Voters in the 24th Congressional District for the November election have three options:
They are the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill; Democratic challenger Dan Maffei of DeWitt, who formerly held the seat; and Green Party activist Ursula Rozum of Syracuse.
The election is Nov. 6.
The Buerkle-Maffei race is a heated rematch. In 2010, Buerkle ran against then-incumbent Maffei for what was then the 25th Congressional District. She won by 648 votes.
In 2012, under redistricting, the 25th Congressional District became the 24th Congressional District. The newly drawn 24th Congressional District includes Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, and western Oswego County.
As of mid-September, Buerkle and Maffei were in a deadlock. The two were tied at 43 percent each of voters saying they would cast their ballot for either one, according to a Sept. 13 Siena Research Institute poll . The poll’s margin of error is 3.9 percent. In the same poll, 7 percent of voters said they would vote for Green Party candidate Rozum. Another 7 percent said they did not know whom they would vote for or they don’t plan to vote.
The 24th Congressional District race is drawing national attention because of its potential to help Democrats regain control of the House. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for re-election. Republicans hold the majority with 240 seats to Democrats’ 190. Five seats are open, with no incumbent. To gain control of the house, Democrats will need 28 additional seats.
In the 24th Congressional District, Republicans have a slight edge with 143,110 registered voters. Democrats have 138,796 registered voters, while 960 are registered Green Party voters, according to the New York State Board of Elections’ website. The third-largest group of voters are those unaffiliated with a political party. That’s 95,783 voters – or 23 percent of the registered voters. The district also has 8,128 Conservative voters; 1,888 Working Families voters; and more than 20,000 Independence Party voters.
Here’s a look at the candidates:
Ann Marie Buerkle (incumbent, Republican)
Buerkle, 61, was the first woman to represent the former 25th Congressional District.
She has been a nurse and a New York state assistant attorney general. She has her nursing degree from St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing, and her law degree from the Syracuse University College of Law. She has six grown children.
During her term in Congress, Buerkle served on the oversight and government reform, foreign affairs and veterans’ affairs committees.
Buerkle sees jobs and the economy as the two most pressing issues for voters, said David Ray, Buerkle’s campaign manager. “We’ve experienced over 40 straight months of unemployment over 8 percent nationally. In parts of our district, the unemployment rate’s much higher than that,” Ray said.
Voters are very concerned about whether their taxes will increase, Ray said. That’s why Buerkle stresses controlling federal spending, he said. Ray added, “We can’t spend money that we don’t have.”
Dan Maffei (challenger, Democrat)
Maffei, 44, has spent much of his adult life in politics. He was a staff member for Democratic Sens. Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York for three years. He first ran for Congress in 2006, against then-incumbent Republican Jim Walsh but lost by a slim margin. After Walsh retired in 2008, Maffei won the seat and was the first Democrat to hold the seat in 28 years. In his one-term in Congress, he was on the financial services and judiciary committees.
In his non-political career, he worked as a reporter for 9-WSYR in Syracuse and has taught at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He has degrees from Brown University, Columbia University and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In trying to reclaim the 24th Congressional District seat, Maffei ranks the most important issue as strengthening the middle class, said Marc Brumer, Maffei’s campaign spokesperson. To do this, Brumer said, Maffei calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, maintaining Medicare and Social Security as public entitlements and increasing federal financial aid for college.
Said Brumer: “We need to balance the budget, but he thinks that we need to do it the right way, and that’s not on the backs of middle class families or seniors.”
Ursula Rozum (challenger, GreenParty)
Rozum, 28, is an activist at heart.
For example, she is a staff member with the Syracuse Peace Council, a member of the Caribbean/Latin American Coalition of Central New York and a former volunteer for AmeriCorps VISTA.
She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
The economy, healthcare and the environment are the most important issues in the race, she said. “If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you the first thing they’re concerned about is jobs,” she said.
Her campaign combines jobs and environmental sustainability in what she calls a “green new deal.” By creating massive public works programs, Rozum said, the country can create new jobs while improving the environment.
She pitches herself as the candidate with the most in common with voters. Said Rozum: “I’m a regular, working person that scrapes by to pay my rent. I’m paying off loans. I know what it feels like to be in debt.”
(Stephanie Bouvia is a senior newspaper journalism major.)
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