There is a clear choice in this race. Generation believes in marriage equality. The new generation believes in immigration reform. The new generation believes and raising the minimum wage, and respecting womens reproductive rights. Congressman gartner does not believe in any of those things. The new generation is with us. I humbly ask for your vote. Working together, we will keep colorado moving forward over the next six years. Thank you. I would like to send a special thanks to our remarkably respectful audience tonight. Thank you so much, and thank you to these gentlemen for a great debate tonight. Atn us tonight on 9 news 9 00 and 10 00. Our political experts will be breaking down what we heard tonight. If you missed any of the debates in our series, you are welcome to watch them in their entirety on 9news. Com. Dont be bashful, audience. Come up and say hi. If you have not checked of the. Com, iuide on 9 news would encourage you to. 9news. Com, the truth test series breaks down the ad for both the candidates in this race. You can see all of our research in one place. Thank you for joining us tonight. Good night. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] senator mark udall was recently on the campaign trail. His campaign tweeted out these pictures of him with Michael Bennet and elizabeth warren. Udall on hisenator mark your ballot bus tour. Some other tweets from candidates running in this novembers election, the campaign in iowa senate tended to joni ernst candidate joni ernst tweeted this photo. Meanwhile, arkansas senator mark pryor getting ready for an event with former president bill clinton. The two term senator tweeted. His photo of his supporters senator mark pryors challenger, republican congressman tom cotton taking to twitter as well. He posted this photo of arkansass editor john bozeman showing his support by stopping by Campaign Headquarters to deliver pizza to volunteers there. You can see what other candidates are up to by going to our twitter page using the handle at at cspan. Now, to the race in new york. The three candidates are democrats aaron woolf, elise stefanik, and Matt Funicello. Their first debate took place in albany and was courtesy of Time Warner Cable news. It is an hour. Benjamin. Z i will be serving as moderator this evening along with my colleagues, brand fire brand fire brian dwyer and matt hunter. This debate covers more square miles than any other in the state. Currently represented by Democrat Bill owens, but he decided not to seek reelection. Three candidates are hoping to replace him, republican elise aaron woolf, and Matt Funicello. The debates will be one hour long. The candidates will begin one minute to answer and their each 45s will get seconds to respond. Rebuttals will be at the discretion of the moderators. Halfway through, the candidates will be allowed to ask one question to one or both of their opponents, then later there will be a lightning round, where the candidates will only be allowed to answer yes or no. Candidate will get one minute for an Opening Statement and one minute for a closing statement and a chance to ask the candidate one question. The order for the statements was selected by a drop. Up first it is elise stefanik. Thank you so much, liz. I want to thank time warner news for the opportunity to participate in todays debate. I want to thank bill owens. While congressman all ones and i may disagree on issues, we i appreciate his service. My name is elise stefanik. I was born and raised in upstate new york. I grew up in a Small Business family where i learned the challenges of creating jobs in todays economy. I was the first member of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college. I worked in washington for six years, focused on public policy. I chose to move home to the North Country to help my familys Small Business grow. Over a year ago i announced my candidacy for congress. Washington is broken, and we desperately need new ideas and a new generation of leadership to focus on creating jobs and building the economy in the North Country. Standing up for our constitutional liberties, especially the second amendment, and replacing obamacare with commonsense healthcare reforms that leave you in charge of your health care. I think the other candidates who are here this evening and i look forward to the next hour of debate. Mr. Funicello. I am running for congress as well on the greens ticket. I am speaking to the people who are watching the debate, the electorate. The green candidates are often not allowed or encouraged to participate in debates with mainstream media. I would like to thank for a much Time Warner Cable, but also the republican and Democratic Candidates for graciously allowing us to participate in our democratic process tonight. It is rather historic. I am the only candidate who was born in the district, raised in the district, lives in the district, employs people in the district, and is native to it. I dont think that is the only thing that is important in a congressional race, but its very important in sending a voice to congress that represents you as part of the working class. Thank you. Mr. Woolf. Thank you very much. It is an honor to be here. My name is aaron woolf. When our house burned down, we rebuilt it, and with help from friends and neighbors. Rebuilding that home was an investment. Over the years i have helped build trails, i have served on community and conservation boards, i have sold and distributed products from local farmers. Last year i worked with republicans and democrats to save Small Businesses. My daughters best friend is here. On monday i picked her up and dropped her off at school. Im running for congress because i want her to be able to have a future here as well. To do that, we will have to fight for top quality education, our veterans. We will have to make sure our local businesses have the tools they need to succeed. We have to make sure the people who work for a living not only can survive, but thrive. Inres a lot of dysfunction washington. I know to make things better there, we will need independence, shared responsibility, and hard work, the very things i learned growing up here in the North Country. The first question goes to you, mr. Woolf. The u. S. Is involved again in the middle east, this time with airstrikes against isis. President obama says no boots on the ground. Instead he wants to arm syrian battle thehey can militants. Would you have voted in favor of that proposal, and what do you think the countrys longterm strategy in this region should be . I dont like to engage in but ietical questions, would like to preface it by saying that im not privy to all the information that president obama or even congressman owens has about this. Im deeply skeptical about boots on the ground. I think airstrikes may be an important step and may help to weaken isis. I think we should think about our allies in the region. We have turkey, saudi arabia, jordan, all of which have standing armies of hundreds of thousands of men and women, i suppose, and they should absolutely be in the first line. We should work in concert with other nations in the region. My opponent, elise stefanik, with the director of the , theynpolicy initiative advocate right now for boots on the ground. I think this is something the voters in her district deeply do not want. This position today because a president obamas failed leadership. My opponent erin woolf is another vote for the failed Foreign Policy of president obama. Even president obamas own secretary of defense and state said he should have acted sooner and address the issue of a rising isis. We are in this position today because of a weak commander in chief. I would defer to the military commanders advice, and i certainly think we need a strong commander in chief who speak clearly and with conviction about what the u. S. s role in the world is. While the commander in chief has executive authority to take these actions, i think he should go to congress anytime there is a discussion when we are engaging around the world. It is important in this district in particular, as the home of ft. Drum, the most deployed units in the u. S. Army. Mr. Funicello . For us tory important remember that george w. Bush and his administration put us in the middle east unconstitutionally. Congress did not declare war on afghanistan or iraq. We bombed and occupied two sovereign nations. Did not do so according to the laws of our own country. We have continued since world war ii to defy the constitutional doctrine that only Congress Shall declare war. My answer to whether or not we should be taking isis as a serious threat that we should not be, unless congress is going to declare war. Authorization to use military force are questionably legal. There is no decision to be made when it comes to whether or not they are legal internationally. They are not. We are defiling International Law as well as our own constitution. As a congressperson, i would never vote for an aumf and i hope none of my appointment opponents would either. Sticking with military issues, ft. Drum is a big topic. F conversation we all know the impact it has, over 1 billion economic engine for the North Country. We have seen the worst Case Scenario study that was done, they proposed 16,000 soldiers. The results recently came out and it would be disastrous for this country. We know for drum is important. Drum is important. You would be the new kid on the block for congress. What have you done to make sure your voice would be heard in congress as a new person to the people who would ultimately be making the decision on whether or not ft. Drum stays . Protecting and strengthening for drum has been a cornerstone of my campaign since i declared my candidacy over a year ago. Im the only candidate standing on the stage this evening who has a proven record of fighting back against the sequester, which is setting our nations military. My commitment, which i have talked about on the campaign trail and with people in the ft. Drum Community Car are, i would work in a bipartisan basis with other members of the new york state delegation. Senator gillibrand and senator schumer, there is a real opportunity to work on bipartisanship to strengthen the military posts in our extract. District. Beould ensure that ft. Drum considered for that. There will be no greater advocate of protecting and strengthening fort drum and fighting against the sequester than myself in this race. Mr. Funicello. We have used the military in the United States for a number of decades, really postworld war ii, as Economic Development, which is a travesty. The United States military is there to defend the United States if it is under attack. Is bottom line is fort drum unbelievably important. When we are looking at the federal government threatening cuts, should we hide our heads in the sand and pretend one congressperson is going to save it, or should we talk about an intelligent Adult Transition to Something Else that should allow us to economically thrive. Mr. Mccue was certainly not against having the air force of his the midst Congressional District before our redistricting. When the federal government decides what it is going to do, they are going to do it. A venture backed by either party is not going to fix that problem, neither is a brandnew green candidate. We need to look at a transition to sustainable jobs that pay a living wage. Thank you. Mr. Woolf . In the drum is a leader ideas about sustainability, and the military knows better than anybody about how to use fuel efficiency. It is something they have to use all the time. Anduld be proud to follow congressman mchugh and congressman s footsteps and promoting fort drum and the partnerships there. I would applaud the recent contract to provide sustainable, homegrown energy. Fort drum is unique. We have military families and civilian families interacting, integrating with each other. That is a model where a more responsible military should go. It is an example of how when we do have to make the decision to send our fighting men and women into combat, we are doing and not with some other but with people in our midst, in our community. This is what is unique about fort drum, and one of the ways i could defend it very effectively. Retentionation, job certainly a major issue in any race across this country at any level of government. According to last months poll, it is the number one issue for electing voters in this state. When you look at the latest unemployment numbers in new york state, by and large most of the counties in the 21st district that are performing well are here in the capital region, while those mostly to the north and west are performing worse. We will start with you, mr. Funicello. Member of you do as a congress to ensure the job growth is more equitable throughout the district . Important to note that for many, many years now, to lobbying that is going on our Congress People who are in washington, d. C. Has caused a situation where corporations are withing, much like we have centralized farming, what areas of the country will have what types of industry. This has created an unbelievable microcosmicably circulation of a small amount of capital. When you look at global foundry setting up, when you look at Industries Like farming, which ,re going on in a small level you are looking at examples of the centralized and decentralized versions of Economic Development that actually works. My point would be very simple. If youre going to establish a congress that is going to create jobs, you should do so using business people. That is not really an answer that i am 100 satisfied with. Im going to have to bow out on the rest of it. Mr. Woolf. Im incredibly proud to account count on the support of the Small Business council for america. Ms. Stefanik has spoken about getting rid of regulations. Im talking about a 20 tax cut for any Small Business that hires a new employee or expense payroll. Expands payroll. We can promote Small Business by raising the minimum wage in this district. , hasponent, ms. Stefanik refused to take a stand either way. She says we can have a conversation. We have been having a conversation for years on this issue. Im in favor of raising the minimum wage. Its good for Small Business. We have to level the Playing Field. We have 25 of the 50 biggest corporations in this country that pay no tax at all. Unless ms. Stefanik and mr. Funicello are willing to agree that we need to level the Playing Field for Small Businesses, we will not get anywhere with promoting jobs in the district. Ms. Stefanik. Jobs is overwhelmingly the number one issue as i travel across this district. My Family Business does business with hundreds of Small Businesses throughout the 21st a strict. We understand firsthand the challenges of employing people in the North Country. I believe we need to pursue fundamental tax reform. And startthe tax code from scratch, and get rid of all special interest loopholes. It also incentivizes Small Businesses to create these jobs and grow. We have to address the Regulatory Regime coming from this administration, turning our Small Businesses in the district and family farms, which have to fight back against these overwhelming epa regulations. We need to address obamacare. Health care costs are one of the fastest rising costs for businesses in this district. My familys business had our Health Care Coverage canceled. We have seen a premium increase of 30 . We need to address those issues. I want to take a moment to respond to the minimum wage issue. The next question is on minimum wage. Mr. Woolf jumped a little bit ahead, but that is fine. It is obviously a priority of the Obama Administration. The real question is how do you do this without hurting businesses . The National Federation of independent businesses said it would lead to Small Businesses actually closing their doors. How do you strike a balance between forcing folks to increase their hourly wage and also protecting jobs . Even the wall street journal, which is not a liberal publication, has stated in a series of articles that the biggest thing slowing our crawl out of the recession is our wage inequality. We need to give all americans a raise. This is good for Small Business. Its particularly good for retail business. They know they need to give their customers a raise. Giving the customers a raise will put more cash circulating in the economy. It is an important thing to do and has the same effect of closing the gender gap in paychecks. Opponent was the director of the 2012 Republican Party platform, which explicitly omitted closing the gender gap as an important initiative. When you talk about Small Businesses voluntarily raising minimum wage, is it really fair to include franchisees when those decisions are made