Published: September 02, 2008 05:07 pm      

Q & A: Powers addresses campaign allegations

Q: A lot of your campaign money comes from out of the district. Why?

A: We’ve raised over $1 million. Eighty percent of our donors are under $100; 67 percent are under $50. We have everyday western New Yorkers chipping in to be part of the campaign, investing in the campaign, literally thousands of people. (Critical observers) want to go after us and not talk about the real numbers, where our campaign is rooted in the grassroots level.

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Q: Why does someone in California give you $50?

A: Because they believe in my message; they believe in the opportunity that we can change this country. I have the opportunity to bring some real change, not just for western New York but for the whole country. People look at me as an Iraq veteran, knowing that they want to see the troops brought home safely, securely and soon, and see me as a unique voice to send to Washington to do that.

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Q: You have a lot of support from organized labor, but the majority of working people in western New York are not organized. The two can conflict, especially in public sector finance. How do you balance competing interests?

A: Someone who endorses our campaign is endorsing our message. A lot of the labor support we’ve gotten is because we’re fighting for working men and women across the district; specifically on the trade issue, they support what we talk about in terms of fair and balanced trade and they support what we want to do at home. I don’t think it’s government’s responsibility to create jobs, it’s to create a platform for jobs to grow. That includes business leaders and labor leaders, includes folks from across the district. That’s what they’ve invested in.

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Q: Your service encouragement policy seems to support the notion of more publicly funded jobs. We’re in a district that’s among highest taxed in the nation. Who’ll pay for those jobs?

A: The purpose of the service program is not to create more government-funded jobs, it’s to create more service-oriented jobs like nursing, teaching — where there is a dire shortage — and getting people in the military, giving back to your country.

The skills and job set you pick up in service-oriented jobs carry forth in the private sector as well. So we’re setting up a program to help train better workers for our private sector. It’s about getting the best and brightest into teaching; those jobs are not new, they’re already (created).

Nursing is not a government job and there’s a dire nursing shortage in our rural counties. Let’s set up ROTC-type programs where nurses go into that and they give back by getting into those hospitals. It’s helping their education and helping that community.

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Q: At this point, you and Jack Davis are practically beating the heck out of each other. Do you worry about voter backlash?

A: We’ve been out releasing policy, talking to constituency groups about issues ... and going door to door, being in people’s living rooms, talking to them on the phone. That’s what the voters want to be talking about.

And the reason my opponent has been attacking us so much is because those are not the things he wants to talk about; it’s why he’s refusing to debate. He wants to run this like old-school politics. What we’ve been trying to do is talk about what matters to the people of western New York.

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Q: Your critics have taken issue with War Kids Relief. Explain the organization and your role in it.

A: In two years we became the leading experts in Washington, the leading voice for Iraq’s youth. We designed programs that were piloted and implemented by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, to try to keep 16- to 25-year-olds from being recruited by extremist groups. We briefed Marine commanders and trained Marines on the need for youth engagement.

There are papers that I wrote with defense think tanks, Rand Corporation, with John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, that I was invited to be published in because of the work we were doing. And that is what got to the cover of Newsweek. We were doing research that nobody else was doing, and they’re saying we haven’t done enough.

Of $150,000 raised for War Kids Relief, only $15,000 was ever directed toward my salary, and that was part of programming. Over $100,000 went into programming — education, advocacy, service programs. There’s a team in Kurdistan today doing work.

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Q: You’re 30 years old. You’re unemployed. You’re competing with people who have records of achievement that someone your age just can’t have. What makes you the better pick for Democrats?

A: I’m not sure unemployed is the right word. I’m running for Congress. I had to give up my job to run and I’m working my tail off right now.

The difference between myself and everyone else in this race, Republican or Democrat, is simple: They’re going because they want to be a congressman or congresswoman, I’m running because I want to be a representative. The way we’re running our campaign is evidence of that. We’ve gone out and talked to folks all across this district ... about what we can do as a country to solve (our) problems.

There are tremendous differences between us in this race. Just with Jack, you see it in our issues. People have a choice to make: Do you want to go with old politics or do you want someone who’s going to be out there talking with you and working with the community?