only we can," he said.     

To solve the current fiscal crisis, Petrone said government should privatize everything that can be privatized and not tax those serving in the military nor require them to pay federal taxes for 10 years after serving. This, he said, would allow them to build up small businesses and help the country at large. He also said he would attempt to cut taxes on small businesses in general.    

"Ten years ago we were on a cruise ship, now we realize it's called the Titanic," Petrone said.  "...If this country has its economy collapse, nothing else matters. Nothing."

Frank Scaturro, at 37, was the youngest candidate to speak. He has served on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and has worked on the nominations of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito. He said he has a problem with the "endless expansion of government, the endless intrusion of government in our lives."

The Chaminade High School graduate said sitting back and complaining about the current administration is not good enough. "It is our obligation to step up and serve," he said. "I fear [current economic policies] may cause damage that may be irreparable if we continue going down the road we're going now."

Scaturro added, "...You don't reduce debt by creating more debt."    

He wants the U.S. to stay away from the economic policies of Western Europe, which he believes hurt growth and privately owned businesses. "The fact of the matter is Washington is broken," he said.    

James Garner, the only candidate having run against McCarthy in the past, served as Hempstead Village mayor from 1988 to 2005. He lost to McCarthy in 2004 by more than 60,000 votes.    

"I think we can all agree, on this election, Carolyn McCarthy must go," Garner said. The current president and CEO of Garner Group International, a consulting organization, said he is running on the platform of creating jobs, cutting taxes and cutting spending. He called McCarthy a "tax and spend liberal."   

"There's just no way you can tax your way to prosperity," Garner said. "...This is definitely going to be the year we take it back."

While most candidates stuck to basic ideas of cutting spending and taxes, Dan Maloney talked about his experience with the Tea Party Movement, a conservative grassroots movement across the country that advocates fiscal responsibility, limited government and a free market.    

"The people in the Tea Party movement have moved mountains, and we could use your help, because we have a long way left to go," he said. "We have increased the negatives on the people we wanted to increase the negatives for. What should have been done last year was not done. Instead we got TARP [Troubled Assets Relief Program]."

Maloney said the Tea Party asked him to run because he does not care about his political career or what the press says about him.    

"I'm not a politician, never have been, never wanted to be, still don't want to be," he said, adding that he would limit himself to no more than three terms.

Maloney said he wants to bring back the balance of power between the three branches of government, saying that he would support legislation that would directly undermine Supreme Court decisions if he disagreed with the court. He also spoke against environmentalists who are trying to stop global warming.

"It's based on a mountain of lies," he said, adding that the climate change is a normal process caused by the sun, and that those who seek to stop global warming are taking money where it is not needed. He called it "a fake religion, because that's what it's become for so many of them."    

The fifth candidate, Peter Zinno, said he agreed with nearly everything that the candidates before him said.

"The issues are the issues, and we know what the task is," Zinno said. "[McCarthy]'s not doing her homework."    

Zinno has served as president of the Franklin Square Republicans Club, a library trustee in the Franklin Square School District and a member of the Legislative Advisory Committee in the New York State Assembly.    

"This is not going to be a case of a Republican against a Democrat, or a conservative versus a liberal, this is going to be a face, and an indictment, of a certain individual, and that is McCarthy," he said. "And I can beat her."    

All five candidates believe they can defeat McCarthy but the statistics are not in their favor. Since 2000, every Congressional election has had an incumbency rate of at least 94 percent, and going back to 1964 no Congressional election has had less than an 85 percent incumbency rate.

However, the county executive and legislature became Republican-led in the last election cycle and the November 2010 elections could show where Nassau County is headed.

"This is going to be, again, a very exciting year," Garner said.