Congressional candidate Dana Balter spoke about issues from environmental protections to the need for campaign finance reform at Syracuse University on Tuesday night, at a Q&A hosted by the SU College Democrats.

Balter answered questions from students and community members about term limits and President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, and emphasized a need for disagreeing respectfully. The former SU professor is running against incumbent Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) for the 24th Congressional District of New York.

The candidate grew up with a younger brother who had cognitive disabilities and said she spent much of her childhood standing up to bullies and teaching her brother how to do simple tasks. This helped cement her reasons for wanting to run for Congress, Balter said.

“It is the responsibility of each one of us to make sure that each person in society has dignity and access,” Balter said. “And I want to serve in Congress because I want to make sure that those very simple, but very important ideas are at the heart of every law and every policy that we make in this country.”

Though she decided she wanted to run, she didn’t know how to start her campaign, she said.

“I called the Democratic Party and said ‘I think I want to run for Congress. What do I do?’” she said.

The party told her to look at all the contacts in her phone and see if she could get $1 million from those people, she said. The answer was no. Balter said she had to work hard to call people and tell them why she would be a good candidate.

According to documents from the Federal Election Commission, Balter raised more than $1.5 million in the third quarter 2018, which primarily came from individual donors — 70 percent of whom gave less than $200 each.

“We need to get big money out of politics,” she said, while talking about how she thinks campaign finance laws need reform.

She said candidates who don’t have money aren’t taken seriously.

Balter repeatedly said that as a congressperson, the first role in the job would be to pass legislation. Junior Cheyenne Wood, a fellow on Balter’s campaign, asked Balter how she plans on checking the newly conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

“When I think about the amount of power the Supreme Court has to shape our policy, I’m very concerned. There’s a lot at stake,” Balter said. “I think that what we need to do in Congress is be aggressive about making law that codifies people’s rights.”

When asked about the environment, she said that it’s not a question of whether climate change is real, it’s a question of how to combat it.

Prompted on schools and how to support them, the candidate responded that she thinks education is one of the most important responsibilities of government.

The College Democrats, who endorsed Balter in April, organized the event so that students could learn about politics in the district they live in for about nine months per year, said sophomore Emma Peca, communications director for the organization.

She also said they reached out to College Republicans and asked them to invite Katko to the event so both candidates would be given a chance to speak on campus.

“We come here to this forum to discuss issues that students, faculty and the community find important,” said Andres Victoria, president of College Democrats. “We are living in a very polarized and heated political climate. Despite this, we find it crucial to further our civil discourse.”

Published on October 23, 2018 at 11:06 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert