Candidates for the 8th Congressional District seat spoke on issues not often covered in their previous public forums on Tuesday night.
During a “Meet the Candidates” event held at the Dubliner on the Delaware in New Hope, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick and Democrat Steve Santarsiero were asked their positions on increased minimum wage, LGBT rights, environmental protection and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Questions were composed by members of the Greater New Hope Chamber of Commerce and asked by board member Shaughnessy Naughton, who ran and lost to Santarsiero in the 8th District Democratic primary.
Fitzpatrick, who spoke with the small crowd during the first hour of the event, said he supports a minimum wage increase, but one that is attached to the consumer price index, which accounts for how price increases affect household spending and changes in buying power due to inflation.
“Nobody that is working should live below the poverty line,” Fitzpatrick said, and proposed that it would depoliticize the issue.
Santarsiero, a current representative in the state House, was asked almost the same questions. He was over a half hour late to his portion of the event due to a late vote in Harrisburg.
Santarsiero said that minimum wage is an issue where “a balance needs to be struck,” so that businesses are not overburdened but workers earn a “livable wage.”
“I do think we need to raise the minimum wage,” Santarsiero said, noting that $15 an hour, as suggested by the question, may be too high. “At the very least we should start out with $12 an hour and work our way to the point where it’s not a shock to the system for small businesses.”
Fitzpatrick and Santarsiero both advocated for LGBT rights, including marriage equality and workplace discrimination.
“We need to respect people more and judge people less,” Fitzpatrick said. “This is the United States of America. We should not discriminate against anybody.”
Santarsiero spoke about supporting his sister, who is in a same-sex marriage, on her wedding day, and sponsoring the marriage equality bill in the state house “long before it became a popular thing to do.”
“We still have to work on equality in every other way,” Santarsiero said.
Both candidates supported environmental protection.
Fitzpatrick talked about limiting carbon emissions, protecting open space and supporting the federal parks system.
“I don’t think the environment should be a partisan issue,” Fitzpatrick said. “We have one planet and we need to take care of it.”
Santarsiero spoke to similar points on carbon emissions and preserving open space, and said he will make reversing climate change a priority.
“I believe that when the history of our era is written (climate change) will be identified by historians as the most important issue,” he said. “We’ve got to do something.”
When asked about Black Lives Matter, Fitzpatrick and Santarsiero both brought up President Barack Obama’s sentiments following months of increased racial turmoil in America.
“The one thing I think we can all agree on is mutual respect,” Fitzpatrick said. “We have to see people from the inside, not the outside.”
“We have a lot to do as a country,” Santarsiero said. “It starts with making sure that we get to a place where we can actually have the conversation.”
The candidates will meet for their third debate on Oct. 28 at 8 a.m. at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown.
