SD 48: Ogdensburg Debate

It was a night that started well for everyone with members of the Ogdensburg Free Academy Key Club asking the candidates some questions before turning it over to the audience to ask questions.

The debate was held in Ogdensburg where Darrel Aubertine has been serving the area for 6 years and is heavily populated with his base of union supporters therefore, expectations were for this to be his home turf and a good showing. Although, it was anything but that, it was a pure smack down by the audience who took issue with several of Aubertine's positions. David Renzi drew sharp contrast between his positions and Aubertine's positions. If this were a boxing match, it would have been called early in the second round.

The students started the questioning of the candidates in the area of legal drinking age, enhanced driver's license, education and jobs, followed by an open session of questions from the audience and that is when people challenged Aubertine right from the start.

The first question of the night was regarding Aubertine hiring his sister after he passed the ethics law that prohibited it and whether or not he returned the money she earned after it was discovered by others he violated the ethics law. He described the hiring as an "error in judgment" and as soon as he recognized it she tendered her resignation and she did not return the money earned.

Then the lights went out, figuratively speaking. A parent of a special needs student from Carthage attended the debate and pointedly put Aubertine on the spot for his staff scheduling a meeting between the person and Aubertine at Aubertine's office and then Aubertine was a no show. The person was emotional and visibly upset and for the right reason, he was ultimately defending his child. He proceeded to call upon Aubertine's staff to respond when Aubertine had no answer on why he missed the meeting. The person would continue to heckle Aubertine throughout the night before leaving the debate while continuing to express his frustrations at Aubertine on his way out the door for Aubertine's lack of constituent services.

The next hot button issue came when someone asked Aubertine and Renzi if elected officials should be voting for windmills when they will benefit financially. Aubertine unequivocally said they should be allowed to vote just as if they were voting on their local budget. This drew a sharp response from Renzi when he correctly pointed out the difference between certain individual's financial gain and everyone paying taxes.

The standard reform topic hit the runway for the candidates with Darrel Aubertine giving an answer by speaking of non-partisan politics in one sense and then telling people if they want change it needs to be a Democratic controlled Senate. Again, it is necessary to remind people, a Democratically controlled Assembly that he was a member of for 5 years is anything but functioning properly. Renzi again drew a sharp response by saying this is not about political power, special interests or Albany bosses that he was a strong minded individual and for him it is about the people and being effective.     

The real head scratcher for the night came when Ogdensburg Mayor Bill Nelson spoke about the importance of the Empire Zone and the proposal of the Empire Zone reform to eliminate housing and asked for the candidates' positions. Darrel Aubertine cleared danced on this issue and blatantly was not forthright to the public. This is the legislation where not too long ago spokesman Drew Mangione commented about hoping that after it passed both houses (with Aubertine's support) it would not make it to the Governor's desk, like it would disappear on the way or something. In the end, the Governor saved the day and vetoed the legislation.

The night clearly belonged to Renzi.