Election day is just one week away. WSKG created a voter guide to get you the information you need when you head to the polls.
The voter guide includes Q&As with candidates at the local, state and federal level. New Director Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo sat down with the news team to discuss the project.
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Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo: Today we’ve got the whole news team together to talk about it [the voter guide]. Binghamton-area reporter Celia Clarke...
Celia Clarke: Hey, Phoebe.
PTV: Managing Editor and former Ithaca-area reporter. Aurora Berry…
Aurora Berry: Hello.
PTV: And WSKG’s Elmira-Corning reporter, Natalie Abruzzo.
Natalie Abruzzo: Hello, Phoebe.
PTV: Natalie, what are some big races in your coverage area?
NA: The 23rd Congressional District race is one to watch. The district has more registered Republicans than Democrats. In some areas it’s a three to one Republican majority. It’s been somewhat contentious between the candidates, and there hasn’t been a Democrat in the position since 2010.
But I think the biggest race is a local one, for Chemung County Executive. The incumbent lost in the primaries and decided to stay on the ballot anyway.
One candidate is running on the Republican Party line, while the other is running on the Conservative Party line.
CC: Same here! One biggie is the county legislature. All 15 members of the Broome County legislature are up for reelection so I think that’s huge! But nine are running unopposed, only seven have opponents.
And I call the race for the 123rd Assembly seat a generational election because Donna Lupardo held it for over 20 years. So whoever wins could end up in the legislature for a very long time. And it’s a three-way race!
PTV: What about you, Aurora?
AB: Fewer interesting local elections out my way. Instead, we’ve got a seat on the state senate up for grabs. That's incumbent Democrat Lea Webb versus Republican challenger Mike Bolles.
We do have a congressional race in the game, New York’s 19th. In the running we’ve got Freshman Democratic Congressman Josh Riley. He’s seeking a second term. His challenger is Peter Oberacker, a Republican state senator currently representing the 51st district.
PTV: Wow, so lots of interesting candidates that we’re covering this year! Let’s get into some of the questions we asked in our voter guide.
AB: For me, costs and affordability were top of mind when writing questions for our congressional race. Like how candidates would manage energy costs and rising grocery bills.
NA: I also thought about costs when writing my questions. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a big topic this election. So, some questions were on affordability and bridging that gap in funding for health care, Medicaid and SNAP.
Some state lawmakers up for reelection have several bills before them on how to keep PFAS “forever chemicals” out of consumer products and the environment. So, I asked lawmakers and their challengers about the bills that haven’t passed both legislative chambers and ones sitting on the governor’s desk.
CC: The races I’m following include local and state level seats, so the questions varied from specific issues or policies, to others to see how well they understood the limits of their positions. Like asking local legislature candidates about the SNAP gap, or what counties can or should do about homelessness. And in the sheriff’s race, I did the same with questions about jail management, and about state policy and local control of law enforcement.
PTV: So I know we got lots of answers to those questions from candidates, from newcomer congressional hopefuls to seasoned local incumbents. What trends did you all notice in candidate responses across the board?
CC: For me what stood out wasn’t certain trends in answers, as much as it was the tone of the answers. Most, not all, newcomers answered in ways that gave me a sense of their casual or natural speaking voices. They used exclamation points or all caps, or didn’t seem to hesitate about expressing strong criticism, either of their opponents or certain policies they want changed.
I also noticed that many of the Republican candidates for county legislature had very similar answers. In particular the structure of answers. For example, several mentioned that people can FOIL recordings of legislature meetings and used very similar wording in the same place in answers.
NA: Common themes in responses I received included creating more opportunities for residents to build businesses, and how to combat affordability issues such as health care and housing needs. Transparency and accountability from lawmakers to their constituents was also a notable thread.
Unfortunately, a big trend is that many of the candidates in my coverage area did not respond at all.
Some acknowledged receipt of the questionnaire but ultimately did not participate.
PTV: Yeah, let’s talk about what we did when we didn’t get a response from candidates.
CC: We gave all candidates the opportunity to respond to our questionnaires. We treated them like the adults they are and, if they chose not to participate, we accepted that. We’ve included their basic information and clearly noted that they did not respond to the questions.
AB: That was something we dealt with in my coverage area too. But the answers we did receive often emphasized affordability. That’s not surprising given the national conversation about rising prices. We heard a lot about energy costs in particular.
PTV: Thanks everyone! Early Voting ends on November 1st. Election Day is November 3.