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In 2008 Republican Richard Hanna challenged Democrat Michael Arcuri for the U.S. Congressional seat he had held for only one term.  The night of the election the numbers wavered, sometimes showing Arcuri ahead, sometimes Hanna.  Eventually Arcuri got the most votes, but not by much.  Hanna had received 48% of the votes.  Arcuri had largely ignored Hanna during the race, and Hanna didn't have the money or organization or the support from the national party to match Arcuri. 

This year he's ready for a rematch. Hanna was at the Ramada Inn in the Village of Lansing yesterday to meet local voters and begin to spread his message.  With Obama's approval rate slipping and growing opposition to the health care bill, the Republican Party is eying Arcuri's seat.  Hanna says they call frequently, and he has told them, "Send your money, but keep your ideas!"

"I'm just happy he's running again," says Tompkins County Republican Party Chairman Mike Sigler.  "I was proud of the race he ran last time.  This time out I think he's going to put in the same energy."

One of the problems in last year's campaign was that he didn't effectively reach the southern portion of the district.  Voters in Tompkins County frequently heard what he didn't like about Arcuri, but not very much about what Hanna himself would do if voters sent him to Washington.  He got a lot of attention in the Utica area, but it was spotty here.


Yesterday's visit was the first step in changing that here.  While his press releases are still focussed on what he says Arcuri is doing wrong, the man in person is plain-spoken and down to earth.  He says he is not a hard-right person, and will vote his conscience rather than the party line.  He is pro-life, and believes that global warming must be addressed, though he doesn't agree with the ways it is being handled now.  He is interested in the controversy about gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, but says that far right and left shrill voices on the far right and left should not own the conversation

"My goal is to be a thoughtful, deliberate, engaged voice that can give reasons for what he says and does in Washington," he says.  "I don't see that there.  Mr. Arcuri voted against cap and trade.  That's fine, except that he voted for it in the affirmative in committee fourteen times.  He has vacillated on health care for months, and sometimes changes his point of view in the same week.  Sometimes the same day.  That's not leadership."

"Hanna will bring consistency to this seat," Sigler says.  "I was very happy to hear today that Mike Arcuri is going to vote against the health care bill.  With Mr. Hanna I don't think we'd have been wondering all this time.  We'd have known that vote."

He joked that he would have won the last race if the Tompkins County votes hadn't been counted.  Joking aside, he said that he has a lot in common with people here in terms of his beliefs on social issues.

"I think I have a good message for the people of Tompkins County," he says.  "I know it has a reputation for being more Democratic than Republican.  I have never identified myself as a particularly good Republican.   I was very disappointed with George Bush.  I thought the Iraq war was a mistake.  How can you be the party of fiscal responsibility after George Bush's reign?  You can't.  Republicans need to be able to claim that again.  That's part of why I'm doing this."

He is also a strong supporter of education.  He said that the future of education is the future of the nation, stressing that government should encourage quality education.

"The problem with 'No Child Left Behind' was that it was all stick and no carrot," he said.  "I think that one of the things that President Obama has very right is that he's focusing on the reward side for schools that excel.  I think that's appropriate."

While Hanna says he is a social moderate, fiscally he wants to solve problems that will help people of all kinds.  He says that the government of New york should start acting like it is run by adults, warning that if the state continues onerous taxing and irresponsible spending it will be doomed.

"My issues are primarily those that help everybody in their lives, which makes them primarily economic," he says.  "That's my concern: the economic decay of upstate New York, the severe burden of taxes, the flight of people... we've lost a million and a half people in New York in the last ten years.  It's not to say they are the best people, but they are people who are looking for opportunity someplace else."

Hanna said that jobs have to come first in order to create the demand for products that will really stimulate and grow the economy.  He says the federal stimulus money was innefective because it didn't do that.

"The stimulus package that is now over $800 billion was primarily a government self-stimulus package," he said.  "A lot of it went to government redecorating.  Not enough if it went to infrastructure.  That's where the jobs are.  If you want to create employment that's where you put your money.  Maybe 14% of that money went there.  I thought that was a mistake.  Jobs have to come first.  There can be no repair of our economy without jobs.  70% of our economy is the consumer.  It you haven't gotten people back to work you really haven't fixed the economy."

As for the attacks on Arcuri, Hanna says he has the responsibility to point out the things he thinks his opponent is doing wrong.

"One of the things that was so profound in his record was that it was so clearly partisan," he notes.  "It was almost 98% partisan.  I don't go around saying it was all wrong.  I'm not angry at the President or Nancy Pelosi.  What I believe is that we deserve representation that represents the values and interests of this community, and that we have a thoughtful, deliberate voice in Washington saying 'this is how my people where I live feel.'  What I saw in my opponent and still do is very self serving, a career politician whose interests are in his own tenure."


While Hanna is wealthy today he says he started with nothing.  His father died when he was 20, and he helped pay off debts and support his mother and four sisters.  He went to Reed College in Portland Oregon, then returned home to start a construction company.  He says he is raising his children to take the consequences of their mistakes and reap the rewards when they do things right.  He has formed not-for-profits community foundation, and a fund for women.  He tried to stress the differences between himself and Arcuri, contrasting Arcuri's political career with his own career as a builder.

"The paradigm that he comes from and I come from are so different.  I think mine is much more based in reality, and building not just wealth, but all those ideas that circle around a system that helps  people from every walk of life."

Sigler says local Republicans are going to bring Hanna to Tompkins County more often during this campaign.  He says Hanna is already set to come to Dryden Dairy Days, and possibly another event the next day.

Hanna says the bottom line is that he is running because he thinks he can make a difference. 

"I woke up one day and I said I don't like what I see," he says.  "Why shouldn't I do this?  I realized I was exactly the person I wanted to see doing it, so I said, OK I'll do it.  My wife's not thrilled to see me do this again.  I could be home right now.  But I hope it's worthwhile work.  And if it isn't I won't stay."

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