10 Key Moments from the Senate, 1st Congressional Debates
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Rhode Islanders received a double dose of political debates Tuesday with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican challenger Barry Hinckley squaring off in their first live debate on WPRI and Congressman David Cicilline taking on Republican Brendan Doherty and Independent David Vogel on ABC6.
So who were the winners and losers from each debate?
GoLocalProv breaks down 10 key moments from the night
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Hinckley Successfully Distances Himself from National GOP
While Barry Hinckley has watched Brendan Doherty take the “can’t we all just get along” approach as he tries to establish himself as a centrist in the 1st Congressional District and Mike Riley not shy away from his conservative leanings in his race with Democrat Jim Langevin, the first-time Senate candidate was far more willing to point to mistakes made on both sides of the aisle, even referring to President Bush’s tenure in the White House as a “train wreck.”
Hinckley acknowledged that he disaffiliated from the GOP for eight years because of his frustrations and he used Congressman Paul Ryan’s “dead on arrival” budget as an example of Democrats showing their unwillingness to even begin a discussion with the Republican Party.
The Talking Points Work
Just as his colleagues in the Congressional Delegation have done during their debates, Senator Whitehouse stuck to the Democratic playbook, criticizing the Ryan budget and accusing Republicans of failing to address loopholes in the tax code. But while the game plan is the same, the incumbent did a better job than his fellow Rhode Island Democrats by constantly localizing his talking points (he mentioned infrastructure fixes needed in Providence and pointed to CVS as a Rhode Island success story).
Clear Differences Between the Candidates
The refreshing thing about the Senate race is that the two candidates have mostly stuck to the issues as opposed to the Cicilline/Doherty race, which has become all about personal attacks.
Hinckley didn’t shy away from his support of parts of the Ryan budget (he calls it a good “starting point”) and gave credit to former Presidential candidate Herman Cain for at least presenting news ideas with 9-9-9 tax plan earlier this year. Hinckley also made it clear he would like to have seen the Supreme Court strike down the Affordable Care Act and said he would like to cut off aid to Egypt, Libya and Pakistan, arguing that “it’s time for the rest of the world to step it up.”
Whitehouse meanwhile said he can’t accept placing a higher tax burden on the middle class (he disliked the 9-9-9 plan) and praised the Affordable Care Act. The Senator said he is committed to protecting Social Security and Medicare and argued in favor of both cutting expenses and increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans as a way to address the nation’s deficit.
The Medicare Question
Both candidates agreed that the cost of healthcare is out of control in the country, but Hinckley didn’t shy away from his support for giving Americans the option of choosing between Medicare and a private insurer. Senator Whitehouse is completely opposed to making Medicare a voucher system.
The Unemployment Factor
Early in the debate, Whitehouse blamed the end of President Bush’s time in office as part of the reason the state’s unemployment rate has more than doubled during his six years in the Senate. Whitehouse said addressing infrastructure issues is a surefire way to create jobs immediately in Rhode Island and guessed that unemployment would likely be around six percent by the end of his second term in office if he is re-elected.
Hinckley argued that Rhode Island and the country need to become more attractive places to do business and said cutting the corporate tax rate is a start. He also referenced his own experience as a business owner to say the country makes it too expensive to hire new employees when taxes and benefits are figured into the mix.
1st Congressional Debate
The $110 Million Question
To date, Congressman Cicilline has struggled to craft an effective response to questions about the city of Providence’s financial problems in his final years as Mayor. But while he did have to address questions about his past during Tuesday’s debate, the discussion over the city’s finances never came up, with Doherty instead choosing to highlight the PEDP and certain campaign contributions rather than the $110 million structural deficit Mayor Angel Taveras inherited. Independent candidate David Vogel declined to criticize Cicillne over Providence issues, noting that the candidates are running for federal office.
Cicilline’s Message Effective
With Doherty on the attack for much of the debate, Cicilline successfully managed to stick to the talking points he has used for the past several months. The Congressman constantly attempts to tie everything back to Doherty’s status as a “Romney Republican” and has done everything he can to keep the race focused on Democrats and Republicans and not the individual candidates.
Battle for Women’s Vote Continues
While Vogel took the high road and avoided the ongoing fight for the women’s vote, Doherty and Cicilline continued to argue over who started what has become the ugliest part of the 1st Congressional race. Doherty says he started attacking Cicilline’s record as a defense lawyer because the “Congressman and his surrogates” criticized him for not supporting changes to the Violence Against Women Act. Now Doherty is accusing Cicilline of accepting campaign contributions from owners of strip clubs and massage parlors known for prostitution. Cicilline dismissed Doherty’s claims by saying his opponent is only focused on old news because he is unwilling to about how he’ll vote if elected to Congress.
PEDP Becomes a Factor
On the same day Mayor Taveras acknowledged that Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as raised “serious issues” about the Providence Economic Development Partnership (PEDP), Doherty said the Congressman “needs to take responsibility” for what HUD has called a lack of “adequate oversight” over the agency. Cicilline defended the PEDP as a lender of last resort and said he has every reason to believe his board members made the thoughtful decisions when they signed off on loans for small businesses.
Cuts & Taxes
While much of the night was focused on Cicilline’s past, the candidates did have a relatively substantive discussion about how to address the deficit. Vogel suggested cutting the military budget and taxing corporations “properly” (“Corporations are not people,” he noted) as an effective start.
Doherty chose to highlight waste and fraud as his primary focus when it comes to trimming the deficit, but also argued in favor of cutting the Congressional and White House budgets. Cicilline said Democrats have been willing to make “difficult and hard cuts,” but blamed House Republicans are refusing to discuss raising taxes and ending subsides to big oil companies.
Dan McGowan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @danmcgowan.
