Cunha Tangles with Stearns’ Surrogate
A young campaign aid for Cliff Stearns came to the League of Women Voters candidate forum to play hard ball. John Konkus stood in for the incumbent and took the fight to the challenger, Tim Cunha, who began and ended his remarks with the assertion that Cliff Stearns ran for office twenty years ago with the promise of only serving for twelve years at the most. Konkus responded with a vehement denial and called it “strike one” against Cunha for “misrepresenting” Congressman Stearns.
The moderator’s questions began with asking how the candidate would serve average citizens. Stearns, who voted against the bailout, gets an “A” as a tax fighter, said Konkus. He also said that Stearns does not spend like the President, or like most of Congress. Cunha put forth his “Save America Plan”, which makes every American a shareholder in the presumed profits of the bailout, if I understand it.
They also disagreed on whether or not the War on Terror has eroded civil rights (Cunha, yes, and Stearns, no), on dealing with climate change (Cunha, tax or deincentivize carbon emissions, and Stearns, overcome challenges with technological innovation), and whether or not Cliff Stearns has supported the GI Bill of Rights (Stearns, yes, and Cunha, claims that Stearns “Voted against it before he voted for it”).
They seemed to agree on offshore drilling and getting out of Iraq in a manner that is in keeping with the Responsible Plan for Ending the War in Iraq. But these were overshadowed by the charges Cunha made against Stearns and the counter charges from Konkus that he had contrary evidence with him that anyone could look at. In his closing statement, Konkus inferred that Cunha was a recent arrival from New Jersey who didn’t even have a job. In the intermission afterward, Cunha addressed the audience off-mike, saying that he had proof that Stearns had promised not to serve for more than twelve years, and invited Stearns to drop out of the race and said the State GOP should find a replacement candidate.
I gave both candidates my card and email address. They are both invited to elaborate on this site, and receive the comments from you, the readers.
After having seen Cunha in action, in front of a definitely liberal crowd, he is smooth and talks a great fight but that’s where it ends. He is so politically naive, it hurts, which would make him great food for the sharks in Washington! Fresh blood in DC would probably not be a bad idea, but only if the other 434 were brand new also. His “pie-in-the-sky” ideas, coupled with being the 435th most junior congressman in the House, would prove to be of absolutely no benefit to the constituents in the 6th District. His background proves absolutely nothing in trying to determine whether he should be in Congress or not, especially with his past history of being unable to handle his own financial situation, i.e. 1995 bankruptcy. Now with the current financial crisis, he feels he should be in Congress to help??? I think not!!
1I’d like to know why Stearns didn’t show up himself.
2