News of Delaware County: "Sestak/Williams Battle for 7th"

Press Release

News of Delaware County: "Sestak/Williams battle for 7th"

By Vince Sullivan, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The candidates for Pennsylvania's Seventh Congressional District agree on one thing: the economy is the No. 1 issue facing the district's residents.

"Security begins at home, and economic security is one of the pillars of national security," Joe Sestak (D-7) said at his Media offices Monday.

Sestak went on to describe the dire straits that many Americans, especially those in the 7th district, are in.

"The median level of income is 50 percent less, in real dollars, from 2001 to 2007," Sestak said. "Add on healthcare premiums being up 100 percent, and things are getting tight."

Sestak believes that the solutions to the economic problems can be found right here in Delaware County. He has helped pass legislation mandating that small businesses be considered for federal contracts.

"We lost 762 small businesses between 2001 to 2006," Sestak said. "Fourteen percent of manufacturing jobs have been lost in Delaware County."

He thinks that the new bidding rules will help to bring in more of those federal contracts.

"If Boeing has to look locally for all of its contracted work, that's jobs right here at home."

Craig Williams also believes that the economy is the biggest issue facing his prospective constituents.

"If you would have asked me two months ago, the answer would have been energy all the time," Williams said. "Of course now it's the economy. People are upset and angry about the bailout."

He believes that the recently passed economic stability package was good in that it infused money into the economy, but that it should be a one-time infusion. Williams does not agree with the government bailing out banks, however.

"I am opposed philosophically to government owning private property," Williams said in his Pilgrim Gardens campaign offices Monday. "I don't think it's a great idea that we're buying into banking institutions. I don't want to own mortgages."

One of the biggest contributing factors to the economic struggles is the outflow of American money for foreign oil, according to Williams.

"Last year we spent $700 billion on foreign oil," he said. "We sent that money overseas, it evaporated from economy and it's never coming back. It's an investment in their future, not in ours."

He proposes taking the money that was used to bail out the banks and building.

"Let's take that money and build a stronger America," Williams said.

There are advantages to running as an incumbent, just as there are as a challenger. Sestak believes that he has had the time to prove himself as a Congressman.

"I've had two years to implement and advance the plan I presented during my first campaign," Sestak said. He likened his duties as a Congressman to those of being a town manager as his primary duty. His next priority is to represent his constituents in the Congress.

"I get the opportunity to try and do what's right for my constituents," Sestak said.

Williams believes that his background offsets his status as a newcomer. As a Marine and federal prosecutor, Williams believes he has the experience to represent the 7th District. He talked about how he was serving as legal counsel for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he first started paying attention to local politics.

"That's when I decided to get involved," Williams said. "I started looking at economic policies, tax policies and energy and they became the biggest triad of my platform."

One of the burgeoning issues facing Americans currently is the state of the country's education system.

"Education security is the long-term solution to our economic resurgence," Sestak said. He believes in paying for teacher performance as an incentive. He thinks that the No Child Left Behind laws were a good idea, but won't work as they are now.

"[NCLB] had a sense of action to it," Sestak said, "but it treated every student as if they were the same."

He proposes a "value-added" system where students are evaluated on a more individualized basis.

Williams advocates for school vouchers to improve education as quickly as possible.

"I want to give moms and dads the opportunity to [use vouchers], literally overnight," Williams said.

Energy issues top the list of concerns for many Americans. There are a number of ways to alleviate the strains on the environment and also the price burden on American taxpayers. The candidates share some of the same ideas in broad strokes, but differ on some of the specifics.

Sestak is a proponent of nuclear energy and building new power plants.

"I believe in nuclear power," Sestak said. "I lived on [an aircraft] carrier," he said, referring to his career in the Navy.

The problem that he believes is holding up nuclear progress is the waste storage issue. Once that is figured out, new plants would be able to be constructed, according to Sestak.

"Nuclear power plants should all be standardized as well," he said. "Every knob should be in the same place in every plant."

Williams also is an advocate for more nuclear power plants, but believes that waste disposal can be accomplished in another way. Waste should be reprocessed to make new nuclear fuel, according to Williams.

"At these 100 nuclear power sites around the country, they are having store their own [spent] materials," Williams said. "How is it we're not leading the world in handling nuclear waste?"

The two candidates will be discussing these topics, among others at a candidate forum to be held before Election Day. On Oct. 29, the League of Women Voters will hosts the forum on the campus of Swarthmore College at 10 a.m.

Joe Sestak is a first-term U.S. Congressman from the Seventh District of Pennsylvania. Prior to his election, he served in the U.S. Navy, retiring as an Admiral after 31 years.He served as President Clinton's Director for Defense Policy at the National Security Council.

Craig Williams is a 21-year veteran of U.S. Marine Corps and served as legal counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. Prior to that he was a federal prosecutor and Judge Advocate General lawyer in the military. He served in Desert Storm flying in F-18s.

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