North Country This Week

The race for the 21st U.S. Congressional District is picking up steam and North Country This Week continues coverage of the campaign, featuring a conversation with Democrat Tedra Cobb of Canton on several issues central to the contest.

The newspaper published a story last week concerning our conversation with incumbent Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whom Cobb will face in the coming election.

Cobb will be making her second attempt to take the seat after a strong showing in her freshman run in 2018. Cobb had the strongest showing by a Democrat in the 21st Congressional District race since 2012 when Bill Owens of Plattsburgh won re-election.

Although Cobb lost the election she brought in 90,526 votes to Stefanik’s to 122,863.

North Country This Week asked the candidate what may be different in the race this time around for her campaign.

“I’m in this race because of health care, that has not changed. The goal for me is to increase access to health care,” said Cobb. “I’ve spent my career working on that mission. That’s why I’m in this race.”

However, Cobb said one of the “great” things about her second run for the 21st Congressional District seat is that she doesn’t have a primary fight on her hands this time around before the main event. “So I’m able to really talk about who I am and what I hope to accomplish in Washington.

“And, I’m able to talk about the ways that Elise Stefanik has hurt her own constituents,” Cobb said.

Health care

Cobb pointed out that Stefanik voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, “which would have kicked 64,000 of her own constituents, our friends and neighbors and community, off of their health care. (It) would have gutted protections for pre-existing conditions,” Cobb said.

“And most recently she voted against the prescription drug bill that would have given people the help that they so desperately need. I mean, we have people deciding whether they put food on their table or pay for prescription drugs. We have seniors who are trying to decide if they pay their taxes and stay in their houses or pay for their prescription drugs,” Cobb said.

“Those are . . . things that hit people so hard here,” she said. “And, that’s why I’m in this race.”

The newspaper asked Cobb about the Trump Administration’s proposal to switch Medicaid to a block grant system, which could potentially affect health care coverage for more than 12,000 St. Lawrence County residents. The candidate claimed that the president is taking Stefanik’s lead on stances regarding social programs, including privatizing some of them.

Cuts to Medicaid would harm people not only in this district but also in New York State, Cobb said. “And would cut programs by billions of dollars. This is not good for the people in northern New York who are working so hard, many one and two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet,” she said. “I don’t agree with those cuts and I’m going to fight to make sure they don’t happen.”

North Country This Week asked Cobb about her shift from supporting a “Medicare-for-all” single payer, government-run health care program and what she would like to see instead. A growing number of Democrats are drawing away from supporting a “Medicare-for-all” program. The majority of the party’s presidential candidates are not backing such a plan that would essentially get rid of private health insurance, including “Cadillac” plans lobbied for by labor unions, major Democratic party endorsers.

Cobb’s stance comes down somewhere in the middle. “My mission has always been about access to health care and to increase access to health care. That hasn’t changed at all,” Cobb said. “I do think a public option gets us there, a Medicare public option gets us there, and that’s what’s important.”

Cobb said that such an option would not do away with private health insurance, but provide an alternative for those that need it to buy into a Medicare public option.

On other health care issues, the candidate said Stefanik voted last year against funding health navigators for people seeking opioid addiction services. Cobb said the 21st District’s residents need help not only for the opioid addiction crisis but for the substance abuse crisis in general. “Families need support and she voted directly against that support,” Cobb said.

Gun control, sanctuary

North Country This Week asked Cobb about the call by some local gun owners to have the county legislature declare St. Lawrence County a Second Amendment sanctuary where the state’s SAFE Act, which many feel is onerous, would not be enforced by sheriff’s deputies. The newspaper also asked the candidate about gun control and gun rights issues in general.

“I think . . . all of us want to make sure that our kids are safe when they go to school,” Cobb said. “But I think we also agree that we don’t want to take away responsible gun owners’ rights.”

“I think there are things we can do. Universal background checks. Red flag laws that do protect families like in the Violence Against Women Act, and closing gun show loopholes. Americans agree on these things, they are common sense things, they don’t take away responsible people’s guns. I support those kinds of things,” Cobb said. “Unfortunately, Stefanik voted against them.”

In the recent story North Country This Week published featuring our talk with Elise Stefanik, the incumbent claimed Cobb privately was in favor of an assault weapons ban, but wouldn’t support it publicly. The newspaper asked Cobb directly about her stance on the issue.

“I don’t support an assault rifle ban,” Cobb said.

Stefanik’s Trump support

The newspaper asked the candidate about Stefanik’s support of President Trump during the recent House of Representatives impeachment proceedings, and how she served as his surrogate during the Iowa Caucus recently. North Country This Week also questioned Cobb on how the incumbent’s support may have helped or hurt her own campaign and how it might affect the North Country’s representation in Washington.

“The first thing I want to say is that Stefanik found herself in Iowa but she had a really hard time showing up in the North Country,” Cobb said. “And that has been a repeated issue.”

“But I also want to make it really clear . . . the behavior of the president is unacceptable. And he is guilty. Even now after being exposed he’s unrepentant. And I think people see that every day. I’m guessing that Elise Stefanik can see it too. I want to say that Congress did not take their job seriously. Stefanik did not take her job seriously in the House. And certainly the Senate did not either. It wasn’t a fair trial and there were not impartial jurors,” Cobb said.

“There aren’t winners here, with the exception of Mitt Romney who I felt voted his conscience,” Cobb said. “I think before going in there (the Senate), it was foregone conclusion.”

“I want to make it clear, that out of the options that were given to us, I would have voted to convict the president,” Cobb said.

Cobb said Stefanik’s support of the president has shown where her allegiances are. “And that is to her political career,” Cobb said. “She is climbing the political ladder and she is using this district to do that.”

The candidate said, however, that the impeachment is over. She added that now the district needs a representative who can focus on the issues important to the region.

On the environment

Cobb said the North Country relies on the environment “whether it be for farming or tourism.”

“I’m running against somebody who has gotten money from corporate polluters, and then voted to allow them to dump toxic waste in the water,” Cobb said.

The candidate said Stefanik may say she supports a clean environment but her voting record doesn’t reflect that.

“She voted against the Clean Power Plan. She voted against the Conservation Stewardship Program that was the largest conservation program to help clean air and clean water,” said Cobb.

“I think in this district the people know how important clean air and clean water are. We want to be able to eat the fish out of the St. Lawrence River, Lake George and Lake Champlain,” Cobb said.

The Democrat called the issue “crucially important” to the region’s tourism, but claimed that Stefanik has voted against environmental protections. “So what she says and what she does are two very different things,” Cobb said.

Ethics reform

Besides health care access, the environment and other issues, Cobb said she is committed to ethics reform and supporting open government at the federal level.

“I worked very hard on the (St. Lawrence County) Legislature to pass an ethics law. I believe we have to undo Citizen’s United and get money out of politics,” Cobb said. In contrast, the candidate claims that her opponent has repeatedly accepted campaign money from large corporate donors.

“I’m committed to those things and I’m going to work really hard on those things,” she said.

Women’s issues

Cobb explained her positions on women’s issues like federal paid family leave, abortion, and funding for Planned Parenthood.

“I believe in a woman’s right to choose and I support Planned Parenthood,” said Cobb, adding that her opponent has voted against funding for the organization.

The candidate said she supports health care for women and a federal paid leave program like the one offered by New York State.

“And whether it’s family leave for our children, or whether it’s family leave for those of us who have cared for loved ones who might be at the end of life, whether it's a woman or a man in the household, we need to make sure that people don’t lose their jobs because they have to care for their families,” Cobb said.

Fake news, media matters

As we did with her opponent, North Country This Week asked Cobb for her stance on “fake news,” which gets a lot of attention at the national political level, and on the role of local media in supporting democracy, and the closing of more than 2,000 newspapers in the last decade.

“I was asked in the last (campaign), both of us, Stefanik and I, were both asked to run campaigns that were honest and true. To not lie. I want you to know that I made that commitment and I will not lie about my opponent. I will tell the truth about her record, I will be hard about that record, it's a record that is harmful,” Cobb said.

She said however that the “culture of lying” when a candidate is running for office or when they get elected has to change. “And our local media is invaluable in leading this here . . . and local media has a way of holding us accountable, and that’s really important,” the candidate said.

Final words

The candidate has long ties to the North Country. Cobb is a former St. Lawrence County Legislator, worked at Riverside Correctional Facility and North Country AIDS Outreach, and served on several non-profits, including a volunteer fire department.

“I deeply care about this community. This is my home,” Cobb said. “I am deeply, deeply committed to this community. I want people to know that the person they have seen working so hard in this community for the last 30 years will be that person in Congress; that that deep commitment to listen, to work together and to solve our problems collectively will always drive who I am and what I hope to do in Congress,” Cobb said.