Candidates pledge to ditch acrimony

OSWEGO — After a week of escalating negative campaigning, Assemblymen Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, and William A. Barclay, R-Pulaski, made nice — if only for a while.

With the 48th state Senate District special election a little over a week away, the two candidates vowed to put negative campaigning behind them at Sunday's debate here. About 350 people were in attendance, almost filling the Sheldon Hall ballroom at SUNY Oswego.

In response to the first question, Mr. Aubertine said, "I'm personally willing to close down negatives ads if you are." This drew a loud audience response of clapping, hoots and whistles.

Mr. Barclay responded, "I'm happy to pull what are perceived as negative ads. Let's go forward on the issues."

The two smiled and shook hands while the crowd applauded.

Within hours of the end of the debate, however, the Barclay campaign issued a press statement under the authorship of campaign manager Graham Wise blasting the Aubertine camp that began: "Today the Aubertine campaign made yet another empty promise to stop the negative campaign that they have been running for weeks."

The Aubertine campaign did not put out an immediate response. Reached by phone, spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the campaign was stunned by the Barclay statement.

"What you saw was Will Barclay standing onstage and saying they'll stop the negative campaigning, then getting off and showing they won't. Will Barclay simply has no credibility," Mr. Azzopardi said. "Obviously, he's not honoring his agreement."

Greater Oswego Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jennifer Hill and Grant D. Reeher, associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, moderated the debate. They asked questions, some written and submitted by the audience, on nuclear energy, education, economic development, spending and tax rebates.

In their answers, both candidates supported adding nuclear power reactors in Oswego County and working to improve the transmission system to get that energy downstate. As in previous debates, they also both said that they want more equitable distribution of public school aid.

Mr. Aubertine said he would work to fix a flaw in the small cities portion of the state aid formula that hurt projected aid for the Ogdensburg City School District, while Mr. Barclay called for the state to simplify the formula, make it more transparent and provide more equity to upstate.

On economic development, Mr. Aubertine said he will work to bring in and retain north country jobs. He cited his role in talks between Alcoa, Massena, and the New York Power Authority that led to the aluminum company vowing to keep 900 jobs in the area for 30 years in exchange for low-cost electricity.

But he is concerned that companies would take tax breaks and Empire Zone incentives to come to the area and then leave before fulfilling their obligations.

"I am working on a call-back provision," he said. "The provision would force companies to pay the funds back."

He also supports measures to lower energy and transportation costs.

"The imports from other countries are undercutting what is produced in Northern New York," he said.

Mr. Barclay pointed to recent success in attracting business to his district — an ethanol plant in Fulton.

He said he supports giving small businesses tax credits for providing health insurance and extending School Tax Relief, or STAR, property tax rebates to small businesses.

"Anytime the government is putting dollars back in taxpayers' hands is a good policy," he said.

Times state editor Perry White contributed to this report.