SYRACUSE, N.Y. – “It is not over,” Dan Maffei said.
Twenty months have passed and it still isn't over. Dan Maffei is still running for congress in the 25th district, even outlasting the man he narrowly failed to retire in 2006.
“The time has come for me to step down and leave public office,” said James Walsh in January 2008.
The decision by James Walsh brought a parade of hopefuls, but the GOP finally settled on former Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Dale Sweetland as their best chance to hold on to the seat.
“I've been a part of public policy for twenty years at one level or another. And I think it's natural, it's a natural progression. It gives you the experience of being able to listen to people, make decisions and stand by those decisions,” Sweetland said.
On both sides of the race, the major issue is rebuilding a damaged economy and ending an exodus of people.
“To put ourselves back on the map. Back on the economic map, nationwide. And back on the map of young people, young professionals who may leave the area, as I did once, but may have an opportunity to come back. And convince them and convince us in Central New York that this can be a wonderful place to raise a family and a wonderful place to do business and a wonderful place just to live,” said Maffei.
It may be the first real test in the race for Congress in the 25th district. Fundraising. The campaign of democrat Dan Maffei collected close to half a million dollars in contributions in the second quarter of the year. He has close to a million dollars in the bank to spend. Republican Dale Sweetland's campaign filing shows contributions of just under $150,000. As News 10 Now's Bill Carey reports, there will be many more contrasts as voters begin to take a closer look at the two men running for the house seat.
Sweetland says for the economy to turn around and for this region to prosper, new, independent voices are needed to try to develop policies that work.
“I don't like the way Washington behaves,” Sweetland said. “They only talk amongst themselves. To their staffers. And they get insulated and they forget what it's like to live in the real world. It's a mess. Washington is broken.”
There will, of course, be a wide ranging discussion in coming weeks about issues, but at the heart of this campaign is a debate that centers on the questions of background, experience and motivations.
“I'm one of these folks. I don't pretend to be anyone else,” said Sweetland. “My opponent has spent the majority of his adult life as a staffer in the halls of Congress. And that experience is not the real world.”
“The idea that, somehow, if you go somewhere else and you achieve things other places, that you're disqualified from serving your own community, that's ridiculous,” Maffei said. “And if that's true, then we're not going to have the kind of representation in Washington that this community really needs to really thrive. Because we do need a congressman who knows what he's doing. That can find his office and knows how to get things done and not just sit there and introduce bills that don't go anywhere.”
Two very different positions. Two very different men.
“I wouldn't want to run for County Executive or Mayor or Governor. Those positions wouldn't suit my particular qualities,” Maffei said. “But this job, I do believe I can make a contribution, maybe where nobody else can. I'm not a huge ego. I don't believe that I know anyone else's business. But this particular job, I have really the best kind of background for. And the best energy to do it. And that, it's maybe a calling.”
“I've always done the work. Put my head down and said, I'm going to do the best I can,” Sweetland said. “I'm going to make darn sure I can look myself in the mirror every morning. And live up to what my grandfather and my father thought I should be.”
After close to three years on the campaign trail, Maffei will get at least a brief break from politics. He and his fiancé, Abby Davidson, will be married in a little over a week and a half. They plan at least a brief honeymoon.