By Tom Waring
Wire Staff Writer
On Oct. 7, Democrat Kevin Strouse was at Trevose’s Linconia Tabernacle Christian Center for a candidates’ forum hosted by the Lin-Park Civic Association and the Bucks County NAACP.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick was in Washington, reporting on his six-day visit to the Middle East, where he surveyed U.S. and coalition efforts to curb ISIS financing and met with Syrian opposition forces funded by the Obama administration.
Strouse promised that, if elected, he will hold town hall meetings and listen to constituents, adding that he’ll return next spring to the church center. He noted Fitzpatrick’s absence.
“This is part of a pattern,” he said, before adding, “I’m willing to put myself out there.”
Strouse described the Obamacare website rollout as “unacceptable,” but added that repeated Republican attempts to repeal the law are “utterly absurd.”
“It has improved healthcare in this country,” he said.
Strouse wants more details from President Barack Obama when it comes to goals and objectives in Syria, and believes air strikes can have only limited success in that nation and Iraq.
“We are not going to bomb our way out of this,” he said.
Strouse said he would support additional funding to lessen wait times for patients at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.
“They don’t have enough health professionals,” he said.
On other issues, Strouse said he supports background checks and an improved mental health system to control gun violence; fair pay for women in the workplace; the Violence Against Women Act; an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour; universal pre-kindergarten classes; more Pell Grant funding and lower interest rates and the ability to refinance loans for college students; abortion rights; and public financing of elections.
Fitzpatrick returned from the Middle East a day before the forum.
“ISIS is getting stronger,” he said. “We see it on TV today, where ISIS flags were being raised along the Syrian-Turkish border and I heard it from those engaged in the region,” he said. “The situation in Syria is chaotic, and ISIS, unlike any other terror organization, is successfully self-financing through the control of nearly 100,000 barrels of oil a day, bringing them close to $3 million in sales. If we want to stop ISIS, we need to stop their money.”
In meetings with Qatari cabinet officials, Syrian resistance leaders, journalists and American military forces, Fitzpatrick discussed efforts to choke ISIS’ funding by halting its ability to develop or sell captured oil.
“Stopping the flow of money to ISIS limits the group’s ability to expand its would-be state, weaken its recruiting efforts and, ultimately, reduce the amount of military intervention needed to destroy it. That was the focus of my trip,” he said.
Fitzpatrick heard concerns about moderate rebels fighting ISIS in Syria.
“The funds we voted on in Congress to strengthen the Syrian rebels is making its way to the battlefield, but while they appear to be committed, they are still trying to better organize themselves,” he said. “Forces have bombs incoming from three directions: the Assad regime, U.S.-Coalition forces and ISIS. They need better communication and coordination to push back against ISIS’ growth.”
Fitzpatrick is serving his third term in the House of Representatives. The 8th Congressional District consists of all of Bucks County and a portion of Montgomery County.
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Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reported on Oct. 6 that House Democrats are shifting millions of dollars in TV advertising away from 2014 challengers, such as Strouse, to prop up some of their most vulnerable incumbents.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is scaling back on planned commercial airtime in 11 Republican-held districts, the group said.
Democrats need 17 seats to regain the majority, but have little hope of accomplishing that. In fact, they will probably lose some seats.
The story quoted DCCC spokeswoman Emily Bittner as saying, “In the face of millions of dollars from outside Republican groups aggressively pouring into our races, House Democrats are fortifying our vulnerable incumbents and focusing in on top-tier competitive races.”
As part of the plan, Democrats will cancel planned TV advertising in a group of districts held by Republican lawmakers that the story declares are considered “essentially out of reach.”
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Fitzpatrick and Strouse will meet in three upcoming debates.
The two will square off on Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 12:15 to 1 p.m. on WNPV (1440 AM). The debate, which can also be heard at wnpv1440.com, will be part of Darryl Berger’s weekday Comment Please show.
The next debate will be on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 12:15 p.m. at the Bucks County Community College campus in Bristol Township. The moderator will be BCCC professor Bill Pezza.
The third debate will be on Friday, Oct. 24, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Waterwheel restaurant in Plumstead. It’s being sponsored by the Central Bucks County Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters of Bucks County.
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Strouse’s campaign last week released its second ad of the general election.
The script of the ad, titled “Bothers Me,” consists of a conversation between three people.
A woman says, “Here’s what bothers me. Mike Fitzpatrick took over seventy thousand from big oil.”
A man replies, “Yeah — and he’s just like Gov. Corbett. Letting oil companies off the hook — without an extraction fee for drilling our natural resources.”
Another woman turns the conversation to abortion.
“And get this. Fitzpatrick opposes a woman’s right to choose — even in cases of rape and incest,” she said.
The man replies, “And he tried to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood.”
The first woman concludes by saying, “Mike Fitzpatrick’s just not for me.”
Strouse is a former Army Ranger and CIA counterterrorism analyst, and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lives in Middletown with his wife Amy and two young children. He is program director of Teach2Serve, a nonprofit that teaches social entrepreneurship to high school students.
