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- Published: 27 September 2006 27 September 2006
Elliot Spitzer talks to the media while Kirsten Gillibrand listens.
An enthusiastic crowd of over 300 people came to Ft Edward Wednesday evening, September 20, to meet Elliot Spitzer, the Democratic Party candidate for Governor and Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democratic Party candidate for the 20th Congressional District.
The event was held at the newly opened Washington County Democratic Party Headquarters on Broadway.. The size of the crowd forced the event to overflow onto the sidewalk and into street. In a surprise, Spitzer decided to introduce Ms. Gillibrand, no doubt hoping to use his coattails to help carry her to victory in November. Spitzer gave her a rousing introduction, speaking of the need to send fresh blood to Washington.
At times speaking over the roar of traffic and train whistles, Spitzer said that across New York "we're winning because we're right. The public is listening and the public understands it. When we see jobs leaving our counties and our towns, people have realized that the empty rhetoric of the Republican Party simply isn't working . . . But on November 8, when we wake up, we deal with the problems of this state. We're going to lower our property taxes in a way that's meaningful, generate cheap energy, get jobs here . . . and keep our kids here by providing an education . . . These are the things we believe in (and) do it in a way that shows fairness, decency, integrity in the marketplace, things that our party stands for . . . I think it's pretty important that we win and take over the Governor's mansion. I will make a confession. For the sake of the nation, there is something that's more important and that is taking back the House of Representatives".
Ms. Gillibrand, in her remarks, addressed how closely tied the Republican Party and the oil industry are, pointing out how as the mid-term elections draw closer, the price of oil lowers. "You will see by election day it (the price of gas) will be $2.50 a gallon. There can be no argument that they aren't manipulating our gas prices". She went on to pledge that her first order of business in Washington will be to call for a Congressional investigation of price fixing by the oil industry. In an echo of President Kennedy's call for putting an man in the moon in ten years, Gillibrand spoke of the need to achieve energy independence in 10 years. "We make sure it's part of our national security agenda . . . We tell Detroit we want you to increase your miles per gallon by 5% every year and we want you to be at 60 miles per gallon within 10 . . . When you give our best engineers and inventors the vision to do this, they will do it". She spoke about how the 20th District has the hydro power, fuel cell research centers and farmland that could be used to produce bio-fuels and thus how "this District could be the alternative energy corridor".
Gillibrand also spoke at length about how Congress has failed in it's Constitutional duty to hold the Administration accountable for it's actions.
In comments to the press afterwards, Attorney General Spitzer spoke about the bipartisan support for the Hudson River dredging project, a project that was supported by Christie Whitman and George Pataki. He also spoke about his vision for revitalization of Upstate, by providing tax breaks for the farming community and providing tax incentives for high tech companies which will provide good paying jobs for local residents. "I've proposed creating a venture fund in the state pension system that will invest in new technologies and our universities".
Also in attendance were Tim Merrick candidate for State Senate and David Carter, candidate for State Assembly.
It should be noted that the author is volunteering his services as a web designer to the Hawkins for Senate campaign, as well as to local Democrats.