To the left. His opponent amy kennedy, former Public School teacher and a member of one of the most famous political dynasties. We want to know that the voices in south jersey are heard and i think that im the person to do that. Im raising my family here, this isnt just my house but my home and my whole family lives in the area and understand what is happening in the community. Seat for second congressional district. I know the district, ive walked it, the people are good hardworking middleclass people that want somebody thats going to break their back to them and thats me. To beat Jeff Van Drew, we need to have a vision of what we want this country to look like Going Forward and for me that an and moving out of the coronavirus and George Floyds death, that it will be really important to focus on the values of our community. The candidates will have their chance to square off on covid recovery, Climate Change, policing, health care and all the issues critical to the people of south jersey. Good evening and welcome to the john f Academic Center at Stockholm University here in Atlantic City. Im briana, for the next 60 minutes or so we will have informative debate between Second District congressional candidates sitting republican congressman Jeff Van Drew and democrat amy kennedy followed by post debate analysis. This event is sponsored by the William J Hugh center for Public Policy at university, moderator this each asking the centers executive director john. The panelist asking the questions are my colleagues from nj spotlight news, editor at large colleen and Senior Correspondent david cruz and myself. Before i turn it over to our moderator, please know we are doing this debate live and in person, there is no live studio audience, only our crew and guests are in the room, we are following covid19 protocols outlined by the university and department of health. Everyone involved has signed a Health Pledge and wore masks up until the start of this broadcast. Everyone else in the room will wear a mask for the duration of the debate. Lets begin, john. Thank you, breonna, welcome to Stockholm University. The center is pleased to partner with njtv new jersey spotlight news to bring you tonights debate in new jerseys Second District, home of one of the most important house races in the nation. Here are ground rules for tonight. Our panel will pose questions to the candidates on a variety of issues, candidates will have 90 seconds to respond and will be allowed 30 seconds for followups where appropriate. There are no Opening Statements. Each candidate will give a 1minute closing statement. Candidates, please respect the time limits to which you agree. To maximize the number of questions our last ten minutes will feature a fastpace round of questions requiring 30 second responses from each candidate and no rebuttals. Our first topic involves the coronavirus pandemic, breonna. Thank you, and welcome to you both. Mr. Van drew, first question is to you first, in the days since President Trumps covid19 diagnosis, more than 30 white house officials, staffers and others in his orbit have tested positive including former governor chris christie. Was it irresponsible of the president to travel and hold events knowing he had been exposed . 90 seconds to you. Well, i dont know exactly how much he did and didnt know and i cant speak for the president but obviously when somebody has been exposed and they know they have been, they have the responsibility to let their doctor or whatever Health Professional know. I believe that, you know, we are coming to a time now where we are going to be much more proactive about making sure that those types of things dont happen and we also know that which is interesting, that covid is your younger and healthier, et cetera, doesnt affect you nearly as much as people had originally thought. Some things are looking better on the horizon, still requires vigilance and still requires being careful. Ms. Kennedy, how would you rate the federal governments response to the coronavirus pandemic . First, thank you for having me here tonight, and, you know, i would love to tell you that everything was moving forward in a way where we can just not be cautious in the way that weve had to be tonight but we are six months in and we are still really struggling, we are seeing uptick in cases and its really the mix messaging that we saw throughout this pandemic about how dangerous the virus would be, whether or not we should have masks or not wear masks, the distribution of the ppe, left so much unclear for the American People, i want to see us have a real plan and make sure that we are thinking about how we are going to distribute the vaccine equitably and that we can soon reopen and get back to life. Mr. Van drew, i want to ask the same question to you, how would you rate the federal governments response to the pandemic . Well, first of all, we have to understand how this started. It did start in china and we have to understand that our cdc was not allowed to go into china and really evaluate what was happening. In fact, we dont know if it really came from a wet meat market or actually came from a laboratory, i believe it probably came from a laboratory, we dont know if this was genetically mutated but we do know that fortunately the president did say theyll be travel restrictions quite early on and after ward had travel restrictions with europe. Now at that time he was called racist, said he was xenophobic, thank you goodness he did. We are moving rapidly towards the vaccine and we will have it very soon, we are moving rapidly with Better Therapeutics and they are being used by physicians so i think that all in all, as i said before, i know we still have to be careful and we do, but we have light at the end of the tunnel. This is going to get better. America is going to move toward. The world is going to move forward. This has affected the entire world. Ms. Kennedy, i want to ask the next question to you. Democratic president ial candidate joe biden has expressed a willingness to go into a National Lockdown if necessary, do you support or oppose such an action . 90 seconds to you. Im hopeful that we are not going to need to take action like that. You know, here we have seen really high numbers in parts of the country and in parts of the state, lower numbers in other areas, id like to see it happen in a way thats more precise, but thats going to require Rapid Testing and tracing and until those are in place, we are going to have to handle it in the way that means that americans will be safe and that will help us get back on track as soon as possible. And so to clarify, if the Vice President were elected president and called for a National Lockdown, your position would be what . I dont think he would call a National Lockdown unless it were absolutely necessary and at that point i would hope that hes following the direction of scientists and doctors. Thank you. The next questions are about federal pandemic relief. Ms. Kennedy, it has been six months since Congress Passed the cares act. The president ended negotiations with democrats this week, but then said he would sign bills giving another 1,200dollar stimulus payment to most americans and more aid to airlines and businesses. Do you support another round of federal aid or stimulus funding and if so how much and where should it go . I absolutely support another round of stimulus funding. Im glad to hear that the president is going to approve those measures. We know that families in south jersey have been struggling, just looking at the rise in demand for the Community Food bank, for example, people are having a difficult time just putting food on their table. We know that unemployment is high and we need to get people back to work but in the meantime that that necessary stimulus is going to have to be the bridge there and its not just the airlines but its our Small Businesses that have really struggled and id like to see that stimulus go to the Small Businesses and working families as well as our frontline workers. Mr. Van drew, this is essentially the same question to you, do you support another round of stimulus funding fanned so how much and where should it go . Sure, well i do. The amount can be worked out. As you know its varied from 1. 6 billion to over but that trillion rather, 1. 6 trillion to over 2 trillion. But thats not the issue. Here is the real issue and we could have done this reason and the reason its not done already because of politics, we had a bill that we voted on for covid relief and in that bill were put certain measures that were so unacceptable to so Many Congress people including democrats. What was in that bill, squeezed in there, that shouldnt have been, the release of federal prisoners who were violent prisoners and that would be part of the bill, murderers, rapists and others, how could you vote for that . There was the funding of those who were undocumented residents in this country and they would actually get funded with the 2,500dollar stimulus and or more without even being residents when we dont get it for our 17yearold kids. It was the Green New Deal which would cost trillions of dollars ultimately, so all of the other political ideas and packages were squeezed in when most of the bill was good, so at the end of the day when we left, it didnt get done and we are still where we are. I want to go back. I want to get it done. I want to get a bill done in a bipartisan level with all of us working together and not putting in the nonsense, we can argue about the other stuff later but we need the relief. Thank you. Thank you for that. The next question excuse me, i have a quick followup for you, mr. Van drew, if thats okay. There are some republicans who have called the stimulus a bluestate bailout. Is that something that you agree with . So, of course, we do. It depends how you do that. I believe in helping the states. I believe that states should be held accountable for past practices that were very irresponsible in the way they budgeted it and what they did without a doubt, but i also think the expenses that they have do to due to the covid should be helped, we just cant bail them out because they didnt run their state either. Thats something that you have to go through state by state. Thank you. Next question is about election security. And this question is for both of the candidates. President trump has called into question the validity of this election. He contends theres widespread voter fraud, particularly in relation to vote by mail. But without providing proof. How confident are you in the security of this years election and the validity of the results, mr. Van drew, if you would start . Im hopeful but im worried. Talk to postmasters and any person, we can go to the street and talk to regular folks, every one of them will tell you that they have had the experience or know somebody who has had it where they have gotten extra ballots in the mail and people who moved and dont life there anymore, people who passed away and live in other states, thats not good. We are sending live ballots in the mail, millions of them and i expressed to the governor and i would right now openly on live and said what we should have done is even have maybe monday, tuesday and wednesday voting by machines, you could have the middle of the alphabet vote on tuesday and the beginning vote on monday and the end of the alphabet vote on wednesday, the point is you could have had the spacing and precautions and could have done everything the right way but people would go and vote and press the button and know they did the right thing. Traditional vote by mail is find because you have to make the request. Right now we are just putting ballots out there. Honestly we dont need President Trump to tell us that. All you need to do is talk to family and friends and i guaranty, thaw will tell you and it even happened in the primary that theyre getting all kinds of ballots and they dont know where theyre coming from. Ms. Kennedy, the same question. Yeah, im excited that we are among the states that are making sure that everybody will be safe and able to participate in the process. I think the primary was a great example of why the system works. We saw an inaccuracy in turnout. Almost 50 higher than ever in the history of district 2 that people participated both republicans and democrats, saw increase on participation and on the thinking that if people want to vote in person, they have that option, they can do that. If they need to put it in the mail, thats an option for them and theres also the secure drop boxes which we know that theres ten in each county at a minimum, so i feel like this is a good path forward and also means that everybody will have a paper ballot, it helps us with the idea of interference from any type of Foreign Government as well because paper ballots are secure and the whole narrative that President Trump has been pushing, i think, is disruptive. Quick followup, 30 seconds, if you would. There was an incident just last week up in byrd county where ballots were found with other mail that was thrown away and fairly quickly found the postal employee who they think was responsible. Does that prove that there may be some sort of, you know, worry that is we should have ballots getting where they need to go . I think always with an election that we should be very cautious that we need people to report if Something Like that is happening, but that this overall is a very secure method, its being used in other states and have been for a long time. And for you, mr. Van drew, 30 seconds, if you would, youve been a state legislator before you were in congress for an awful long time and i think you know how the system works, arent there enough safeguards in our system to prevent a person from mailing from voting twice, you know there were, there absolutely were and even in the system that we had we all spoke about in the legislature how actually there should be a backup on the machines and im sure youve heard that. Our machines arent even good enough and there are a whole lot better than all the paper ballots that were floating out there. Look what happened in patterson and look at what happened in the other locations. You mentioned one of them. Im telling you theres a lot. If you know anecdotally people that are telling you that they are getting ballots for people who arent even alive, you know something is wrong. It is a mistake. Time. The next questions involve political ideology. Welcome, candidates. Mammoth University Pole found out that half of the voters were bothered a little bit or a lot by your party switch. We got a lot of questions from the viewers, here is one of them. What do you say for voters who voted for you as a democrat in the previous election and feel betrayed by your switch to the Republican Party . 90 seconds. First of all, i have to disagree with the monmouth poll and ive walked the streets and talked to people and ive had a tremendous amount of support, our own internal polling doesnt show that at all which is really weird how different it is. I would say this, people voted for me because im Jeff Van Drew. My whole career has been based upon the fact that i wasnt so concerned about republicans and democrats. I was concerned about standing up for south jersey, for fighting for south jersey, for believing in the people in south jersey who often dont get their fair share. People didnt vote for me just because i was a democrat. In fact, in my legislative districts there are a whole lot more republicans than democrats and probably more republicans voted for me than democrats. So its voting for the individual person and we just cant vote for the party alone, so i dont buy it, i think that people know who i am, they know what i stand for and they will vote for or against me on that basis. Let me follow up with a 30second question for you. In the oval office, you pledged your undying support to President Trump, do you still standby that . What that means not that i will agree with him on everything. Weve had goodies agreements, solid policy issues and i voted differently when we voted in the house of representatives, so ive been very independent and i will continue to do so. What it meant is i support the presidency, that i support some of the things that hes done about a strong america, america that really can stand up and is number 1 in Energy Production in america, that has its own supply chain and an america that supports education and an america that will fight for the environment and an america that supports military and other things as well. Thank you. Ms. Kennedy, you come from a family well known in politics, you married into a family with a wellknown political name but you yourself have never held elected office, how do you expect to get anything done with no elected political experience . 90 seconds. Thank you, david. You know, this is really going back to the heart of why im here and it is because i was raised in this county, in this district, my family has lived here for four generations. I taught Public School, im raising my own 5 kids here and i work as a Mental Health advocate trying to make sure that we are improving lives and i think people will really support that kind of lived experience because im able to bring a voice of my own community to this position. So this followup question comes from a viewer and it pertains to where you fall on the political spectrum. Sure. A viewer asked, are there any issues with your partys president ial candidate joe biden on which you disagree . 30 seconds. Yeah, thank you. I think, you know, one last night that came up was on fracking and i was disappointed to hear that comment. Of course, it was something that weve heard a lot about and i want to see us moving toward Greener Energy and that was, i think, a step back. So you agree that there should be fracking or that there shouldnt be . I dont think that we should be encouraging fracking. All right. Mr. Van drew, in a speech in the republican inspectional convention this summer you said you switched parties because the Democratic Party had moved too far to the left and that they now supported radical socialist agenda, what specifically do you think is radical and socialist about the Democratic Party . Theres a number of things, so lets start with the Green New Deal and just how much that would cost, trillions of dollars. There is certainly the idea among Many Democrats that we should defund the police. Now think about it. The individuals who stand up for us who keep us safe, who are willing to do anything to make sure that people actually survive an incident or whatever occurs, we should defund them . The answer is not to defund the police, they actually need to be helped more financially and then to have more work done within the community, Community Policing where community and police come together and the community has actual meetings with the police. We can work some of the issues out, but i stand tall with my police and i believe in what they do and i believe what they stand for. I stand for strong military, most of many of the radical democrats at least do not stand for a strong military. I dont believe any nation is ever attacked because its too strong. I stand for not only that but i stand for being number 1 in Energy Production in the world and having a good supply chain. You know whats really embarrassing, it was embarrassing after china sent us the wonderful gift of the virus, we then had to go back with our tail in between our legs and ask them for ppe. Never again. We should stand and have our own supply chain, produce our own stuff, make sure that we manufacture, make sure that we lead, make sure that we continue to be that shining city on the hill thats ahead of where everybody is in the world and help them. All right. Thank you both. Now turn to the topic of health care. Mr. Van drew, this question goes to you first. The Current Administration is actively seeking to strike down the individual mandate in obamacare. If successful, that would mean about 19,000 constituents in your district would lose their health care according to the most recent data from the Kaiser Family foundation, is it your view to see the Affordable Care act overturned. Its too expensive for many people but we do not have anything good to replace it yet. I will not vote for that to happen until we have a just as good or hopefully better replacement. Thats the wrong thing to do. We have to make sure that people have health care and we absolutely have to make sure that they are covered for preexisting conditions. Thats why when i voted the last time this came up in the house, i did not vote to actually remove obamacare or to, you know, say that we wouldnt continue with the aca, we have to until we find Something Better and i also dont want to see taken away those who have Employer Healthcare, that they have employer sponsored healthcare, they should be able to keep that. We should not go to a system thats going to destroy all of that. People need to also have their own doctor. If i may follow up, sir, are you saying that your colleagues in congress and the president do not have a plan, an appropriate plan to replace . I would say that theres some pieces of it but for an entirely appropriate plan, i think i would need to see more of it and evaluate it more before i put my signature on it. Thank you. Ms. Kennedy, you support a medicare for all who want a health care plan, what should the governments role be in providing health care, 90 seconds, please . Thank you. Well, im glad to hear we agree on the fact that we need to maintain the Affordable Care act. Thats important now more than ever, i believe, and we cannot for south jersey see so many two uninsured when unemployment is so high right now and people have lost their Employer Health care. I do believe that a public option for medicare would be important for people who are not able to afford that inbetween coverage and that we absolutely should be able to maintain our employer package if possible. So for me, its going on the to be crucial as we are going around the county and talking to families that are worried about their health care and they have the care that they need, lifesaving treatment is not put off because they simply cant afford it. Estimates for a public option run the gamut, wouldnt the government need to raise taxes in order to pay for this and would you support that . 30 seconds, if you would, your response. Sure. I know how expensive it is even congressman van drew talked about this just 2 years ago on the stage, how the cost of people having to resort to Crisis Management when theyre in the emergency room really is a cost on all taxpayers. We need to be putting Preventive Care at the forefront and we need to talk about how we can make healthier lives and healthier communities so that the costs are reduced for all of us but we also need to be able to to bargain for lower Prescription Drug prices and that would be key to lower for all of us. Mr. Van drew, 30 seconds for you, is there another option to keep the costs low without an individual mandate . Well, certainly bargaining for Prescription Drugs is an idea that i agree with. It is why i voted for a broad and big bill that didnt go to its final fruition to actually lower drug costs and i think that we absolutely positively must do that and do it in a way where we incentivize American Experience and still coming up and, you know, finding new drugs and better therapies. Secondly, i believe when we were talking about health care before, i understand her opinion but many people disagree on the democrats side and believe that all privatelysponsored healthcare should be removed and all should be government, period. We now turn to the economy. This is a question for both of the candidates. South jerseys economy is less diverse and more reliant on tourism and Atlantic City continues to struggle since closing of casinos and parts of the district are also having trouble finding work. A voter wrote in this with question, i commute to philadelphia due to lack of goodpaying jobs with good benefits in south jersey. Now more than ever, i want to stay closer to home. Do you have any plans for job growth in this area, ms. Kennedy, if you would answer first . Thank you. This is so important in our communities. Ive lived here near my parents and my brothers and thats a conversation that ive had with my family and between us theres 12 grandchildren and we wonder what opportunities are going to be here for our kids so they can live down the street from their grandparents, but what we have seen is an economy that has struggled over not just during the pandemic but over years here and we have to be able to diversify that economy through nvesent in infrastructure, i expect that to be not just bridges and roads which we desperately need, broadband, building for Climate Resilience that would bring goodpaying jobs to the area and we also need to see diversification so we are building out research in our area, that we are building out Green Technology and the faa and i also believe that we need to support the Small Businesses that have been struggling during this time but really give the character to our community. And mr. Van drew, whats your jobs plan for south jersey . So first of all, we have to look at what weve got here. We have to make sure to help the Tourism Industry more. Its not it shouldnt be the only industry but one of the shameful things that happened is every other state in the United States of america had a plan where areas that werent hit as hard by covid were able to open up earlier, even Governor Cuomo in new york state opened up Northern New York state earlier. Our numbers are far lower than other areas of the state of new jersey yet our governor did not allow that to happen. He used the same standards for our people down here who easily could have opened up certain businesses and those businesses were destroyed, those businesses, many of them are not there anymore and those businesses are so weak and may not make it into the future, the ones that are surviving. That was the wrong thing to do and wasnt done in most of the country and i disagree with the way we opened up. Secondly, whats the plan, the plan is to work with Faa Tech Center and new technology to make sure that hopefully eventually not only the tech center does a lot of work, i have the bill that ive worked on and i have broad support on it in which we are working with the tech center to try to get this through where they would actually be part of working with airlines and airports to have less problems with covid issues so that they could deal with that better. Those are the types of technological things that we need to do. We also need to do more not only on that type of technology, but on technologies that deal across the gamut, they want to work in lower township. Time, mr. Van drew. Sorry, but thank you. Let me ask a quick follow up that was off topic but since you brought businesses and closures. I think you supported or maybe had a fundraiser or been seen with gym owners who had been closed down and then violated state orders, knocked down the doors i was not seen with them actually, but i definitely i did not have a fundraiser with them. Okay. But i do feel for them. Right here in northernfield island gym, i have gone 20some years and i came back from washington and they said you wont be able to work out here, we are closing our doors. Its real stuff that happened to people. Their lives were changed when we could have done a better job medically correctly without making people sick. We did the wrong thing. I think they were expressing, just like the founders of our nation did at one time, their extreme frustration and we were hurting our families and taking food out of their mouths. Do i think they have to obey the law . They do but ultimately the governor, did he padlock the places . He locked them up and it didnt happen down here in south jersey. Our folks just obeyed and many of them lost their businesses. I dont know who i feel worse for spect this is a no other question on the economy for both candidates. New jersey is among the most diverse state in the nation, farmers count on migrant labor shore and boardwalk businesses hire workers from abroad for the summer, where do you agree or disagree with the trump administrations policy on immigration and on workpieces . Ms. Kennedy first. I think immigration is an area where we absolutely need bipartisan support to come up with a policy and a plan so that we can have the work we need to hear in south jersey when we need employees but that their rights are protected and their safety will be protected. We know that was very difficult during the pandemic to ensure safety of those coming in seasonally to work and we should be able to expand where we need to bring workers and butt where we havent those that are qualified in our own area we need to hire their first and we need to ensure that employers that are not hiring legally need to be held accountable. Mr. Van drew, where do you agree or disagree . Good question. I agree with him that we do not need and should not have open borders. You asked the question before between those folks on the left and what i believe that is something that is very, very different. I dont believe in sanctuary cities. I agree with him on that. Thats another area where a very different and i think that we really need to look at it and i dont believe sanctuary counties or sanctuary states. That is all harmful. We have to take care of our people first and we are a nation of the rule of law. Before you asked me a question should be obey the law and at the end of the date we have two and we should. Also, people coming across the border with no control whatsoever and some being criminals and some worse and they should also have to obey the law. We cant do that anymore. Thats where i agree with him. I also agree that we absolutely need a new plan for immigration in general, particularly for the immigration with workpieces because our areas are so dependent upon it and we do use it for a few months of the year and it could be a learning experience for people, but then they go back home. Thank you. These next questions deal with race and policing. Mr. Van drew, do you believe systemic racism exists in america . If systemic racism means and i always wonder because everyone gives different definitions that the average person in america hates people of other colors, i do not. If it means that there are pockets of problems sometimes in some areas for some reasons, of course, we know that exists. This is wonderful, amazing country and a country that is self correct but i really do believe that gets better and better and does more to help with these problems. I believe that, you know, i will jump forward to our police but i dont believe our average Law Enforcement official hates anybody of color. I just dont believe that. I believe theyre doing a job to help us and many of the people in Law Enforcement are people of color. We have asians and blacks and whites and hispanics, all in lawenforcement. I dont think of society in the negative and the hurtful and emphasizing hate is what helps. I think what we need to do is again come together and see where we agree more than we disagree and come together and make our country and our relationships even better. I dont think what is happening in the cities now with the destruction of buildings and throwing molotov cocktails with killing and hurting the police and other people and that hurts actually folks in the black communities more than it hurts anybody else. It is their homes but whats happening in portland is a shame. Its a weak kneed may they wont stand up and believe in law. It is the law. Again, like the generation before its the rule of law and we have to obey that for the protection of everyone. Let me followup and give you 30 seconds for this. Studies show black americans are three times more likely than whites to be shot by police, five times more likely to be incarcerated, black children are four times more likely to live in poverty. If these are the results of systemic racism to what do you attribute those disparities . Disparities exist because we need to do more work. Excuse me, long day, a lot of talking. We need to do more work to bring us together but the disparities dont exist because the average police officer, when he or she wakes up in the morning says, i hate black people. They dont. Its not true good many of them are color themselves. We need more education, education about each other and how we feel about each other and what we do. We need more education in the schools to teach people, young people how to deal with issues when they have an issue with a police officer. Who needs that education . We all do. You, me and everyone. I will be clear. I stand by men and women who died for us, get injured for us, get hurt for us every single day of the week, every week of the year. I stand by them but it doesnt mean we cant make this better and we can. Ms. Kennedy, do you believe systemic racism exists in america . I do. When we talk about systemic racism i dont think were talking about racist people. Thats a different thing. I think systemic racism is when we do about our institutions and how we address so that we are looking at our system of education. I was so proud to be a teacher in new jersey that is at the top of this country and Public Education but i also acknowledge that we are among the most segregated schools and that we have to make changes in our criminal justice system, in our Education System and policies around helping and employment and equal pay. Do you see a legislative solution to this . I do. I think its policybased and i think that when we see racism that exists within our systems as an institution that is something we can address just like we had Voting Rights act and this is the type of policy that we need to be applied to other institutions. Mr. Van drew, d from the Police Become a part of the mainstream conversation on police reform. How do you define defunding the police . I think defunding the police is obviously lowering their budget so there are less Police Officers on the street and you saw some of these towns want to have no police at all. Portland is an example of that and other areas as well. Defunding police means that you dont want to give them adequate compensation for the chance that they take putting their lives on the line. Defunding the police means they wont get the equipment and the safety equipment, the vests and whatever else they need to make sure that they stay alive as they take bullets for you. Did you see the lady the other day, the officer who, officer of color by the way, who took three bullets to the head but still was putting a tourniquet around her partner. These are the people we are talking about. That is what defunding does and takes away what they need to be able to survive day in and day out on the beach trying to help people survive themselves. Now, if you want to do more good and we can, as i said, i really believe in giving more money to have Community Policing and Community Programs and Community Meetings and really connecting the police with the Community Even more. They dont have time to do that now. You know what the number thaw number one thing told me, last week Atlantic City i talked to islamic folks out there and i talked to bangladeshi people and i talked to folks that were south asian and folks that were black and i talked to folks that were white and talk to folks that were hispanic and to a person i said what is it that we can do better and they said we need more police. We need more help in Atlantic City. Every few days from store windows on atlantic avenue are smashed in and that is the reality. These are Small Business people and people that came here, immigrated here and are trying to make a living and a life for themselves and they cant even feel safe and they are so worried that every day their goods and services will be stolen and their windows will be smashed. They want more help and they want more police, not less. Do you support reforms to policing . I do. So, of course we should there should be reformed in anything. Im a dentist and in dentistry. Its only 30 seconds. Theres a good parallel but i will finish. The point is theres always more you can learn and always more you can do so less instead of blowing up buildings and hurting police and residents lets sit down quietly, carefully in a bipartisan way together and make this happen. Ms. Kennedy, how do you define the police . I would not disagree with his idea of what hunting. I only disagree with his accusation that i support that. I believe, as you do, that we need to have policing that are better trained and that are addressing bias as we said earlier, bias in our systems needs to be addressed and that when we are talking about how we move together as a country and how we mitigate the violence that we are seen in this nation right now that we should be talking about solutions to that by bringing both parties to the table and making sure Law Enforcement has a voice at the table as well as community members. That is where we find real buyin and solutions that might work. When we talk about how we make our Community Safer i do believe it will be an investment, not only in lawenforcement but in things like Mental Health and making sure that their substance treatment so that everybody that is struggling in our communities will have the help they need and we will see lawenforcement not have to arrive on a crisis seen so often. Should some of those Services Come from budgets setaside for Police Departments . I would like to see our state and local governments funded so that we can have both in place unfortunately, my opponent has not supported the funding of our state and local government by our federal dollars. Thank you both. May i Say Something for a moment . Are we sticking to the rule that when we talk about the other person we can get an additional 30 seconds . Yes. I will ask for that 30 seconds. First of all, respectfully, during the primary we absolutely have the quotes and will give them. I will love that. Thank you. You did support d from the police and that number one is not true. Secondly what have always said about the state and federal government, i support helping them at the federal level if it is due to covid and if it is due to bad, irresponsible budgeting i dont think thats the job of the federal government to do that. If another state, if the state of new york is completely irresponsible in the way they fund their budget the people in new jersey should not have to pay for that. If we have a problem where we are all having issues because of the expenses related to covid then the federal government should help and always made that clear. Thank you. We need the funding. We are the ones that need the funding. I agree. In regards to my comment at the naacp forum which i was proud to participate in i said there is merit to having conversations around how we provide funding and make sure the Mental Health services are available and you took that and spun it to say that i supported defunding the police and that i said, id never even said the word defined, but you use that in every ad, and mailers about me and you have constantly used that refrain yet when you are asked about your pledge of undying support you said thats not what i meant but you are willing to put words into my mouth that i have not even said. I get another 30 seconds. I did not say thats not what i meant. Thats not how it works. I explained what it meant and i think i made that really clear and as far as the defunding they were speaking of that issue and you said there was merit to it. Right, merit to having a conversation. If you dont agree with having a conversation. No, i dont think there is merit to conversing about how we will defund our police. I think it will hurt them and thats where we disagree. Thank you. If i could follow up i thank you touched on something that we were thinking of. Ms. Kennedy, you first. What would you say is the ad that your opponent is running against you that is most offensive are the most false and how do you answer that . I think that i am basically cut and paste into the republican talking points that are happening across the country right now. I would like to be seen as an individual may be look my policies on my page before calling me a phony, liberal, elitist and all those things that i think anyone that went and took a look at the website would say that really doesnt seem to fit that schoolteacher. I dont think that is her. And really just been able to have that conversation about what the needs are in south jersey and who would represent it best. Rather than going to that kind of negative nancy campaign that we are seeing too much of frankly. Wister van drew. Ms. Kennedy, i dont thank you are that homespun a schoolteacher. You are different. I dont mean that in a negative way but you are attempting to achieve something very different and your families are very different and theres nothing wrong with any of that but you are just not a little homespun a schoolteacher but suddenly, i think that a lot of the ads are offensive because sometimes we dont want to hear what is the truth. Sometimes it is negative and ive had more negative advertisements against anybody else living in this room right now considering the number of years ive served and offered at times in the past to say lets not do any of that but lets have a truly positive campaign and only once in all the campaigns i ever ran with somebody ever do that. Everything has a notation on it and where it comes from and what the words are otherwise we would have had to pull whatever the advertisement was great i truly dont want any of them, my wife starts to tell me i say i dont want to hear it. Thank you. We will move on now. Lets talk about, change. Ms. Kennedy, almost all the districts are the most optimistic scenarios for Climate Change have 45000 homes in their Second District at risk of flooding within the next 30 years but how would you work with the republicans to present the impending crisis of rising sea level. Thank you. This is such an important issue that i think we can find some bipartisan ground and that really is in the Infrastructure Project that we would hope to see filled our Climate Resiliency in south jersey because we note that new jersey is at the top of the list for being at risk of Climate Change so regardless of what you believe the causes of Climate Change art we note that we are front and center in that battle and if there is to be an investment in infrastructure like President Trump had asked for that we know Vice President biden is hoping to achieve under the build back better planned that there would be a Real Investment here in roads and bridges and in levees and in making sure that we are doing what we can to provide natural dunes and have the production we need for businesses, for homes and also to invest in green energy so that we are not seen further Climate Change. Mr. Van drew, do you believe Climate Change is threatening the district and if so, how would you work with members of your own party, many of whom are Climate Change deniers to do something to protect this district . There are those that are not but i do believe in Climate Change and ive indicated that before. In fact, i just was a sponsor of the land and Water Conservation fund probably one of the largest environmental bills that has ever been done in history the guarantees open space and open areas and maintaining waterways and all kinds of good things. I became a republican so it was given to a democrat who is a great friend and i still sponsored it with him and it worked out and passed and the president signed it. Carbon capture, really good ideas and something we should be working on more to help with carbon change. Zoning, the way we zone in the way we build our houses and we are doing this automatically, building them higher and making sure that there is venting so if water comes into the home it goes right out of the home which makes a big difference in Flood Insurance and helps with that which is another big issue. I believe there is still room for nuclear, i really do. Nuclear can be clean and many countries around the world are doing it that are concerned with Climate Change as well. I believe in solar and solar incentivizing as well with solar energy. What i dont believe in is sometimes we may feel with countries like china responsible for 20 alone, just now, 20 of the carbon, 20 of the pollution and then we give them a special deal that they can still go on and basically keep doing that and we will pay for it because we will do all the right things and they wont and we will have to go and buy our stuff because we dont have a supply chain. That i dont believe. Followup, mr. Van drew mentioned Flood Insurance program and the biggest storm we had was super storm sandy and there were billions of dollars that had to be paid out through that program and is that a viable option still . Should people starting in about being away from the shoreline . I think we still need to have the Flood Insurance available when this is a community and we know everybody is not moving away and we are still seen families that have been here for generations like my own that want to stay in this area. Of course, we need to make sure that we are building in a way that will be resilient like weve seen i live in [inaudible] and weve seen people raising our houses and so many people have left the area but for those who remain they need to have that protection and safeguard and this is other Solutions Including the infrastructure. Our next topic is transportation. Ms. Kennedy, i want to ask you this question first. Public transportation as we all know in south jersey continues to be much more scarce than it is in north jersey. This does limit Economic Opportunity for some of the residents here. We saw this two years ago in the Atlantic City bus line was shut down for months and they were worse to find alternative resume rose. What would you do provide more Public Transportation for the people of south jersey . You have 90 seconds. Thank you. I do think this is important thing for getting our economy back on its feet. We note that without really Reliable Transportation and without an easy way to commute to different areas that will be hard for people to get to work and also for companies to think that they might invest in our area so this is a twofold thing, not only helping the families that need that transportation but also luring other businesses into our area for them to want to invest because we got the system, the infrastructure in place to make that possible. Im proud to have the support of the unions and to make sure they will continue to have that service and be able to expand it. We will need federal dollars to come in and help support us in our effort in this space to make it more equitable and transportation is a priority. I want to follow up with that. What specific industries would you look to lure as you mentioned bringing jobs here and that is difficult because of that infrastructure in place and other specific sectors you would love to target. Yeah, what we seen is that distribution could be an option in our area if we were to have in place the systems we needed surrounding the Atlantic City airport because they do have the capacity but dont have the transportation and we dont have a roads set up to easily get out to the places that they need but the airport itself lends itself to distribution. Mr. Van drew, same question to you regarding Public Education in south jersey and lack of opportunities offered to some residents as far as employment goes. Good question with number one, to mind everybody that went new Jersey Transit closed down and was not having their line between Atlantic City and philadelphia i thank you remember how hard i fought and how much noise i made to make sure we got it back because we would lose it. It will get worse which is terrible. Secondly, same with the bus curve, these folks dont want to be down here because we dont have the numbers, especially in the wintertime so they were looking also to cut back and i can give you a list of mayors i help to keep the transportation and their communities but we need to do better appeared there is no question. One of the ideas may be smaller units of transportation. These big buses we may not need and all are areas down here and people are familiar with the jitneys in those types of vehicles and have more application and some of our communities down here. I think that makes sense as well. By the way, when we finally do an infrastructure built which we havent done because we been playing so much politics and when i say we had so many investigations and impeachment and Everything Else we did not get to a lot of the work and a lot of the good questions you were talking about dont have the final answers they should because of what went on in congress which is more political than substantive. Thank you. Thank you, we will move now to our round of quick questions and answers. Please take no more than 30 seconds. Each candidate will answer both questions and there will be no rebuttals. Ms. Kennedy, i would like to ask you first, over the last 70 years taxpayers have spent close to a billion and a half dollars on beach replenishment projects along the shore. We touched on this a bit tonight but to think this is an appropriate longterm solution to beach erosion . Thirty seconds for your response. I think in the short term i think that we need to continue to do it for our tourism but of course, if there are more viable longterm solution that i hope we will use that but for now it is what we need to do to add to our source economy to make sure this is a place where people still want to come to the beach. Mr. Van drew, same question to you. Good question. Sue from stockton does a lot of this work and we still need to do this now and no one has come up with a better answer. The answer is not completely retreat from the shore pit that is for sure prayed for now this is absolutely what we need to do and if we can find Something Better in the future lets do it. Lets experiment with it and see if it works. I want to move on to the Supreme Court. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin confirmation hearing for judge Amy Coney Barrett on october 12, less than four weeks before the election. This comes four years after the republicans denied president obamas nominee with 34 weeks before the election. Is moving ahead with this confirmation appropriate . Mr. Van drew, you first. I think it is appropriate because its up to the president and everyone has a different way of looking at it but he did nominate her and it will go through the senate if he had the votes in the senate and she will become the next Supreme Court justice. This is not unique. This is historically been done before and its been done many times when there has only been a certain number of weeks to go forward and do this. As long as the job is done thoroughly, properly and efficiently i dont see an issue with it. I think, quite prickly, it was a little different back then because back then the Majority Party and Minority Party were different. Ms. Kennedy. I would like to see consistency. I think the American People would like to see consistency. What was done for years ago should be appropriate now. That is what people, voters are asking for. I think people just want to know that the same rules will apply. Moving on to a related question which involves abortion. Access to legal abortion has been settled caselaw in the United States since 1973. Should that legal access be maintained . Ms. Kennedy. Yes, i am prochoice. I believe that it should be maintained and im going to be someone that will continue to fight for womens reproductive rights. Star van drew. I thank you have to qualify that a little bit. Do i support the Hyde Amendment . Yes, i do which says it shouldnt be taxpayerfunded. Do i support lateterm abortion . I absolutely do not. Especially with what we know in todays times and what we can see because of the science of it. Do i support live birth abortion . I do not and i think thats wrong as well. I think it depends again, it has to be qualified. To support abortion under any circumstances . Certainly if it is the life of the mother or rape or incest, without question. Mr. Van drew, do you support or oppose guncontrol legislation, including universal background checks and a ban on military style assault weapons . Thirty seconds. Certainly support universal background checks and im a gun owner and i believe in the second moment and to believe that because, for example, in new jersey we reduced the side of a magazine from 13ten so i went to the gun the store and had the size of my magazine reduced and as i was standing there and getting that done i thought i guess the next gang banger or criminal will be sure to go in there and before he murdered somebody he will get his magazine size reduced. Its nonsense. We need to punish the people or create an actually committing the crimes, not legal gun owners ms. Kennedy, same question. In Teaching School had to train our kids how to hide in corners and under their desks and do these drills because we simply havent come up with good, meaningful, changes to make sure that we are using common sense gun laws and i support the ones you mentioned because i think that is the direction we need to move in so that we are making sure thate il assault weapons are also going to be what we need to do to deserve for our children to have their safety in schools and what they deserve. Moving to marijuana. Even if new jersey voters elect to legalize marijuana this november it will still be classified as a schedule one control subject on the federal level. Do you support removing it from that list . I do. I think we need to be able to do the research in the science that is not possible when its a schedule on drugs and when were talking medical uses we want the science there to back it up and support it. Mr. Van drew. I do as well. Thank you. We will move on to a question on Social Security. Mr. Van drew you will be first. The president has expressed the desire to end the payroll tax that funds of Social Security. What is your response to that proposal . Because of the inaction of congress and all that has gone on people need more money in their pocket as we all know and have said here. I support the payroll tax cut. Knowing that weve got to push to get the economy going next year because that will have to be repaid. Ms. Kennedy, same question to you. I do not support the changes that President Trump made or community, south jersey, so many people rely on soclbenefits ando put in jeopardy like this and we saw big corporations that were very successful during this virus and they have the tax breaks and yet we cant afford to make sure the people have the Social Security they need . Thats unacceptable. Cdc recommends wearing a Face Covering while in public when social distancing isnt possible. Lets start with you, mr. Van drew. Would you support a federal mandate to mask where. I would not support a federal mandate. Each state is different. What wyoming needs to do and north dakota needs to do may be very different than what the city of washington or the city of new york cast to do. There is a little bit of states right here. I support the idea that we should be careful in doing what is medically correct but there are good doctors and good leaders in those areas that can make those decisions. Ms. Kennedy. I think i would have to see what the parameters were and what the qualifying of people that had covid were to be something there would be nationwide and otherwise i agree and would support that based on a local basis. This will be our last question of the evening. You will go first. As we sit here socially distant will you get a Coronavirus Vaccine as soon as it becomes a locally available . I will get a Coronavirus Vaccine as soon as it is available provided that the fda has approved it and, you know, science has said that this is safe to do which i know it will be and im hopeful this will be something that we can all as a nation move forward. Mr. Van drew. Yes, i will. Thank you, john. Thank you, thank you to the candidates paired we now go to closing statements and by prior agreement with the candidates mr. Van drew will give his first 60 seconds please. In any event, thank you for debating with me, thank you all for the wonderfully back job you did. Its an honor to be here and on honor to be in america. I love this country great this country has been so amazingly good to me to think that i am a United States congressman and was not a known wad growing up and able to become a dentist and all because of the freedoms we have in all because of the amazing nature and exceptionalism of this country and the americanism of this country. In the right to reach for the grassed ring and to do better and do more. I think this election is one of the most, if not the most important election since the civil war and i think it really matters. I would say to the people watching and listening to this is if you care about america and if you want to live in and be in the america that you have always known and always loved and has been so good to our children and our grandchildren and hopefully our greatgrandchildren in the future that the selection matters a lot. Im not going to be crude enough to say you should even vote for but i thank you should figure it out. Thank you so much. I am fourthgeneration south jersey and i am running because i love my home. I love where i live in and my five kids here. When i taught in Northfield Community school it was my job to look around, see who was struggling and help remove those barriers so they could be successful. That is what i want to do for you in congress and want to be able to make sure that we are including our entire community and helping achieve success for south jersey. For too long it is been ignored and for too long people have not showed up to do the job. You deserve a congressperson who will work hard for you every day and make the changes that we need to see to get our healthcare and our economy back on its feet. Thank you, that concludes the debate portion of this evening. I want to thank both are candidates amy kennedy, congressman Jeff Van Drew. Who will control congress in january . 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