Background: Shreya and I sat down with Rosemary Becchi, a Republican CD-11 candidate running in this fall’s general election. We asked her questions on 8/27 we thought would be most important to young voters and also amassed some of your responses via Instagram.
Shreya: What made you want to run for office in the first place?
Rosemary: My entire life and career, I have always been about paying it forward and giving back to people. A big part of why I wanted to run is that I can do more to help others with my experience and areas of expertise. I think I’m at a point in life and my career where I have an opportunity to really make a difference in others’ lives and give back.
Shreya: What background do you have that will make you a stronger Congressional candidate?
Rosemary: There’s a couple of reasons why my background relates to my candidacy. First and foremost, I’m a mom, and I have lots of experience with raising kids. My daughter, Francesca, was born with a birth defect- her esophagus wasn’t connected to her stomach, and she’s had a lifetime of issues around health and education. I had to be an advocate for her on issues that I initially knew nothing about, and it’s made me a fighter. I also think that from a professional perspective, my area of expertise on taxes, writing policy, and knowing how businesses and the federal government work makes a better candidate. You guys all got to witness how during the pandemic, a lot of people tried to get help from the government because they didn’t understand the available programs. I understand how government and economic policy work and was able to help people apply for the loans they needed to keep their business afloat or pinpoint what was in the government aid that pertained to them (for example: the unemployment insurance, tax credits for businesses).
Shreya: If elected, what are the main issues you will be championing?
Rosemary: The top three issues to me are helping the economy get going, looking out for the safety of our families, and helping the most vulnerable. First and foremost, we need to create jobs and focus on rebuilding our economy. This pandemic has created a situation where many of our businesses are shut down. People are hurting after being laid off and losing their jobs, and it’s important to help our economy get going as well as growing. Second, we have to look out for the safety and security of our families. In this environment, defunding the police is not feasible. We have to support the police, and if we have to, get even more resources for the police to continue to protect our families. And if we need to develop programs that help the police do their job better, we should be. The third issue is helping those that are the most vulnerable, those who aren’t able to advocate for themselves, like disabled people, kids and adults on the autism spectrum, etc. This pandemic has highlighted that we can’t forget those that need our help the most. I’m not necessarily talking about more government programs, I’m talking about smarter programs to help these people. This can be through the private sector in developing more creative programming around education or helping with school choice and creating vouchers that give parents the freedom and tools that they need.
Shreya: As of right now, what glaring problems do you see in NJ-11 that you want to change?
Rosemary: Once again, there’s a couple of things. We need to help our businesses get back to work, especially our small businesses. As a result of COVID-19, our small businesses are struggling, and we need to find a way to get them open quickly and safely. There’s absolutely a role for the federal government in this, and we need to be helping the families behind these businesses. Another priority is the situation with the schools and reopening. [Author’s Note: This interview was conducted in August, before school started.] If we’re not able to open them in a safe manner, we need to provide families with the resources to make choices and give them the vouchers they need to provide for their children. Not opening schools and doing one-dimensional online learning is not sufficient, and we have to do more for our students.
Shreya: It’s definitely not the way many of us want to learn either. We’re choosing virtual as a safer option, but it’s really not what we want.
Rosemary: I completely agree. You learn from each other by sitting next to each other, talking, and interacting with the people around you. It’s so isolating and harmful mentally on your generation to learn like this, and it completely scares me. Sitting in a room and staring at a screen is not the answer. I have so much respect for teachers, and you need to be able to sit in a classroom, observe what he/she does, and be able to ask a question when you need help. There’s so much more to learning than the virtual option.
[Author’s Note: I almost cried hearing this.] When my daughter was first born, she couldn’t speak, and she didn’t speak for a very long time. My most vivid memory of her was when she was laying on the ground with a little cow figurine, holding and directly putting her hand on it. My mouth was moving and saying, “The cow says moo.” She couldn’t talk, but she watched me and saw me communicate. Eventually, she got it, and there’s something to be said about being a visual learner and staring into each other’s eyes. There’s just a huge chunk of learning missing virtually that’s not fair to you guys.
Shreya: What sets you apart from incumbent Mikie Sherrill?
Rosemary: Honestly, I think this is a no-brainer. She promised everybody she was going to be something different, and she’s not. She has put politics over the people. She hasn’t voted in the best interest of the people in this district; she’s voted in the best interest of the Democratic Party. I think it is just that simple
Shreya: Obviously, we’re both future young voters. How do you plan on appealing and advocating the needs of our generation if elected to office?
Rosemary: So, I think that your generation has the most incredible opportunity in front of you. The world is your oyster. I really believe that my role is to advocate for policies that give you as much freedom as possible to do all the things you are capable of and make sure you have all the opportunities available, whether as women, as first-generation or second-generation Americans, etc. I want to create opportunity and not shackle you with the past or antiquated ideas. That’s why I believe that we need less debt and less big government to give you guys more freedom. If we give your generation too much debt, you’ll never have the freedom you want because you’ll always be paying that debt for the rest of your lives. Your taxes will go up and up, and that’ll be less freedom to help the people you want to help, do the things you want to do, and develop the policies and programs of your dreams. My role is to advocate for less government to give you more freedom in your hands so you guys can take possibilities to the next realm. The most irresponsible thing my generation can do is weigh people your age down with all of this debt.
Sriya: We all anticipate this crippling debt in our future, yet we haven’t even gone to college yet.
Rosemary: That’s exactly why I wrote and was so passionate about the 529 College Savings plan. It struck me at the time, What if my parents had that ability to save little by little for my college education? Maybe I wouldn’t have graduated with $100,000 in debt and had that holding me back. When you have that much debt, it influences what jobs you pursue. In my career, I didn’t do more government service simply because I had to pay my debt back, I had to make certain choices. While I’m grateful for the service I’ve done, I really was limited because of that debt, and I always wanted my kids to graduate debt-free after college because of that. I couldn’t have been prouder to take that first withdrawal from the 529 to use for Francesca to go to college and not have to graduate with all of that debt holding her back. A woman that works for me told me once that her parents fully paid her college and law school with the 529, and she’s now married with a child of her own unburdened by the monetary baggage and pressure.
Sriya: Oftentimes, politicians tend to favor partisan politics over their constituents. What will you do to foster more unity and productivity in today’s political climate?
Rosemary: I think that it’s important to be an independent voice and having knowledge of who to talk to and where to go in order to best represent your constituents. You have to be able to reach across the aisle, the Capitol, or the rest of the government in the agencies/ the White House to advocate for others.
Sriya: Representative Sherrill has been outspoken out her concern for VBM ballots, specifically how different mailboxes were removed in Morristown. In the most recent election in NY, 20% of VBM ballots were rejected. How do you suggest we guarantee that all mail-in ballots are secure and counted?
Rosemary: We have to inform people about the process. We need to make sure that the information that is provided is correct and accurate. I fear that there will be a lot of misinformation being spread in concern to VBM. I frankly believe we should be voting in-person, there’s absolutely no reason we can not develop safe measures to do so.
Sriya: Do you support absentee voting?
Rosemary: I do. I don’t think that in every instance, people can drop everything and hurry to the polls. You have to make voting accessible for everyone and find ways to accommodate people. I don’t think there’s a problem with the absentee process, or voting early, because you’re giving everybody access to the means. At some point, I’d like to see voting be done all electronically. All our banking can be done on our phones; and if we can secure our banking, why can’t we secure our votes?
Sriya: You have criticized Representative Sherrill for not doing enough during the current economic crisis. According to Change Research, the majority of Americans want increased unemployment benefits as well as direct stimulus payments. Do you support these policies? If not, what is your plan to help during this economic crisis while also maintaining safety during the pandemic?
Rosemary: I support the notion of helping families as well as small businesses during this time. The CARES Act was a great start for this process. But I do think that we have to develop policies that get people back to work and our economy growing. I’m not opposed to unemployment benefits. But we cannot sustain long periods of high payouts to people without developing a plan to get them back to work because that’s just welfare. There needs to be a certain scale and double-endedness to this. In the process, we have to help our small businesses get back to work and get open. I support ideas around direct payments, tax credits, or policies of that nature so businesses can get the PPE they need to reopen or find a way to reconfigure their model so they can afford the resources (ex: plexiglass) they need. There always needs to be a balance, not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Even the loan programs, the SBA, their initial objectives were admirable, but as we’ve seen, the pandemic didn’t just last a month. We’re now into month six [Author’s Note: Again, this was said in August], and these loans need to be adjusted and redesigned. There’s a reason there’s still money in the program, and that’s because nobody wants to take those loans. The folks in our Small Business Coalition, for example, worry that they can’t ever pay this money back, and they don’t want to take a loan for the sake of taking it.
I do criticize Mikie because as a policymaker, she ought to be proposing more solutions and helping more businesses get the liquidity and tools they need to be operational. They in turn provide jobs so we won’t actually need unemployment insurance anymore.
Sriya: As you know, Representative Sherrill was formerly in the Navy. Do you support increasing the funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs? If not, why?
Rosemary: I do support increased funding for this department. I think that we need to do more to help those people that have served us, and it’s more than just increasing funding. We need to make our programs better-catered to their needs and bring the services into this century’s demands/today’s world. We need smarter, not bigger government.
Sriya: Because of the coronavirus, more and more Americans support Medicare For All as a means of getting affordable healthcare. Do you or do you not support Medicare for all?
Rosemary: I don’t support Medicare For All. I think all Americans are entitled to the best healthcare, but a government-run healthcare system is not the best solution. We need to interject more transparency and competition to make healthcare affordable. For example, why can’t we sell across state lines? It goes back to your generation: this world is so different, and you need more competition and transparency to introduce newer options in healthcare. We need to evolve.
Sriya: Is there a specific message you want to leave for young voters?
Rosemary: I really believe that for young voters, voting shouldn’t just be about a certain party. It should be about the candidate that represents your values, beliefs, and what you want.
Comentários