News 10 NBC - Race for the 25th Congressional District

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News 10 NBC - Race for the 25th Congressional District

Berkeley Brean

Monroe County is one of the only places of its size in the country to have four congressional districts and because the incumbent is retiring one of them is going to have a new leader.

It's the 25th district, which includes Webster, Irondequoit and parts of Penfield and Wayne County. Democrat Dan Maffei and Republican Dale Sweetland want to replace Congressman Jim Walsh.

"Do you mind if I introduce myself?" Dan Maffei said to customers at Uncle Danny's restaurant in Irondequoit. "I'm Dan Maffei. I'm running for congress."

Campaigning is not old for Maffei. It's not new either. He ran for the 25th Congressional district two years ago and lost.

"The first campaign was such an interesting experience because we knew it was a long shot," Maffei said. "It was weird having lost but then having people calling me up and congratulating me."

Maffei is no stranger to Washington D.C. either. He worked for U.S. Senator Bill Bradley and Sen. Hillary Clinton's predecessor Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He says he's got the same message this time around.

"That we need to improve our economy. We need jobs and brand our economy in a way that Silicon Valley did for high tech and dot coms," he said.

Maffei says he wants a responsible pull out of Iraq. He's worried about Afghanistan. He would have voted against the first Wall St. bailout package but for the second one.

His challenger, Republican Dale Sweetland says he would have voted no on both.

"They failed to stay focused on the issue and they added another $110 billion to a piece of legislation that should have been focused and what the business was at hand," Sweetland said.

Sweetland knows he's an underdog. He's been out spent 5 to 1. He spends most of his time in the heart of the district which is Syracuse. But he's campaigned district wide.

"It's difficult but I've put 27,000 miles on my car since the middle of June," he said. "So so we've been working at it."

Sweetland is a former town supervisor and president of the Onondaga County Legislature. He's running because he doesn't think congress works for people anymore.

"It doesn't matter whether they're Republican or Democrat. They spend way too much time pointing fingers at each other or other places to blame everything on someone and nothing ever seems to be their fault," he said.

There is a third person in the race for the 25th. Howie Hawkins, a perennial candidate, is running in the Green Populist Party. Hawkins is closely aligned with Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

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