Congress Candidates Answered Questions for 2 Hours

Patch was at Thursday night's congressional candidates forum hosted by the Belmont Heights Community Association at Rogers Middle School, and will bring you details by the weekend. As promised, we submitted the questions readers asked of the candidates, and some of them were asked and answered.

The Rogers Auditorium forum was well attended, especially in the first hour of the event, hosted by the Belmont Heights Community Association and conducted by the League of Women Voters.

The questions posed by audience members to the 47th District candidates were specific and wide-ranging. What would each candidate do to create jobs? How overriding of an issue is the federal deficit to you? If Israel attacked Iran, should the U.S. do the same? What are your views on how important reform is to Medicare and Social Security?

The candidates were asked yes or no, are they pro-choice, and do they support off-shore oil drilling? Healthcare and education were big questions as well.

Answers were given only a few minutes time, as were closing statements, which kept the pace tight and balanced among the candidates, who are:

The Republican field and Democratic fields each feature four candidates.

Republicans

Gary DeLong

Steve Foley

Sanford W. Kahn

Steve Kuykendall

Democrats

Peter Mathews

Jay Shah

Usha Shah

Alan Lowenthal

Only Steve Foley and Usha Shah did not attend. Her husband, and opponent, Jay Shah, said Usha Shah was attending a benefit for the homeless.