The Sullivan Times - October 30, 2018 - Issue 7

EDITORIALS Antonio Delgado for Congress In the race for the 19th Congressional District, ​The Sullivan Times​ endorses Democrat Antonio Delgado over Republican incumbent John Faso. Frankly, we like what we heard from Faso on multiple foreign policy issues in our recent exclusive interview with him. He understands clearly the dangers that North Korea, Russia, China and Iran pose to the United States. He even described Russia as a criminal enterprise.

But, his embrace and defense of a President who constantly mocks, belittles and lies is unacceptable. (Trump tweeted out an endorsement of Faso last week).

And Faso’s own failure to reign in what were clearly appeals to racism in Super PAC ads against Delgado was equally disappointing. Faso knows better. He spent his childhood at a prestigious Catholic school in Queens, NY that presumably taught kids about morals. But he also grew up in Massapequa, NY, the same town (and the same time period) as the publisher of this media outlet. And while Massapequa did have a “Happy Days” and “Leave It To Beaver” quality about it, it also prevented people of color from living there until the late 1970’s-- and even then we had so very few. Faso also recently went out of his way in a debate to vehemently attack those who criticized the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh while completely ignoring the allegations and pain of Dr. Christine Ford, which echoed with women across the country who have been raped and/or sexually assaulted.

What’s more, the many domestic policies that Faso also embraces would do the most harm to the most vulnerable in Sullivan County: low income earners and the middle class. Faso has also spent way too much time on his pet “scaffolding law” as a favor to his donors from the construction industry, even bringing it up at Monday’s debate. What his law would do, though, would prevent construction workers from laying any liability on developers if workers get seriously hurt or even killed in a construction accident. That’s not a friend of blue collar workers at all, a group he tries so hard to appeal to.

A member of Congress has to be accessible to citizens. Instead of holding town halls, Faso has mostly hid from public meetings, choosing instead to hold carefully-controlled conference calls that were impossible to sign up for when we tried more than once ourselves. Only in recent months on the campaign trail, has Faso showed up more -- but his campaign rarely announces in advance any of these small meetings with supporters. And his charges that Delgado is not “from here” is disingenuous. Faso moved to Kinderhook from Long Island in 1983 so he could run for an open Assembly seat. Delgado actually grew up in Schenectady, just beyond District 19’s borders as the son of