Roberto ready to challenge Higgins for Congress

With summer over another season kicks into high gear, and it’s not fall. Election 2010 is getting nearer to its Nov. 2 end date and candidates are doing what they can to get voters’ attention and interest. Leonard Roberto is one of those candidates and he has the task of taking on incumbent Congressman Brian Higgins for the 27th congressional district in New York. Roberto was asked how he can beat a formidable opponent such as Higgins. “Let’s analyze this whole thing,” he began. “Brian is a formidable candidate because of registration advantage and he’s got a lot of money, that’s the only advantages he has. Philosophically, he’s at odds with the people of his district. “We are a very conservative district even though the registration is highly Democratic. ... His philosophy is not consistent with the constituency of this area but because of the propensity to vote for the party to which you are registered, he enjoys that advantage. “I will tell you right now we are going to win this race because Brian Higgins is at odds with the people of Western New York. He votes 99.1 percent of the time with Nancy Pelosi and we do not have the same philosophical ideology as the people in San Francisco and we’re going to make sure the people know that.” Roberto maintains there are two types of Democrats. “There’s what I call the entitlement Democrats, the ones that are standing there with their hands out saying, ‘what are you going to give me?’ And there’s the guys that are working to give what they want to get,” Roberto explained. “The ones that are working, those hard-working labor union Democrats, they are not happy with Brian Higgins. They are defecting in droves from him and people who earn a living and can’t keep what they earn are getting very tired of subsidizing people who won’t work.” WINNING ON ISSUES Roberto pointed out that Higgins wants to focus on the Buffalo waterfront development. “He wants us to engage him in a waterfront development conversation. We’re going to refuse to do that. ... But if you want to talk about health care, you want to talk about bailouts, you want to talk about stimulus programs and taking over banks and taking over automobile companies, that’s where we have to engage him and when we do, he loses. We’re going to win on that debate. “We’re just going to have to peel the luster off that coin so we’re going to work very hard to do that. “We can’t afford to elect people to public office, particularly to Congress, who want to talk about a hole in the middle of the city of Buffalo and don’t want to talk about their congressional voting record. We want to talk about the congressional voting record.” Part of that record is a yes vote by Higgins on the health care bill. “We want to talk about the health care bill that was slammed down our throats, even though 70 percent of his constituents were vehemently opposed to that health care bill,” Roberto stated. “It strips us of certain rights that are in the Constitution. “If we’re getting health care from our employers we actually have to pay a tax on that now. It confiscates 3.7 percent of the value of our home if we try to sell it, that’s insanity. It’s absolute insanity, not to mention the fact he wants to give illegal immigrants health care and give them amnesty.” NO COMPROMISE “I will not compromise,” Roberto stated. “People say all the time that politics is the art of compromise. No, that’s slavery is where you compromise. You go into government with principles. Principles that are uncompromisable. “I’m not going to compromise on the principles of life. I’m not going compromise on family. I’m not going to compromise on limited government, constitutional government. If there’s a bill on the floor and I can’t find a Constitutional authority for it, I will vote no for it, no matter what the justification for that bill is. “My authority is given to me by the Constitution of the United States and if that authority is not there, all that authority is retained by the people and I’m not going to violate those principles.” NATIONAL SECURITY Roberto said this area has an illegal immigrant population but noted not all illegals have the same motives. “There’s people who are coming here trying to escape poverty who are working on our farms and contributing to our society,” he stated. “Then there are people who are coming across the border armed with weapons and drugs and human trafficking who are trying to destroy our economy, are destroying our country. ... The federal government’s answer in Arizona to 80 miles of our border being taken over by illegal immigrants armed as paramilitary organizations was to put signs up telling American citizens don’t go here. That was their answer. “My answer would have been to take an infantry of military on the border and shoot anything coming north until they stopped coming north. That’s sovereign American territory and our borders have to be sacred or nothing’s sacred.” Roberto was asked about Afghanistan and war. “Without a declaration of war it’s an unconstitutional act for us to be there and we should not have been there in the first place. Without that declaration of war our best course of action is to leave, get out of there. “I try to explain this as best as I can, only people who have seen war can understand what I’m going to say. What prevents war is the horror of it, the absolute horror of the last war. “What we’re trying to do with politicians running wars is to sanitize war to make it more palatable. Civilians don’t die, churches don’t blow up, hospitals don’t go down, make sure you don’t kill the power plants. Make sure they have running water. “You can’t sanitize war because what you do when you do that is you prolong the war, the number of causalities is increased, they last over a longer period of time and it emboldens people to have another war, which also exacerbates the problem. “What you need to do if you go to war is you galvanize the opinion of the American people with a declaration of war. If they won’t give you that, then you don’t have the right to go to war. Once you get there when you go to war, you destroy everything, everything. You destroy it until everything is gone because that will prevent the next war.” Roberto was asked if former President George W. Bush was wrong to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. “I think they acted unconstitutionally,” he replied. “There’s no question about it, you need a declaration of war.” MEETING WITH THE PUBLIC “The League of Women Voters has offered to have three debates with the both of us there. I don’t know if he’s accepted, we have. “We have to talk about the congressional voting record. I’m not going to get involved in a contest over what’s going on on the waterfront, that’s a smokescreen. We’re going to talk about those substantive issues that are killing our future, jeopardizing the viability of the United States. “We are a debtor nation today and we better come to grips with that and solve that problem or we may not be a nation much longer.” AFTER THE ELECTION Asked how he would work with Democrats if he won but they still held the majority, Roberto said that was a hypothetical outcome. “If Republicans don’t take over, if that happens, all the stars have aligned for the Democrats,” he said. “That is not going to happen. Democrats are going to lose the House, they’ll lose it big. ... They’re going to lose this district. “Can I work with the Democrats? Yes, when they agree with me we’ll get along just fine. And the Republicans, when they agree with me we’ll get along just fine because my positions are not compromiseable. “I’m not going to play games with Washington insiders. I’m not interested in becoming a Beltway fixture. I’m there to represent the people of Chautauqua and Western New York, Erie County, and bring my views to them instead of them bringing their views to us.” Coming Monday: Roberto speaks about the Seneca Nation of Indians tax dispute.