WHITE LAKE, NY — When Rep. Marc Molinaro held a town hall in Bethel, it was far from his first.

Molinaro was elected in November of 2022 to represent the 19th Congressional District, which includes Sullivan and 10 other New York counties. He stopped at the Cornelius Duggan school in Bethel on February 15 as part of a town hall tour in his new district.

Every day of his adult life was spent in elected office, said Molinaro. He became a village trustee at 18, rose to be village mayor, went to the state assembly and finally spent 12 years at Dutchess County Executive before being elected as a representative. He’s conducted hundreds of town halls throughout his career.

In coming to Bethel, Molinaro was introducing himself and his ideas to the people of Sullivan County, and seeking to hear their priorities.

“My entire life for you will be boiled down to yes or no,” said Molinaro. But most challenges couldn’t be boiled down to a single vote, he said, and encouraged those in attendance to consider his record more holistically.

Food stamps

One attendee asked if Molinaro would support a bill to fund a program providing box lunches for children. Over the summer, children who relied on school meals had a hard time getting them; the program in question let parents pick up a week’s worth of meals at once.

Molinaro wasn’t familiar with the bill, but he knew the issue, he said. His mother had relied on food stamps and subsidized lunches to make ends meet. He supported the concept of assistance, and thought expanded access during the pandemic was the right call.

Later in the town hall, Molinaro discussed the Farm Bill as a policy that brought together producers and consumers, supporting farmers in producing food and supporting those who needed help to access quality nutrition. His personal experience of being a subsidized consumer was part of the reason he’d been chosen to help with the bill’s newest iteration, he said. He emphasized that farmers in the Northeast had very specific needs requiring help.

Opioids

Wendy Brown, chair of Sullivan County’s Drug Task Force, asked Molinaro the yes-or-no question: Would he support the county’s application for a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area designation? The designation would give the county more funding and resources to fight drug trafficking; the county has applied several times without success.

“Yes,” said Molinaro. “Thank God, that was an easy one.”

Brown complimented Molinaro on a program he established as Dutchess County Executive that helped women—particularly pregnant women—with substance use disorder. Sullivan County had copied that program.

The Dutchess County public health officials had brought the program to him, Molinaro said. If the county could interfere in the right moment in a pregnancy, the child could be born into a healthy environment.

Substance use disorders change the chemical compounds of your brain, he added. Most people don’t choose it, but fall into it through prescription medication, unknown substances at parties or life circumstances.

Family care

Sandy Oxford asked Molinaro his stance on family medical leave and on child care. These were issues on which Republicans weren’t aligned with most Americans, she said.

There’s an effort within Congress to expand child care, said Molinaro. He acknowledged the problem: major employers list it as a major concern, and the lack of child care keeps women, in particular, out of the workforce.

He encouraged companies to invest in child care as a prerequisite for coming into communities. New York State needed to raise the level of income at which people could be eligible for childcare assistance, he added. Currently, the state raised those limits for individual counties upon request, not across the board.

Gun control

Rabbi Chuck Diamond, who had served at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg, PA until shortly before a mass shooting there, asked Molinaro another yes or no: Would he lead the charge to ban assault rifles?

Molinaro said that while he heard the position, they would end up disagreeing on this.

The Constitution was clear, Molinaro continued; he would not support a ban. He did support other measures against gun violence. Laws were already on the books keeping weapons out of the hands of people without background checks, he said, and they needed better enforcement.