8th District candidates talk ISIS and the next president

Voters in the 8th Congressional District will decide who will represent the six-county district of 723,000 residents in the Nov. 8 general election.

U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican businessman and former Army Ranger from Troy, is being challenged by Steven Fought, a former congressional aide and Democrat from Clark County.

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Davidson is a tea party candidate who is a member of the Jim Jordan-led Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers that’s been credited with forcing former House Speaker John Bohener’s early retirement. He won a crowded March Republican primary and then cruised into an easy special general election to fill Boehner’s unexpired term.

Fought is attempting to reverse what many consider the state’s most conservative district, which includes all of Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami and Preble counties, and the southernmost portion of Mercer County.

Both are touring the district, though Fought had a late start just getting into the race in late July, and jobs and the economy are the biggest issues constituents want to see addressed in Congress.

Davidson, 46, is counting on the fact that most of the district’s voters are Republican, and the fact he’s been touring the district and he says he and his staff “stay booked and do a lot of listening and a little bit of talking.”

That “a lot of listening and a little bit of talking” strategy is also being imposed by Fought, a former newspaper reporter and retired legislative aide for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo.

“I know I can do a better job than Warren Davidson because I’ve taken measure of him. I’ve been with him,” said Fought, 62.

Both candidates — who responded to our voters guide that can be viewed online — talked with this news outlet about working with whomever will be the next president, issues with the VA, border security and international issues.

Working with the new president

Davidson said the U.S. House has a plan to growing the economy and it will be dependent on the support of whomever is president.

“We’ve really exhausted all of our monetary policy options,” said Davidson. “I think if we’re going to look at fiscal policy, I think the House has a great plan. We have a lot of really good ideas for fiscal policy, but frankly they’re dependent upon support.”

He said the House’s economic policy is supportive of what Trump has proposed, which is contrary to what he said Clinton has proposed.

“I think the state of fiscal policy looks very different between the two (presidential candidates) and nothing sums up better than that than the debt crisis we’re in,” he said. “You can grow your way out of a debt crisis, you can earn more money and fix your debt problem, but you cannot spend your way out of a debt crisis and that’s essentially Hillary Clinton’s plan. And it’s not the House’s plan.”

According to the Clinton campaign, the Clinton disputed the claim her economic plan is to spend its way out of a debt crisis. Instead it’s a growth plan where she’d “offer a 100-day jobs plan that will make the largest investment in good-paying jobs since World War II.”

Fought believes a President Trump would be difficult for Congress, and especially the Republicans.

“I don’t think Donald Trump understands the first thing about governing,” Fought said. “He’s a game show host, he’s a reality show star. He doesn’t know the first thing about public administration.”

As for a President Clinton, Fought said it would be a lot easier “because she’s been in Congress” and she’s worked as the secretary of state.

Border security

Davidson said the idea for a wall on the southern border is something that hasn’t been discussed in the U.S. House, and “nobody I know is spending any energy on that.”

However, he said that "one of the most important things" the country needs to do is to enforce existing laws. That will likely cost additional money, and Davidson believes in Congress would de-fund so-called sanctuary cities. This potentially could affect the cities of Cincinnati and Dayton as officials in recent years indicated a desire to be more immigrant friendly yet may be considered one.

“If you’re going to create a safe haven for people to come here and to stay here illegally … then we won’t provide funds to cities and states and communities that are not enforcing our laws,” said Davidson.

What would be be de-funded would be “part of the negotiations,” but said there needs consequences, he said.

Fought said building a wall to Mexico is “probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of” and wouldn’t work because of the large numbers of undocumented immigrants in the southwestern United States.

In fact, the net migration along the southern border, Fought said, is “a minus factor, not a plus factor. If you say security is keeping people out, that’s already happening.”

According to the Pew Research, there are more Mexican citizens leaving the United States than coming in. From 2009 to 2014, 1 million Mexicans and their families have left for Mexico while an estimated 870,000 Mexican citizens have entered the United States.

Improving the board, Fought, who’s been to the border as a congressional aide, said, “it requires additional manpower on the border at the checkpoints.”

“You’re going to have to use technology and you’re going to have to use more border agents,” he said.

Improving the VA

When campaigning to become the next 8th Congressional District representative, Davidson from the very start said he wanted to introduce a bill that would require members of Congress and staffers to have the same health care as veterans, which would prompt congressmen and senators to fix the issues with the VA.

Some three months after his June 7 special general election victory, Davidson introduced the Lead by Example Act.

“The point of that is to make sure our veterans know we’re willing to stand in there with them and live under the same care they have,” he said, adding that would help ensure Congress “will make sure it’s working right and it’s at the same high standards that it should be.”

Other ways to make the VA work better includes improving the choice program.

“It’s all effectively the VA’s choice and I would very much like to see that the Veterans Choice Act so that the veteran essentially have the same kind of insurance they’re used to having, except they’d have access to all these facilities — many of which are great but some of which fall very short.”

But Fought says Davidson is pushing a privatization of the VA.

“I don’t think the problems with the VA is that members of congress aren’t aware of the issues,” said Fought.

He said the plan Davidson is offering will lead to privatization and that “will make things worse for Americans veterans, not better.” In fact, Fought said, the coverage plan offered by his opponent would “result in worse coverage for veterans” in the 8th District.

How to fix it, Fought said, is to by “fully funding the VA” which will give U.S. Department of the VA Sec. Robert McDonald the support needed “so he can get the job done.” Fought said McDonald is what Republicans have said they wanted, a former business executive who can help run government more like a business.

“He’ll get the job done at the VA,” he said. “The VA is tough to manage because they have to compete with the private sector for personnel.”

International threats

Davidson believes national security declined over the past five to six years under the Obama presidency, but to improve national security, “You have to start at home and look out at the border.”

“You have to secure our border and we have to look at that as a serious national security issue, not just something related to immigration,” he said. “It is a national security problem.”

But the most immediate threat, Davidson said, “is the threat of global jihad and ISIS,” and he calls the group “bigger than a terror group.”

“They inspire the threat of terrorism as a tactic but they’re a full-blown insurgency at this point,” said Davidson.

Davidson said he believes the Authorization of Force needs to be updated and “it needs to be a more narrow, winnable mission and we need to match that with the resources to succeed.”

Fought says that mission to fight ISIS and believes “the United States should declare war on ISIS.”

“They’ve declared war on us and all our values, and by declaring war that doesn’t necessarily mean ground troops,” he said.

What it can mean is targeted drone strikes, covert operations and cyber attacks on the ISIS computer network. And engaging in cyber warfare against ISIS, Fought said that will improve the United States’ ability to “be better in cyber warfare.”

“We need to bolster our cyber warfare capabilities and ISIS will be a good place to start,” said Fought. “I think the should be consideration given in headquartering the U.S. cyber command at Wright Patterson … and needs to get away from Fort Meade, Maryland.”

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