Congressman Gary Ackerman is presently serving his 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. This year, Rep. Ackerman is running on the Democrat, Independence, and Working Families party lines.

Prior to his service, Rep. Ackerman was a New York schoolteacher. He was also a New York State Senator, local newspaper publisher and a small business owner. He is a graduate of Queens College, is married and has three children.

After the 1990 redistricting, Rep. Ackerman's district included parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties. The bulk of the Roslyn area is in the current 5th CD.

Along with his opponent, Stephen Graves, Rep. Ackerman answered questions on issues that are pertinent to residents of the 5th CD. They included such topics as Iraq and the question of reinstating the draft, immigration, housing affordability, and federal budget matters.

Concerning the ongoing wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and in general, the war on terrorism, Rep. Ackerman said that he was personally opposed to the draft. "[I] do not believe it will happen especially in this situation," he added. "The war against terror is not just a matter of being numerous and strong in order to win. We also have to be smart."

Both President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry have expressed their support for amnesty for illegal aliens in America, whose numbers are estimated to be in the range of 8 to 12 million.

Rep. Ackerman said he would not be in favor of giving "automatic legal status" to all illegal aliens in the country. "If a bill was carefully drafted and had specific qualifications, which would include being a constructive part of American society for a fixed number of years without ever being in trouble, I would give very serious consideration to it," Ackerman said. "Under President Bush, our borders have become more porous and the number of illegal aliens entering the country---including many from suspect nations in the Middle East---has increased rather than decreased. This problem has to be addressed in a serious manner."

On the problem of young adults leaving Long Island, Rep. Ackerman singled out the lack of affordable housing as the most serious concern.

"Some communities that have been consumed with the notion that affordable housing would attract 'undesirables' to their neighborhoods, has been the main stumbling block to building it," he said. "These areas must rethink that attitude. After all, what can be more desirable than having one's children or one's parents now living on a fixed income, residing nearby so that each can participate in caring for the other. Now that's real family values. I strongly believe in the need for affordable housing in our district and have fought hard to make it happen."

With the Baby Boomer generation set to retire within the next two decades, the question of funding Social Security and Medicare loom large. "Social Security and Medicare must be kept solvent," Rep. Ackerman said. "The government must not be allowed to raid the trust funds. The billions of dollars in tax cuts that President Bush gave to the 1 percent wealthiest people in this country would have alone covered Social Security and Medicare. This issue must be addressed."

On other issues, Rep. Ackerman noted some differences between himself and his opponent, including a "total ban" on assault weapons, which the congressman said he supports and his opponent does not. He also cited abortion and school vouchers as other areas of disagreement. Rep. Ackerman said he is "pro choice" and opposes vouchers which he said "[robs] the public schools of much needed funds."

"Unlike the Republican majority in Congress, I believe that politics should not be played with the 9/11 report," Rep. Ackerman added. "I also believe, especially in this time in our war against terror, that there should not be cutbacks to the funding that goes to our first responders including our local fire departments, police and emergency rescue workers.

"In addition, I have been a strong advocate and very successful in bringing federal dollars home for Nassau County's environment and infrastructure," Rep. Ackerman concluded. "I also support allowing Americans to purchase prescription drugs from Canada."

- Joe Scotchie

Stephen Graves is the Republican Party's nominee for the 5th CD. "Like many people living in the 5th district, I immigrated to the greatest city in the world from elsewhere," Graves said.

A native of Tennessee, Graves has lived in Los Angeles and abroad in Asia and Europe before settling in New York where he is president of Bio Nutrition Labs, a company that provides nutritional products for general health in fitness. For the past eight years, Graves has been active in the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and with Learning for Life, a program that assists with career opportunities for disabled children.

Graves was asked the same questions as his opponent on various issues, foreign and domestic.

On whether reinstating the draft is necessary for a continuing war on terror, Graves replied, "absolutely not." He said that personnel he has spoken to in the Defense Department do not favor a draft, but he added that the armed services does need "several more divisions of active duty personnel to relieve pressure on our National Guard," ranks that could be filled by volunteers.

Graves also opposes amnesty for illegal aliens. "We need to do more to keep our borders secure since this is now a national security issue as well as a social one," he said. "At the same time, we need to reform immigration services so that people who are doing it the right way are treated fairly instead of the bureaucratic mess they get now. Better processing would also make sure that we are not letting in those who could be potential terrorists."

Graves identified jobs and housing as the major reasons why young adults are leaving Long Island. Citing the need for more "high-tech startups" and jobs, Graves said that "the problem is that New York has become very unfriendly to small businesses, with heavy taxes and over regulation." He favors enterprise zones that would provide tax incentives for emerging industries.

Concerning affordable housing, Graves supports the Mortgage Insurance Fairness Act, one that would allow people to deduct the cost of mortgage insurance from their income taxes. "This will save at least several hundred dollars a year for homes in our area," he said.

On providing Medicare and Social Security to the coming generation of Baby Boomer retirees, Graves said that tort reform could cut unnecessary Medicare costs such as medical malpractice insurance, which he said is "driving doctors out of practice." He also supports Medical Savings Accounts, which Graves said would "allow people to save for insurance deductibles and can be later paid for medical premiums---all tax free. We also need to make sure that we can get prescription medicines at lower costs and this may take buying them in other countries and reforming the FDA to be more efficient in bringing drugs to market so that it doesn't cost $1 billion to do so."

For Social Security, Graves said that while there is "no need" to disrupt benefits for current or soon-to-be retirees, he would also support private investment accounts for younger workers, money that could go to those workers heirs. "There will certainly be a cost to make this transition, but if we do not do it now, we will pay a much higher price in the future and we must keep our promises to seniors," he said.

Other issues mentioned by the candidate included Homeland Security and the situation in Iran.

"We must have someone who represents us who understands what must happen for America to be safe," he said. "Unlike my opponent, I believe we must make the choice of being proactive and using our capabilities to take the fight to our enemies and protect our strong allies like Israel. We should continue to use our muscle to work with our allies to hunt terrorists where they live and to disable the regimes that give them safe harbor."

Concerning Iran, Graves was similarly hawkish. "Iran is about to go nuclear and now that we are close enough to have better intelligence, I will push for tactical strikes on such facilities if necessary to stop WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) production," he said. "What would my opponent do?"

- Joe Scotchie