Rep hopefuls spar with primary in sight

LYNN – Moderator Joe Spina characterized Wednesday’s 6th Congressional District forum as a conversation and invited candidates to “jump in” anytime, and they did, often interrupting one another and Spina talking over everyone.Marisa DeFranco, Seth Moulton, John Devine and Chris Stockwell fielded questions from Spina and his co-moderators Al DiVirgilio and Paul Crowley during LynnCAM’s “The City Voice” show.DiVirgilio referred to the absent John Tierney as the “incumbent whose name we won’t mention because he didn’t show up tonight.”Candidates jumped into the fray with a discussion on immigration where DeFranco, an immigration attorney for 17 years, insisted, “this is my turf, literally.”She blamed the influx of unaccompanied minors and undocumented immigrants on President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), not an increase of violence as others have stated.To solve the problem, she said she would double the number of immigration judges, push the undocumented immigrants through hearings at the border and only allow in those whoqualify for asylum. The rest would be returned to their families, she said.Employers who hire undocumented workers and pay them illegally should also be hit with serious fines, she added.It’s incumbent upon the U.S. to secure its borders, Moulton countered. Devine agreed with both Moulton on border security and DeFranco on DACA, but Stockwell argued that the government could build 750-foot walls and immigrants would still scale them if they saw a better opportunity here than in their own country.”We should partner with countries and help them rebuild their infrastructure, better education systems,” he said, adding it would give them incentive to stay rather than leave.When asked if he could or would stand up to the Democratic party, Moulton, a veteran, said, “let me tell you a story.” Although he is a lifelong Democrat, Moulton said he was told by the party’s leadership not to run for Congress, not to challenge an incumbent.”They essentially told me don’t participate in this democracy I put my life on the line to defend,” he said. “By virtue of the fact that I’m sitting here and Marisa and John, we’re all willing to stand up to the party.”Each candidate agreed that the Islamic State is worse than al-Qaida and needs to be stopped, but DeFranco stood alone in saying she would be willing to commit American ground troops if need be.Each also said they would fight to keep Union Hospital a full-service hospital, that the opiate epidemic is a scourge and more mental health services are needed to address it and that Social Security needs to be made more secure.They differed a bit on education and tax reform. Moulton said there needs to be a concerted effort to fix failing schools, but DeFranco said that’s largely a state issue.”What we can control is tuition, and I’m the only one with a plan,” she said.In fact, DeFranco billed herself as the solution candidate; Stockwell the one with business expertise; Devine said his major concerns are income, inequality and inequity; and Moulton called for voters to send people to Washington who would make real change, like him.DiVirgilio simply asked for everyone to vote in the primary on Tuesday.