BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) \u2014 Voters in Blair County got a chance to hear directly from the candidates seeking to represent Pennsylvania\u2019s 79th District during a debate held there Sunday.<\/p>\n
The debate was hosted by Kid Careers at the Altoona Grand Hotel and moderated by James Finochio, the host of a local YouTube show. Finochio said the goal was to help voters understand where the candidates stand before heading to the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the representatives just don’t seem to get a lot of attention, but they hold a very important job,\u201d Finochio said.<\/p>\n
Republican incumbent Andrea Verobish, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and a master\u2019s in public administration from Gannon University, said she stands for \u201ctraditional conservative values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-limited governments, and I am here for faith, family and freedom,\u201d Verobish said.<\/p>\n
Verobish is being challenged by Democrat Caleb McCoy, a nurse and Army veteran. McCoy said his platform is focused on working-class issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is making life better for working-class people in this state,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cDoing things like raising the minimum wage, expanding access to childcare, making sure we get paid parental leave for parents when a child is born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verobish also emphasized affordability and said she shares the same day-to-day concerns as other families in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a real person from Blair County raising a family here. I have the same issues that other people do,\u201d Verobish said. \u201cAffordability whether it’s paying for groceries, paying for childcare, putting gas in my tank, and trying to work together to figure out solutions that are going to help Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
On child care, Verobish said she knows how difficult it can be to raise a family, noting that her child care costs were once higher than her mortgage. She said deregulation is needed, pointing to restrictions she said can limit how facilities operate.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, children may be able to use the school playground during the day, but once it becomes an after school program, they are not permitted to use that equipment,\u201d Verobish said.<\/p>\n
McCoy argued that child care should be treated as essential infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are looking at child care and we are not supporting it in the same way that allows for working families to be able to participate in child care and be able to go and work and build our economy to be stronger, then we are missing the point,\u201d McCoy said.<\/p>\n
The candidates also disagreed on Medicaid reform, including work requirements. Verobish said, \u201cFor adults who are able to work, we should encourage employment education and the skills they need to become self-sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCoy warned about the potential impact on hospitals in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have four hospitals within an hour and a half of us that are all running in the red,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cAnd if you think things are bad now, wait until we have four more hospitals diverting to us because we cut Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n
On gun laws, Verobish said, \u201cLaw-abiding citizens should not have to obtain government permission to exercise their right to protect themselves and their family.\u201d McCoy said he supports \u201csome basic common sense guidelines, like actually a concealed carry permit is an appropriate thing to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite their differences, both candidates agreed that people convicted of lesser offenses should be able to restore their gun rights after being released from prison under certain conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they meet certain guidelines. A nonviolent felon, I would be supportive of that,\u201d Verobish said.<\/p>\n
McCoy added, \u201cYou’re able to meet some basic conditions, you ought to be able to earn that right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) \u2014 Voters in Blair County got a chance to hear directly from the candidates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-309956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}