Van Drew, Kennedy to debate as vote begins

Congressman Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, and Democratic challenger Amy Kennedy, of Brigantine, will face each other Thursday night in their first and only debate before Election Day on Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, ballots have been mailed out and have arrived in many mailboxes throughout the 2nd Congressional District for the state’s first mostly vote-by-mail general election. Boards of election have reported that they already are receiving completed ballots.

Kennedy and Van Drew will be together at 8 p.m. in the Fannie Lou Hamer Room at Stockton University’s Atlantic City campus, with moderator John Froonjian of Stockton’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy and questioners from the state’s public television station NJTV.

There will be no members of the public in the audience. Instead, it will be broadcast on NJTV News and livestreamed on the websites of The Press of Atlantic City, the Hughes Center and NJ Spotlight News.

The 2nd District encompasses all or part of the state’s eight southernmost counties.

At recent editorial board meetings at The Press of Atlantic City, differences between the two became apparent on raising taxes, improving the South Jersey economy and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At this point the economy is so tender, we should not be raising any taxes. We want to recuperate,” Van Drew said of the effects of the pandemic on the state and national economies. “Before doing anything like that, first we have to get the economy back on track.”

He said a combination of growing revenues and cutting waste should be done before any tax increase.

But Kennedy said some taxes should be increased.

“It’s going to be necessary to raise corporate taxes to get back to solvency and pay for some of the things needed so people have stability,” Kennedy said. “The tax code ... is just not working. People at the highest income levels are paying only hundreds of dollars.”

On the other hand, both agreed flood insurance rates should continue to be subsidized by the federal government.

“We are really the group that needs it here in South Jersey,” Kennedy said. “I would continue to fight for low cost.”

Until more mitigation efforts are in place, she said, federal subsidies should continue regardless of a homeowner’s income.

“For South Jersey, I worry about flood insurance a great deal. It could really kill us,” Van Drew said of some proposals to raise rates on homeowners near the shore. “I think there are things government has to subsidize. ... If people have to pay the true cost, it is going to hurt the economy. We can’t take another hit.”

He said he has co-sponsored the National Flood Insurance Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2019 with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and other members of the New Jersey delegation, which would make reforms but protect subsidies.

Their answers on health care questions were closer than some might expect, with both vowing to protect coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.

“We need to expand the ACA (Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare), and I think having a public option for Medicare is a good direction,” Kennedy said. “What we don’t need is to have the ACA under attack right now.”

“I think Obamacare is too expensive,” Van Drew said, “but we must have a replacement at least as good. I will not vote to get rid of it without a replacement.”

He called health care “the hardest problem we’ve got. It’s really complicated. There is no easy answer.”

Van Drew won his seat in Congress in 2018 when he ran as a moderate Democrat but left the party in December 2019 after refusing to vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

Kennedy, a former Northfield teacher and mental health advocate, handily won the July 7 Democratic primary for the right to challenge Van Drew, defeating four other candidates.