ms. altman: and congressman, sign on to the -- sorry. joey: ms. altman, the new jersey minimum wage hit $15.13 this year but the federal minimum wage is $7.25. do you support raising minimum wage and how high should it be? ms. altman: absolutely. we need to tie it to cost of living. minimum wage is one of the best ways to to make sure that our workers have the bare minimum to sustain themselves but it's barely enough. if you're making $15 an hour, you might have to work two or three jobs to give in the seventh district so we have to be very mindful about the fact that the minimum wage only gets us so far. we need to support healthcare and things like dental and vision. we want to make sure that we're supporting things like paid family sick time. the minimum wage is only the tip of the iceberg but is absolutely vital and we should absolutely 100% pass a federal minimum wage law and if my opponent was so pro worker, he would rush out the door to sign on to that bill so i'm confused how he can claim to be pro worker and against minimum wage. rep. kean

ms. altman: you didn't work on it in new jersey. rep. kean: what you changed was your position on police, on israel and a number of other issues only once you became a candidate. that's what people see in you and what we have to focus here is sending a person down to congress which can be consistent in his support and get the bipartisan support that i have had. every police union has en endorsed me because they know she will not have their back. laura: we have to end it there with our panel because we've run out of time. we want to give both of you time for closing statements if our candidates. tom kean, you have 90 seconds on your closing statement. to you. rep. kean: thank you. it's great to be with you again tonight. i want to thank the voters, the panel panelist for the questions and -- a lot of us talked about the issues important to the people of the seventh congressional district. i ran for office to help solve problems. i joined the problem solvers club, fought to keep government open, fought to secure the southern border, i've h

ms. altman, i will start with you. in the vice president of the bay, both candidates dodged this question. i'm hoping none of you will. some experts believe iran can build a nuclear bomb within the next year. if there is evidence it is taking place, would you support or oppose a preemptive strike on iran by israel? >> i am deeply concerned about good intelligence. israel is an important ally in the middle east that has every right to defend itself. iran has said over and over again it wants to wipe israel off the face of the earth and the united states off of the face of the earth. israel is a really important intelligence partner. a lot of businesses in israel. there is democracy in the middle east. it is important as a jewish homeland. lord knows there's a lot of anti-semitism in this country and there always has been. there's country clubs that did not admit jewish people until later in the century. it is a very important question. i think there could be a case made for a preemptive strike on iran if that was the ca

ms. altman, do you think that there is any sort of imbalance of power here that needs to be to be corrected? do you think that unions have too much ability to to make these these major things like these strikes that impact supply chains happen? i mean, i was pretty delighted that the strike ended the way it did, because i think that's the power of collective bargaining with collective bargaining. you can exercise your muscle and then you can negotiate terms that make sense. so if anything, i think the power is the wrong way around. the billionaires controlled too much capital in our society. people like elon musk are funding my opponent's campaign to the tune of over a half a million dollars. so far and counting. and they don't even know how to pronounce his name right. and so from my standpoint, the working person needs a champion in congress, and that person will be me. the pro act is only the beginning. we need to fight hard for working people. tom kaine. listen, we need to ensure that. i mean, i support collective bargaining and i support prevailing wage. and i've long supported those p

ms. altman, a cornerstone of vice-president harris' campaign is to build three million homes nationwide as we've seen development battles in places like westfield and summit and elsewhere in the district, new development isn't always warmly received. do you support the vice-president's plan and do you think that any of those homes should be built in the 7th district? >> there's definitely a housing shortage in new jersey and part of that comes from new york city. because new york city has not kept up with its bargains in terms of building housing at all and so, all of that extra need floods over into new jersey. we need to fix our transportation system before we continue to add pressure onto it. but if we can fix public transportation and we can preserve open space because that's crucial and i grew up into the late '80s, early '90s of new jersey and watched beautiful beloved farms that i loved become paved over and become shopping centers. we have to provide open space and public transportation, but we can build walkable downtown, build places like clinton and lambertville, beautiful downt

ms. altman, i will pick up on that. jersey itself has very strong abortion protections and some democrats like governor murphy said making allows even more encompassing. i want to ask you if there any parts of new jersey law regarding abortions as it stands right now that make you uncomfortable? >> no, there is not. i think new jersey is for very good reason accepting women who are in emergency situations that come here to seek healthcare. i am not a medical professional. my opponent is not a medical professional. these issues, these very technical personal decisions are issues that should be left between a woman and her doctor. there is a woman in our district whose baby was born without a brain and she needed to get an abortion late in her pregnancy. congressman, it is not the government's business to know the ins and outs of everyone's pregnancy. pregnancy is exceedingly difficult on the body. it is a total body stressor. there are vanishingly few women, and you know this, congressman, who carry babies all the way to

ms. altman, i will start with you.ate all candidates dodge this question so i'm hoping neither one of you well. some experts believe iran can build a nuclear bomb within the next year. if there is evidence that this is taking place would you support or oppose a preemptive strike on iran by israel. >> i'm deeply concerned that that is indeed good intelligence an important ally in the middle east. it has every right to protect itself. they said over and over again they want to wipe israel off the face of the earth and wipe the united states off the face of the earth. israel is the really important intelligence partner. they are a democracy in the middle east. it is important that there is a jewish homeland because lord knows there is a lot of anti-semitism in this country and there always has been. there are country clubs that did not emit people until later in this country. this is a very important question. i think there could be a case made for preemptive strike on iran if that was indeed the case , but i would be ver