Hanna: I won’t toe party line

In a Monday story in Roll Call, a publication that covers Congress, Hanna is quoted as saying he has never thought of himself as a Republican, wouldn’t like to have Sarah Palin campaign for him and would have to meet U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, before deciding whether he would support him as Speaker of the House if the GOP takes over that chamber of Congress this autumn.

During an interview that the story’s writer, Stuart Rothenberg, called “the most refreshing, yet unusual, candidate interview I’ve done,” Hanna also commented on his support from Republicans in Washington, D.C.

“It’s nice they are excited about my race, but they may be disappointed when I get here,” Hanna said in the Roll Call story.

Hanna, a Barneveld resident who is one of two announced candidates challenging U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, for the 24th Congressional District seat, said during an interview Monday with the O-D that his point was that there are some Republicans who stand for things that he doesn’t support. The ideas that are associated with the extreme side of the Republican Party aren’t what make him who he is, he said.

“I want to be identified for who I am and what I believe in,” Hanna said. “I’m very comfortable. I am what I am. I’m not going to change it for my party, and nobody has asked me to.”

‘Trying to paint’

Some Democrats, however, said Hanna is just trying to position himself as a moderate candidate – something Arcuri also has done.

“Hanna should stop trying to sell this ‘independent’ sham because New Yorkers aren’t buying it,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Shripal Shah said.

And Arcuri’s spokesman, Jay Biba, said Arcuri already shows the leadership that people in the Central New York district want – pointing to a recent report by the National Journal that placed Arcuri right in the middle of the political spectrum based on his House votes in 2009.

“Mr. Hanna is trying to paint himself as someone who is in tune with the needs of middle-class families in this moderate congressional district, when clearly he is not,” Biba said. Hanna, who runs his own construction company, donated $600,000 of his own money to his near-miss 2008 campaign for Congress.

While Arcuri and Hanna have both made statements or sent news releases showcasing their ability to be moderate or independent, the third candidate in the race, Ernest Logan Bell, defines himself differently. Bell said Monday he is concerned by Hanna’s statements in the Roll Call story that Hanna doesn’t “live in a world where ideology helps you.”

“That bothers me, and that’s one of the reasons I’m running,” said Bell, a 25-year-old sergeant in the Army National Guard and a member of the Constitution Party who plans to run as a Republican.

“If he doesn’t think of himself as a Republican, he shouldn’t be running for the nomination of the Republican Party.”

Hanna identifies himself as a fiscal conservative, but he is more liberal than many Republicans on social issues. For example, Hanna and Arcuri both support abortion rights. Bell said he is pro-life.

‘An identity situation’

Some local Republican officials said they’re not concerned by Hanna’s comments, and National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Tory Mazzola called Hanna “an independent voice committed to fighting for job creation and fiscal responsibility with a common-sense approach that understands what Central New Yorkers want and value.”

Tioga County Republican Committee Chairman Don Leonard said people in the district are most worried about jobs, taxes and spending, and they don’t want someone who is just going to go to Congress to vote along party lines.

“He’s going to go there to represent the people – not party leadership,” Leonard said of Hanna.

Cayuga County is one of 11 counties fully or partially in the 24th District.

Oneida County Republican Committee Chairman George Joseph said Hanna is independent in his thinking because he is an “educated” and “smart guy” who isn’t going to make decisions just because of his party. But that doesn’t mean Hanna is trying to distance himself from the Republican Party or that he doesn’t have Republican support, Joseph said.

“I don’t see that as a fault line with him,” Joseph said. “It’s more of an identity situation – he’s identifying what he is.”

Hanna said he believes his identity is as someone who is focused on results and whose main concerns are jobs, the economy, taxes and the future livability of the region.

“I’m just here to solve problems,” he said.

Rothenberg, in the Roll Call article, describes Arcuri as serious and poised, and concludes that the 24th Congressional District will see “a very interesting contest between two quality candidates.”
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