Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering (left) debates former Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Deerfield) while Chicago Sun Times Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet moderates in the middle.
When it comes to backing a Democratic presidential nominee, 10th Congressional District primary opponents Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and former Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Deerfield) have a different answer.
Schneider and Rotering answered that question and more than a dozen others trying to persuade a crowd of more than 300 at a debate in Deerfield to vote for them in the March 15 Democratic primary. The debate took place Feb. 2 at Congregation B’Nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield and was sponsored by BJBE and several other Jewish organizations.
The winner will oppose Rep. Robert Dold (R-Kenilworth) in the Nov. 8 general election.
Both candidates heaped praise on the two remaining contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination—Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Schneider said Clinton was his choice while Rotering said she was undecided.
“Hillary Clinton is the most qualified presidential candidate we may have ever had,” Rotering said. “Bernie Sanders has given people who did not have a voice a voice again.”
Schneider also lauded Sanders as a champion of the issue of income inequality and Clinton’s experience in both foreign policy and domestic issues. He said Clinton was his preference because of her ability to lead without missing a beat.
“I love the message and experience of Hillary Clinton,” Schneider said. “She has the experience and ability to make difficult decisions.”
Debate moderator Lynn Sweet, the Chicago Sun Times Washington bureau chief, then reminded Rotering she had not picked one of the two.
“I’m not picking one at the moment,” Rotering said.
Though Rotering did not name a choice, she donated $2,650 to the Clinton campaign on May 17, 2015, according to reports on the Federal Election Commission website. There is no record there of a contribution to Sanders.
Other issues brought up in the debate included several questions on the Middle East. They also discussed the Affordable Care Act, general election strategy, gun safety, the future of social security, the Black Lives Matter movement and college affordability.
Sweet used several of those questions to get the candidates to distinguish themselves from positions staked out between Clinton and Sanders.
When Sweet asked about college affordability, she wanted to know if Rotering and Schneider supported Sanders’ proposal of free college with its accompanying tax hike or Clinton’s idea of making it debt free. They both sided with Clinton.
“We do not want to leave people with an unbearable debt,” Rotering said.
“Education has more value if you don’t give it away for free,” Schneider said. “The kids should have some skin in the game.” He also mentioned community college and advanced placement classes in high school as a way to spend less than four years in a high tuition university.
Though Rotering touted the assault weapons ban she led through the Highland Park City Council in 2013 as gun safety credentials and Schneider said it was the subject of his first speech in Congress, Sweet wanted to know what each of them would do in a House of Representatives reluctant to touch the subject.
“Every journey begins with a step,” Rotering said. “After Newtown I decided this was not going to happen in my city.” Sweet reminded her it was not likely Republican leadership would allow a vote on her ideas. Rotering had an answer. “The United States Supreme Court gave us a model. We give it back to the municipalities.”
Schneider said the best way to get gun control legislation passed after Congress’s refusal to even allow votes on some of the legislation is one vote at a time.
“You try again,” Schneider said. “You get every Democrat behind you and then you start picking up Republicans.”
The debate began with a discussion of the deal last summer between the United States and other world powers with Iran to keep Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Shortly after the bargain was struck, Rotering supported it and Schneider said no. Sweet asked them what they would do now. Neither said they would undo it.
“Given a choice between Iran developing a nuclear weapon in two months or preventing them from not having one for 15 years the choice was very clear,” Rotering said. She said she would leave it in place.
Schneider said the task now is to keep Iran in check as a sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East. For Schneider the only time Iran should have a nuclear weapon is never.
“We should work with our allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to make sure no money gets to Hezbollah,” Schneider said. “We can’t have any possibility they will further destabilize an already unstable region.”
Two days before the debate, both Schneider and Rotering filed reports with the Federal Election Commission disclosing their fundraising efforts for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Schneider collected $391,237 and has $882,363 on hand, according to the FEC report.
Rotering collected $265,161 of which $100,000 was a loan from her to the campaign, according to the FEC report. She has $936,131 in the bank.
Dold, who raised $463,827 for the quarter, now has a war chest of $1,486,508, according to the FEC report. He also does not have the expense of a primary.