19th congressional district currently held by chris gibson who was not running for reelection. the district includes cooperstown and kingston. time warner hosted this debate in woodstock, new york. ♪ moderator: hello, and welcome to the time warner cable debate between the 19th congressional candidates. we are coming to life from the woodstock playhouse and i am liz benjamin. the best: and i am men -- -- nick craze nick reisman. we have zephyr teachout, a law school professor and democrats. interestingly, both candidates have previously run for governor. here we have the roles that the candidates have agreed to before the debate. one minute for an opening statement and one minute for a close. we will ask questions on a variety of topics. in one minute limit with a 42nd 0 second allowed at discretion. then the lightning round. questions restricted to guess and no as much as possible. the order of statements was determined earlier by chance and first is ms. teachout. ms. teachout, this is a current events question. very excited. mr. reisman: go ahead. please. ms. teachout: i am z

i'm honored to the support and strong endorsement of congressman chris gibson who is a model to me onw you work across party lines to get things done. it is an honor to serve and to run in this capacity. if elected i will do my very best to fulfill our promises, uphold our constitution and abide by the rule of law. >> ms. teachout, your two minutes begins. >> thank you to our panelists, thank you to matt and john and thank you to all of you who are watching tonight, and possibly asking us questions. i'm running for congress because i love this country and i'm worried about it. i'm economic patriot. i believe that the bring jobs home act. we have to support local, and we can'can and should make things n america again. i'm also running because we have to protect our water from the big polluters, and i support a model where we move away from a fossil fuel energy system towards renewable energy. the third reason i' i run is wee got to clean up congress. congress just isn't working. every part of the district i go to people ask me how can we get congress working again for the people? not b

two john faso, one of the issues that chris gibson, the incumbent in the district, has championed has been lyme disease treatment and research. the question i got on facebook asks what is your plan for helping new york coping with the limement issue with the disease epidemic? mr. faso: there is legislation right now which he is trying to get adopted in the final days of congress after the election which would address the need for treatment and long-term care for people with lyme disease and also open ourselves up to alternative treatments and to make sure there is proper peer-review from a variety of medical experts who are dealing with lyme disease patients to understand the various ways in used inugs can be various treatments that can be brought to bear. this is something that is century,in the 21st which i hope is going to be enacted before the end of the congress and i will continue that effort. i think it is vitally important we expand medical research and other areas. cancer in a als, variety of forms. it is finally important that the federal government support medical research

that's one of the reasons why, as someone running at chris gibson street, i would be -- be qualified to work as i have done in the past. that act was a good accomplishment. now it's a matter of how well the agency administers it and how well the congress provides oversight to it. yes, it was update of a 40-year-old act. there were many substances, chemical substances, orphans substances, if you will, that were never evaluated. now there is a process that we can get many more chemical substances evaluated, to learn their potential carcinogenic effect on human health. ms. benjamin: we've reached about the halfway point of the debate. it is time for the candidates to ask a question of one another. ms. teachout: john, you said that you support donald trump because of the role he would play in selecting supreme court justices. you have also said that you think roe versus wade is a black mark on our country. do you agree that the supreme court should roll back these decisions? mr. faso: i think roe v wade is the law of the land. it is something that, if i'm honored to be elected, i'm sworn

chris gibson has been an extraordinary leader on elevating lyme and pushing for research and funding,ch there is way too little of. those who suffer from lyme disease know how little funding there is. i talked to a teacher in ulster county about her crawling from her bed in gastric pain because of the treatment protocol. she was unable to have a child. i talked to parents worried about kids playing in the grass. we have to address this head on. moderator: the next question goes to joe mahoney. joe: how would you grapple with the issue of these millions of people living in the shadows in this country? they apparently got here -- they can prove they got here illegally, so they could be deported. do you support a pathway to citizenship for these folks? what should we be doing about immigration reform? ms. teachout: i do. i support basically the compromise version of the senate bill that came up a couple years ago. this is a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, which is really important. richard hanna, the farm bureau, business leaders, immunity leaders, farm leaders all came to

i am honored to have chris gibson's strong support in this he and i would be on her have your support as your next member of congress on november 8. ms. teachout: thank you nick and liz and john and everybody for watching. this is a really critical election and there are real differences between myself and john, some of which we talked about tonight, not all of which we did. i am an independent fighter. i never responded to political party heads or to big corporations. my opponent is really the ultimate insider. he was an assemblyman and then a lobbyist. even a couple of years ago, he said he couldn't really see there was corruption in albany. what i see is that people throughout our district are angry because they don't have a voice. and i promise i will be that independent voice, only responding to people in this district, only raising a people's voices. socialve in protecting opponent believes we should privatize it. i believe in the fracking ban. my opponent believes we should do more fracking. there are deep differences year. but the deepest differences that i will always be inde

chris gibson is not running for reelection.ng for his seat are a law professor who moved to the district from brooklyn. she is an ak co-light of bernie sanders and features him in her ads. the opponent is a lobbyist and a former state senator described as a paul ryan conservative. issues including gup control, jobs and the environment are being overshadowed by donald trump. he supports the republican ticket. he remains unclear if he will cast a ballot for trump. >> i will not be voting for mrs. clinton. i haven't decided who i'm going to vote for for president. >> my opponent has been talking out of two side of his mouth. >> reporter: the district is split evenly. at a debate thursday night, trump came up again. >> my opponent has not had the courage to denounce trump. supports the ticket and doesn't trust voters enough. >> reporter: he called trump's remarks on women reprehensible. >> they're outrageous. the fact is is that the voters are intelligence enough to decide the race for president. they will decide the race for congr

chris gibson is not running for reelection.or his seat are a law professor who moved to the district from brooklyn. she is an ak co-light of bernie sanders and features him in her ads. the opponent is a lobbyist and a former state senator described as a paul ryan conservative. issues including gup control, jobs and the environment are being overshadowed by donald trump. he supports the republican ticket. he remains unclear if he will cast a ballot for trump. >> i will not be voting for mrs. clinton. i haven't decided who i'm going to vote for for president. >> my opponent has been talking out of two side of his mouth. >> reporter: the district is split evenly. at a debate thursday night, trump came up again. >> my opponent has not had the courage to denounce trump. supports the ticket and doesn't trust voters enough. >> reporter: he called trump's remarks on women reprehensible. >> they're outrageous. the fact is is that the voters are intelligence enough to decide the race for president. they will decide the race for congress

incumbent republican chris gibson is not running for reelection.re a law professor who recently moved to the district from brooklyn. democrat sandra teachout, an acolyte of bernie sanders, and features him in her ads. teachout's opponent is republican john faso, often described as a paul ryan conservative. issues including gun control, jobs, and the environment are being overshadowed by donald trump. faso says he finds trump's remarks about women appalling but still reports the republican ticket. it remains unclear if he will cast a ballot for trump. >> i will not be voting for mrs. clinton. i haven't decided who i will vote for for president. >> my opponent has been talking out of two sides of his mouth on trump. >> reporter: the race is in a statistical dead heat, evenly split between registered republicans and democrats. at a debate thursday night, trump came up again. >> my opponent has not had the courage to denounce trump, still supports the ticket, and doesn't seem to trust voters enough. >> reporter: faso responded by calling trump's remark

i'm honored to have chris gibson's strong support in this seat and i will be honored to have your support as member of congress on november 8th. >> thank you, nick, liz and john and everybody for watching. this is a real -- really critical election and there are real differences between myself and john, some of which we talked about tonight, not all which we did. the core difference is that i'm an an independent fighter. i've never respond today political party heads or to big corporations. my opponent is really the ultimate insider, he was assemblyman and lobbyist and a couple of years ago he couldn't really see that there was corruption in albany, what i see is that people throughout our district are angry because they don't have a voice and i promise i will be that independent voice only responding to people in this district, only raising up people's voices, i believe in protecting social security, my opponent believes we should privatize it. i believe in the fracking ban, my opponent believes that we should do more fracking. the deep difference is that i'm going to be independent, i h