Six candidates are running to replace the retiring person U.S. Representative Dwight Evans (D-03) resolved at the forum on Monday evening.
Many of them – with the exception of the only Republican Alex Quick — held similar views on various issues, so the choice of candidate may depend on other factors, such as personality, campaign financing and who voters think is best able to step into Evans’ shoes.
The candidates discussed a wide range of issues, including health care, anti-Semitism, and elections President Trump.
PoliticsPA Steve Ulrich, Ceisler Shapira Pagesexecutive vice president for Śródmieście Residents’ AssociationAND Dick Polman With PhillyDaily– he asked questions to the candidates. Polman asked about a balmy topic titled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the possibility of Congress issuing a closing statement Department of Homeland Security. He noticed it Rep. Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia), who was absent from the forum, has done so before called for the abolition of ICE.
State Senator Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) agreed that ICE should be abolished.
“This is an organization that recruited people from neo-Nazis,” Street said. “Donald Trump gave a badge they don’t even use to the head of the Proud Boys. The culture of ICE has been corrupted… We shouldn’t have an agency corrupted by neo-Nazis. We shouldn’t have an agency where a VA nurse can be held down by ten people, shot five times, and then, while she lies still, shot five more times.”
Dr. Unfortunately, Stanford she said that as a pediatric surgeon she had “seen what bullets can do to the human body” and agreed that ICE should be abolished. She said she should not have to explain to her child “that his freedom of speech is not respected and that when I speak out, he should be worried about his mother.”
“I will not support the paramilitary forces that 47 brings to our cities,” Stanford said.
Schnell agreed that there are problems with the current operation of ICE, but he would reform and hold it accountable rather than abolish it because its function is necessary.
Pablo McConnie-Saad agreed that ICE should be abolished and noted that he was the only Latino running. ICE was not a “legacy agency” but was created by The Post-9/11 Patriot Act “as part of arming the federal government with American citizens, along with NSA (National Security Agency) and a massive movement to spy on U.S. citizens.”
“Both my parents are Puerto Rican,” McConnie-Saad said. “They live in Puerto Rico and are afraid to come to Philadelphia to witness the birth of their first grandchild because they witnessed ICE executing U.S. citizens in broad daylight.”
Dr. David Oxman said, “If you need to wear a mask to conceal your identity at work, you need to ask yourself some questions about the job description.”
He said there were no sounds of gunshots in the video of the ICE agent’s shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis it slipped his mind. But the agent’s behavior just earlier was “equally shocking.”
“The sound of contempt in his voice and the arrogance of the fact that he has no power greater than his own, that this genie will not go back into the bottle,” Oxman said.
He called on Democrats to act.
“If that’s not an issue worth advocating for, I really don’t know what is,” Oxman said.
State Representative Morgan Cephas (Philadelphia), also said ICE should exist and urged people to “support” the city and states not to cooperate with it. She also called for the closure of ICE detention centers.
Ulrich asked how the candidates would handle affordable housing.
It would be helpful for McConnie-Saad to lower energy costs through renewable energy tax rules. He called the private equity firms buying apartments “nefarious” and driving up prices. We also need to build more houses for low-income families.
There is a 70,000 affordable housing shortage in Philadelphia and 7,500 federally subsidized units are about to expire, Cephas said, calling for more to be built.
“We want to make sure Philadelphians can afford Philadelphia,” she said, and agreed that the problem is private equity firms buying condos and apartments. “We have to make sure that New Yorkers don’t buy out our city and force people from their homes.”
Children make up the largest growing homeless population, Oxman said.
“The federal government needs to step in and spend more money on affordable housing,” he said. “We need a Marshall Plan on housing.”
Street said the collaboration ensures he has more affordable housing Habitat for Humanity, Philadelphia Housing Authority and developers, but there is still much work to be done. He called for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts’ plan to ban private equity in residential home ownership to come to Pennsylvania. If elected to the House of Representatives, he said he would propose a bill mirroring hers.
Stanford said she lived in public housing growing up and knows how critical it is to own a home. Owning a home is linked to wealth, education and health, she said.
“For me, social care was a bridge, not a crutch, and I would support it for others,” she said.
Over 200 people came to the street Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square to see the forum where it was broadcast Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) and by Fideri news network.
The other candidates for the 3rd District are: Democrats Karl Morris, Cole Carter, Isaiah Martin, Robin Toldensand republican Sheila Armstrong.
The first part will take place on May 19.
Linda Stein is a journalist from Philadelphia.
