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As Election Day quickly approaches, the race for Erie County Executive is heating up.

Erie County Executive Brenton Davis is hoping to retain the county’s top position for a second term.

He’s being challenged by Democratic candidate Christina Vogel.

Over the past several weeks, there have been some strong words exchanged by both candidates about their opponent, in their political ads and commercials.

Erie News Now asked both candidates the same four questions.

Here’s what they had to say:

What are your thoughts on the ads that have been run against you by your opponent?

Davis:  “I don’t pay too close attention to them.  A lot of it is stuff that is taken from headlines from the Erie Times News.  I don’t think anybody really reads that anymore, so a lot of things like any political campaign, when you have nothing to run on, you got to take things out of context and you have to attack because you bring nothing to the table.”

Vogel:  “I think they are incredibly misleading and they try to portray me as some kind of Al Capone person, who I am clearly not and I think he should focus on the issues that are facing Erie County.”

There has been mudslinging on both sides leading up to the election. What do you want to say to voters about the past charges against you?

Davis:   “To me, let’s be clear.   I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been fingerprinted and I’ve never been charged with a crime.  That’s clear.  A brief drama that we had was a civil complaint that was tossed out by a judge pretty quickly.”

Vogel:   “We have not publicly said anything about the allegations against him, but for me, it was a misunderstanding that resulted in a $50 fine that was less than a traffic ticket.  It was a summary offense, and I lost a friend.  We both have sons who are on the autism spectrum, and it was really a painful experience.”

Why are you the most qualified person to serve as county executive?

Vogel:  “I believe I have the most experience going into this, just from my past, working at the Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Illinois, what I did in the insurance industry, and then creating my own business, but also I think I have the right temperament.  I believe in working with others, respecting all of the officials that are already in office, and just bringing people together and just collaborating so that we can move Erie County forward.” 

Davis:  “I think we’ve shown that we’ve done more than what the past three executives have been able to do.  We hit the ground running, we made historic investments in EMS, economic development, homelessness, we haven’t kicked the can down the road.  We’ve addressed things head on and we’ve got the judgement, the experience, and the connections to continue to improve Erie County.”

If elected, what is your top priority for the county, moving forward?

Vogel:  “For me, it’s always been the budget.  I think that we have to have a strong foundation financially to make the changes we want to make, and right now, in this environment especially.  Amazon just laid off 14,000 people.  Target has laid off 1,800 people.  I saw META today is laying off people.  We can’t afford to waste a single dollar.”

Davis:  “We are already in it day to day.  We want to continue to do the things, improve EMS to have the fastest EMS system in the country, and continue to eradicate homelessness.  To bring opportunity for our kids and our grandkids, economic development, new business, business expansion, for us it’s just a matter of continuing the work that we’ve already been successful at doing.”