As a resident of New York’s 23rd Congressional District, I have been, since the election last year, looking forward to beating my Congressman (and early Trump endorser) Tom Reed next year. My excitement only increased when a colleague in the local Bar Association and a person I consider a friend, Eddie Sundquist, announced his candidacy for the seat recently. I was able to get Eddie to agree to do an interview to inform you, my fellow Kossacks, about himself and the issues on which he plans to run. Enjoy!
1. Tell us a bit about your background and your connection to New York's 23rd Congressional District?
My background has always been about helping others, both as a teacher and an attorney, and I learned it all from growing up in the Southern Tier. I grew up in Jamestown, NY, part of a family of immigrants and union workers. My mother’s side immigrated to the Southern Tier from Italy, and my father’s side were hard working union members. After graduating high school, I attended St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, being the first in my family to graduate college. I then moved to Philadelphia where I started teaching middle school science. During the day, I taught at an alternative education school. At night, I was attending classes at the University of Pennsylvania for my master’s in education. After a few years of teaching, I got the chance to come back home and attended SUNY Buffalo Law School, concentrating my efforts on criminal justice reform. I now practice law at Lewis & Lewis, focusing on representing injured workers and grieving families.
2. What spurred you to announce your candidacy?
Returning to Jamestown brought the realization that my hometown, and our region of upstate New York, has not changed. People and manufacturers continue to leave in record numbers, leaving countless without jobs and the means to support their families. Moreover, we have a representative that has done nothing to support the people he represents. Our nation was founded on helping one another, and I could not sit idle as our representative, along with our President, continues to divide us all as citizens. My life has been about helping others, and by running, I can make a real difference for our communities.
3. What problems facing the district do you feel are the most in need of being addressed?
-Loss of jobs and manufacturing, coupled with lack of people coming back
-Healthcare and access to it in our rural communities
-Opioid Epidemic
4. What are your plans to address these problems?
-Loss of Jobs, Wage Stagnation: Re-doubling our focus on education and the skills training so the workers of today and tomorrow are prepared for 21st Century Jobs, including jobs that impact our environment, such as the building of wind farm parts, development of solar panels, or the need for welders and other skilled labor. The federal minimum wage should be raised to $15.
-Healthcare – Work toward guaranteed lifetime health coverage under a single-payer system, ensure Medicaid does not get put back on New York State, and expand health programs in rural areas of New York.
-Opioid Epidemic: Focus on interventions for individuals and families, treat as disease, increase mental health counseling and length of stays at treatment facilities, multiple pathways to recovery, and focus on restorative justice model not punishment model.
5. On what issues do you feel the incumbent, Tom Reed, is out of step with his constituents?
The list is long. First and foremost, Tom Reed’s vote to take healthcare away from 68,000 New Yorkers in our district would hit our people and communities incredibly hard. Recently, he’s been running as fast as possible away from that vote with an aggressive PR campaign over the recess. He now says he is a “Problem Solver” when it’s his votes in Washington that put families’ health care on the line.
Beyond healthcare, more generally his stances on issues related to rural communities, families, farmers, and climate change are all hard to square with reality. Reed even said he “understood” why Donald Trump said upstate New Yorkers should move to Wisconsin. Maybe Tom should move to Wisconsin too?
And how could we ignore his consistent votes for his big corporate donors and against the rights of hard working New Yorkers to organize for better wages and benefits. Reed even opposes a higher minimum wage.
5b. How do you plan to draw distinctions with Congressman Reed on these issues?
We’ve got to get the message out across the district that Tom Reed simply does not represent the people of upstate New York. As far as I can tell, Reed spends about 75% of his time raising money from special interests, 20% of his time on his own PR and then 5% of the time asking Paul Ryan and Donald Trump how to vote.
We have to stay focused on his voting record and his actions that have an impact on real people’s lives. Tom Reed says he is part of a “Problem Solvers” caucus, but was one of the first to vote to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act. Tom Reed says he supports our rural farmers, but hasn’t provided any bills to show this alleged support. Tom Reed votes against protecting our environment, including allowing fracking and pipelines in our district. Tom Reed is wedded to corporate voters, including voting against his own district’s union workers, often voting against bills containing requirements for union workers, prevailing wages and even the minimum wage.
5c. If you could ask Congressman Reed one question, what would it be?
Why do you continue to throw unconditional support behind a President that told your own constituents to move out of Upstate New York to find better jobs? When will you stand up for your own people against Trump and Paul Ryan, who you fell in line with behind a health care bill that would have taken health care away from 68,000 of your own constituents?
6. How has your experience as a teacher impacted your view on education issues?
As an educator, I understand the challenges that our teachers and schools face. Our teachers are asked to be superhuman, acting not only as a teacher, but also as a mentor, counselor, coach, and family member all at once. We must re-focus our schools by ensuring adequate funding and support for our teachers, creating more schools that focus on community building, not just test scores, and providing alternative paths to success to our students such as strong vocational training programs and career mentorship. I applaud our teachers and the life-changing work they face each and every day.
7. As the first person in your family to graduate from college, what are your views regarding the current debate over college affordability?
The cost of tuition has skyrocketed over the years. Many younger Americans, myself included, face crippling student loan debt, preventing them from starting families and purchasing homes. I will never be able to repay the debt to my family for helping me get to college and supporting me throughout my schooling. It is clear we need to make college more affordable, and accessible, for all. As a nation, we should be providing public college education to all citizens wishing to pursue higher education. For our former students across the nation, we, as a government, should not be making incredible profits off of student loan payments. We need to fix a reasonable interest on student loans and simplify repayment options to make them more affordable.
8. NY-23 is a district that has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic. What would you like to see the federal government do to combat this epidemic?
A tough on crime stance is not the direction we, as a nation, should be following. We need to start to recognize that addiction is a disease, and support not only those addicted, but their entire families. We can do this by providing increased access to mental health and addiction counseling and increasing the lengths of stay at addiction facilities. We need to provide multiple pathways to recovery. When individuals are caught with illegal substances, we need to start to focus on a community-based restorative justice model, not a punitive one.
9. NY-23 is a district with a heavy agricultural presence. How do you plan to address issues surrounding agriculture in your campaign?
As I travel the district and talk to small farmers, the one common element I hear is the need for subsidies, reliable programs, and a need for workers. While distributors are making the same amount of money, farmers lose out. We need to ensure subsidies are tied to insurance markets. We need to focus on setting up more access to community farmers markets and local sources of food. Moreover, farmers are unable to secure reliable workers under our Nation’s current immigration laws. We need to fix the immigration system and stop the deportation of the hard working individuals helping support our local farmers. We need to recognize that our Nation’s food supply, and access to food, is a matter of utmost importance.
10. NY-23 has a substantial population of white working class voters that trended away from the Democratic Party pretty heavily in 2016. What issue do you think will be the most salient in bringing some of these voters back? Income inequality? Jobs?
In 2016, Donald Trump sold the nation a deal that he couldn’t deliver. This swayed the voters of NY-23. In 2018, the key is recognizing the Democratic Party is about supporting our workers and bringing sustainable jobs back to the district. It is about attracting young folks back to the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes, and about ensuring a more sustainable future for our families.
11. Where do you stand on social issues, mainly choice and those pertaining to the LGBT community?
As a candidate native to the area who is openly gay, and in a conservative district, I care deeply about the social issues impacting our community. As a district, and as a nation, we continue to ostracize our LGBTQ community members, including most recently those identifying as transgender. For me personally, I often face hate and discrimination on the campaign trail, just for being gay. This is simply unacceptable. We are a nation founded upon tolerance, and hate simply cannot continue to trump love. And I fully support a woman’s right to choose. One of the major hurdles rural areas face is access to affordable quality healthcare, in particular reproductive healthcare services for women. Tom Reed’s vote on healthcare would have led insurers to deny coverage to women who have given birth, had a C-section, or been a survivor of domestic violence. It’s just unimaginable to most people but Tom Reed voted for it.
12. In a crowded primary, what is it that you believe sets you apart from your fellow candidates for the Democratic nomination?
What sets me apart is my ability to take on Tom Reed. I grew up in this district and have lived here my entire life. I understand the problems that everyday people here deal with. We need someone with energy and passion to take on Tom Reed next November and bring these issues to Washington, and that is exactly what I have. I am the only candidate in this primary who was born and raised here in the district - and I think it is important that whoever takes on Reed is someone who knows the people here and the problems they are facing. As a Congressman, I'll fight every day to help fix those problems and make life better for the community that raised me. I will not forget my roots if elected, and constituents can be sure that my commitment to the Southern Tier will ensure their needs will be well-represented in Congress.
13. And finally, name a couple politicians whom you look up to and explain any important lessons you have learned from them?
I have always been fond of Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Kennedy, two great New York politicians. Both Roosevelt and Kennedy faced some of the most difficult issues facing our nation, even still to this day, including a changing civil rights movement, racial discrimination, and voting rights. Every day on the campaign trail, I am reminded of Roosevelt’s wisdom, “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Both men left an incredible legacy, from Roosevelt, who created a modern presidency, to Kennedy, who changed the face of a civil rights before he was taken too soon. Kennedy showed New York State, and the Nation, how to support and love one another, focusing on social justice issues and human rights. He truly cared for people and it showed in his politics and his actions.
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If you’re interested in learning more about Eddie, please visit his website.
He’s also on ActBlue for anyone so inclined.