With election day closely approaching, representatives from the 13th congressional district presented at Cabrini College in hopes of building their support network.
Congressional candidates Brendan Boyle and Dee Adcock are both attempting to turn the economy around if elected to congress.
Both candidates presented their focus points, as a part of the “Race for the 13th District” presentation on Monday, Oct. 13 and Tuesday, Oct. 14, in the Mansion.
Adcock strives to create new jobs and help those in need, while Boyle is set on working for justice in education.
“I feel like I have something that I can truly contribute, that I have a businessman prospective and I am part of the National Federation of Independent Businesses,” Adcock said.
Believing that the current representative, Allyson Schwartz, was not representing his beliefs made him want to become a candidate for the position, Adcock said. “What it was when I looked at the projected deficit going forward for the next 10 years and not one of them was under a trillion dollars. I said ‘this cannot exist’ we will either implode or the money will just become worthless.”
After college, Adcock worked with his family’s business to help grow the business and help employ over 125 American workers in several different locations.
Adcock believes that his experience will overcome his opponents inexperience and that his opponents choice of running for two seats at once may work against his odds at becoming the district’s congressional representative.
“The best war on poverty is an economy that’s working and growing,” Adcock said.
But Boyle has a slightly different take on how to fix the economy.
“It is extremely important that we turn the economy around, and do so in a way that promotes social justice,” Boyle said.
He believes the way to do that is by raising the minimum wage.
“If you raise the minimum wage, you don’t only help the pocket [of those] known as the working poor, but you also lift about 10 million people out of poverty, putting them into the lower middle class,” Boyle said.
Regardless of receiving the nomination, Boyle’s views for the upcoming senate are hopeful. “With a senate that will be very closely divided [one way or the other], perhaps we could see some compromises that right now are unthinkable.”
Boyle concluded, “I’m more optimistic than most, but I think it’s a realistic optimism in which we could see some truly historic compromises that right now don’t seem possible.”
Jean Jacobson, director of sponsored programs and foundation relations at Cabrini, attended Boyle’s presentation because she had an interest in getting to know the college’s local legislators.
“In my job, I deal with a lot of funding through federal and state levels so I’m always interested in making those connections because it could result in resources for the college further down the road,” Jacobson said.
She added, “I thought his presentation was very balanced. His topics on income inequality are key issues and the college is very interested in those issues as well.”
John Hauenstein, a journalism major from Temple University, also attended Boyle’s presentation with a friend. Hauenstein is working on a project on all the candidates running for congress and is attempting to attend each candidate’s presentation.
“He conducted himself really well. Out of the other candidates we went to, he’s probably one of my top candidates,” Hauenstein said.
When asked about the reasoning behind the event, Dr. John Burke, executive director of The Wolfington Center, said, “We brought the candidates to Cabrini because it’s important to raise the concerns of institutional politics as part of Cabrini’s commitment to the focus on justice matters.”
Burke was satisfied with the outcome of the events. He added, “It’s a beginning in terms of establishing regular forums with public officials on campus.”
