MANHATTAN (CN) - Coming down to the wire in a hotly contested election season, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand found support but little enthusiasm from her base Thursday outside the news studio where she debated Republican challenger Chele Farley.
Across the street form the Upper West Side offices of debate host ABC-7, registered Democrat Leonia Sagasta said she always votes but was “not too familiar” with Gillibrand.
“I’m a Democrat all the way through, so I would support her,” said Sagasta, who noted that she chairs the Soroptimist International of Manhattan, a volunteer organization that works to improve the lives of women and girls.
In just a 30-minute showdown, Gillibrand and Farley managed to cover an impressive number of topics including terrorism, immigration, health care, taxes, campaign finance, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, climate change and bipartisanship.
Gillibrand, who was first elected in 2009 to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat when Clinton was appointed secretary of state, is expected to win the election in a landslide. An Oct. 18 FiveThirtyEight poll predicted she’ll garner 58 percent of the vote to Farley’s 33 percent, and a Quinnipiac poll from the same day found the same results.
Sagasta said education and homelessness are two of the biggest issues she sees in New York. Thursday’s debate did not directly address those issues, though Farley did say she supports a tax deduction for renters. Gillibrand almost agreed with her, saying renters should get a tax credit instead.
Sagasta also lamented the economic gap.
“There’s such a great division now in the economic gap between the have-nots — there’s more every day — and then the people that are just struggling with the average wage, and the prices are skyrocketing, and I see this division widening continuously every day,” Sagasta said.
Outside the Kings County courthouse in downtown Brooklyn, a woman who wanted to be identified only as Michelle said she worries about gentrification, high rent and the high cost of living in the city.
“I know people, their pension goes towards rent,” said Michelle, a Democrat.
Gillibrand is widely considered a potential 2020 presidential candidate, though she denied Thursday that she would run. Moderator Bill Ritter pointed out that she’d been frugal in her spending on the senatorial campaign; The New York Times reported Oct. 20 that she has built up a $10.7 million war chest.
Ritter asked the big question early. Would Gillibrand tell New Yorkers who plan to vote for her that she would, if re-elected, serve out her six-year term as senator?
“I will,” Gillibrand said, explaining the low spending by saying hers was “a modern campaign … run by the grassroots.”
“I will serve my six-year term,” she said.
Farley challenged that assertion in her response. “Honestly, I don’t believe that,” she said.
Pressed again on the issue by journalists after the debate, Gillibrand changed her phrasing slightly.
“I’m running for Senate,” she said. Pressed further, she clarified: “Yeah, I intend to serve my Senate term."
Despite running in what Gillibrand called “an all-time low for political discourse,” the candidates — both women — actually agreed during the debate on some issues, one of which is the need for more immigration judges at the U.S.-Mexico border.
