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Mike Arcuri is challenging incumbent Sherwood Boehlert (R) in the November election for US Reresentative.  Arcuri, 46, is the fourth term Oneida County District Attorney.  Last night he came to the Lansing Community Center to speak to local Democrats about his campaign.  "I think this is a great opportunity for Lansing voters to meet the person who may be their next Congressman," says Lansing Democratic Party Chairman John Cawley,  "to ask any questions they may have and in general be involved in a very important process."

The Lansing visit was Arcuri's first appearance of his campaign, and he drove down from Utica specially to talk to the approximately one dozen Lansing Democrats.  He spoke to a welcoming audience for about a half hour, then took 45 minutes to answer questions.  "If we are clear and succinct in our message," he said, "Sherry Boehlert can be beaten and we can have a Democrat representing the 24th district."


Cawley announced Arcuri, noting that he had won four terms as DA in what has been a Republican enclave, and that he has one of the highest conviction rates in the State.  Cawley said that he is distinguished from his opponents because he tries to prevent crime as well as prosecuting it.

Arcuri began by telling why he is running for Congress, saying, "It's alright to complain, but you'd better be prepared to do something about it."  He told of his children's' reactions to the idea of his running, and how his 14 year old son told him he should run when he found out his Dad could help get the US out of Iraq if he is elected.  He accused Boehlert of doing what is politically expedient at any given moment.  "I think you have to know where your representative stands," he said, "and that's one of the problems I have with Congressman Boehlert.  You don't know where he stands.  He fluctuates, he waffles, he changes his position."

But he stressed that he respects Boehlert even if he doesn't agree with him, and said that he will run a clean campaign.   He also promised that if he makes mistakes, "I will not hesitate to admit it."

He started out by saying you could watch President Bush's State of the Union speech and figure out where he stands by taking the opposite view.   But he then went on to address five key issues.

Health Care:  "One of the things that I think is the biggest problem is the whole health care issue," said Arcuri.  "That's indicative of this administration.  We're spending all this time talking about tax cuts.  Instead of talking about something that's very important to Americans, and that's health care and the cost of health care."

Domestic Wire Tapping: "I'm a prosecutor.  I understand how important it is to get a wire tap.  I understand how important it is to get a search warrant.  But there are certain criteria that must be met that this administration is not meeting.  Ben Franklin said it best.  'Any society that has to sacrifice liberty for security is going to forfeit both and deserves neither.'  Security and liberty are not mutually exclusive."

"We talk about instilling democracy.  What sense does it make when we say, 'we're democratic and we're not tapping our phones, but it's OK to tap other peoples' phones.'  Well, what example are we setting?  What's good for us should be good for everybody else.  It's a cop out, it's flawed logic, it's the same kind of flawed logic we used to get into Iraq."

The War in Iraq:  "We went into Iraq for all the wrong reasons based upon flawed intelligence.  They don't give us any cogent, any real, any definitive time table to bring the troops home.  Look, we're there.  Although I believe we should not have been there in the first place I think it would not be smart for our country to just pull the troops out.  But we need to establish a benchmark, a timetable.  Sherry Boehlert wrote a five column  article in the Utica paper a couple of weeks ago.  He said benchmarks should be forming a democracy.  Well that sounds really good, but let's be realistic.  They've never had a democracy in Iraq.  We need more substantive tangible benchmarks.  They should be established by the people in Iraq, not by Pentagon idealogues who follow the President's philosophy."

Taxes:  "We talk about giving tax breaks to large corporations.  Chevron had record profits this quarter.  In spite of that this administration has given the oil companies a tax credit to promote the building of refineries.  My problem is with the priorities.  The rationale is that gas will be cheaper.  Well, we all know the p0rice of gas is never going to be cheaper.  Because gas and oil are finite resources.  We should be giving tax credits to the people who need it most, not the oil companies that are making record profits."


Student Loans:  "China is now four to five the size of the United States population-wise.  Yet China graduates ten times the number of engineers that we graduate here in America. So we're going to have to do something in terms of maintaining our superiority technologically.  Instead of doing something with the tax code to promote more people to go to college by giving them cheaper loans, we're taking that away from them.  We're taking away that motivations to become engineers, to be doctors, to be lawyers, to be teachers.

Homeland Security:  "It's all about the priorities that this administration has.  We're spending that money in districts where powerful Senators or powerful Congressional Representatives sit, as opposed to spending it in places where we need it most.  In places like New York and Washington and Florida.  They're spending it in places like Wyoming and Maine.  We need to take it to a situation where the places that need it get the most money.

"I will try to be as honest with you as I can," he said.  Reading from an article he said, Boehlert  said 'The message I get from the people is they want more of the same.'  That's not the message that I'm getting from people.  Does that mean we can expect more lies?  Does that mean we can expect more scandals?  More jobs being outsourced to China and India?  More soldiers dying in Iraq?  I don't think that's what the people of the 24th Congressional district want.  that['s not what I want.  That's not what we need and that's not what we deserve."

Among the questions the one most close to home was when Cawley noted, "You've been successful in a way that we want to be.  We're in a place where there is a tradition of Republican success and we're trying to change that."

Arcuri replied, "Hire good people, run good people."  He said, "I think the majority of the people in this area vote for the candidate.  The trick is getting them to realize that you are as good a candidate or a better candidate as the other person and they have to get comfortable voting Democratic."


The evening ended with Cawley presenting a Lansing throw to Arcuri to remember his visit to Lansing by.  The throw is being sold by the Lions club to raise funds to build a band stand in Myers park.  Cawley and former County Legislator candidate Hurf Sheldon pointed out the Lansing landmarks depicted on the throw.

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