Tom Hall, Qasha Diaz, Kevin Agee, Susan Robedee, Jacob Miguel (Emily Maher)
“You hear about oil — we drill offshore. We depend on other nations for supplying this stuff. We’ve got so much oil out West, that we wouldn’t hurt that supply. And it wouldn’t infringe on those ‘Green Tree’ people, at all. We could do it there. We wouldn’t have to worry about a spill. It wouldn’t impact the environment — none of that stuff. We’ve got it all right here and we don’t have to dependent on anybody.”
(Tom Hall of Baldwinsville, 66, sales associate at Great Outdoors Recreation Center, unaffiliated with a political party)
“I have a son in the school system, and I have a young daughter that will be entering the school system…It scares me, it scares me because his class room was already 25 students without a student aide. Some of the teachers need the extra help with the students.”
(Qasha Diaz of Cicero, 33, waitress at Twin Trees III in North Syracuse, unaffiliated with a political party)
“Accountability to the people they’ve been elected to serve, as opposed to those who put the most money in their campaign coffers, or whatever special interest groups and lobbyists that spend the most money lobbying.”
(the Rev. Kevin Agee of Syracuse, 50, pastor, Hopps Memorial C.M.E Church, Democrat)
“Healthcare is the biggest concern, as far as political issues go to me. I would also definitely pick the Tea Party, and the way that they’ve been able to bastardize the whole government process. And at our local level, I think that our people are allowed to serve too long, and because they’re allowed to do that they truly lose the interest of the people. They’re there on their own agenda.”
(Susan Robedee of Camillus, 57, registered nurse at Community General Hospital, registered with the Conservative Party)
“I guess the number one issue for me would definitely be gas prices. It’s hard getting around and not having enough money to feed myself and do all these things, when I need to put gas in the car instead of spending it on other things. On top of it, other transportation sources cost more money. Using bus routes and stuff like that are all very complicated and difficult to understand.”
(Jacob Miguel of East Syracuse, 22, sales associate at General Nutrition Center in Carousel Mall, Democrat)
(Emily Maher is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism and political science.)
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