Congressional candidate Christina Rosetti wants to remind voters that Democrat Dan Maffei is not the only person vying to replace local incumbent Rep. Jim Walsh, R-N.Y., in November.

The congressional primary for the 25th District will take place next Tuesday, Sept. 12. Maffei is running unopposed on the Democratic ticket after Paloma Capanna dropped out of the race in July so as to prevent a primary election. Maffei, however, is also running on the Working Families Party line against Rosetti.

If Rosetti defeats Maffei in the Working Families Party primary, she will run in November’s final election.

Rosetti said that she has felt unrecognized in the race, that often people won’t identify her as a candidate, despite the fact that she is on the ballot.

Rosetti is also at a financial disadvantage. Walsh raised about $690,305 for the 2006 campaign, and Maffei raised about $331,732, according to opensecrets.org.

Rosetti, on the other hand, is running her campaign almost entirely on her own with few volunteers and virtually no money other than her own, said Michael Smith, a friend and volunteer in her campaign.

‘We are basically running a shoestring campaign,’ Smith said.

Rosetti said despite her disadvantages she believes she is a viable candidate.

Rosetti, an educator and author of the ‘New Spiritual Bible’ in 2005, said one of the most important ideas of her platform is promoting the brotherhood of man.

‘It may sound like a very fluffy idea, but any politician or political leader makes their judgment calls on principles that they hold,’ she said.

She said the current presidential administration operates off the belief that man is basically evil, and she believes this must change. She said she would work off of the assumption that most people are good. She said she wants to promote more love in politics.

Smith said that Rosetti operates from a strong set of moral values.

‘There aren’t enough people in politics who come from a perspective of general concern for humanity,’ Smith said.

Rosetti said that she strongly holds that she is the best candidate to support working family values.

Maffei, however, is also running on the Working Families Party line and is endorsed by the party, said Mike Whyland, a Maffei spokesman.

‘The Working Families establishment is emphatically behind Dan Maffei,’ said Sam Eschenbrenner, a Syracuse University senior and student intern for the Maffei campaign.

Whyland also said that Rosetti doesn’t even live in the 25th District.

‘She lives way down state, below the Catskills, around three hours from the district,’ Whyland said.

According to Rosetti, she is currently in Syracuse often, and if she wins, she will move to the district immediately.

Rosetti said she offers an alternative to ‘career politicians’ such as Walsh and Maffei. She said that if she wins, she will pledge to take no money or gifts from lobbyists, something she claims Maffei and Walsh refuse to respond to.

‘I feel Dan Maffei does a lot of talking about how he is a Democrat so people should vote for him, but to me he is no different than Jim Walsh,’ she said.

Eschenbrenner completely disagrees, saying that Walsh and Maffei are opposites on almost all major issues.

When it comes to specific issues, Rosetti said she is very against the war in Iraq and that she foresees a draft if the conflict continues as is.

‘I have set forth a plan to help us leave Iraq but stay protected,’ she said.

Smith said that Rosetti is a valuable addition to the election.

‘She may be a kind of quiet candidate who is not getting too much press,’ Smith said. ‘But I support her candidacy because I believe it is a good thing for the debate. It is good for politics to have a third party.’

Rosetti is on a mission to get Walsh to be more accountable, Smith said. She is very upset that Walsh does not hold regular town meetings and wants this practice to change.

Though she has never held public office, Rosetti is no stranger to political campaigns. She ran for president in 2000 as one of the nine Reform Party candidates. In 2004, she vied for the Green party nomination for president, but lost it to Ralph Nader. In 2004 she ran for Congress, but did not make the ballot.

Despite her lack of election success, Rosetti said she is not discouraged.

‘I run for experience and I run to get the issues out there,’ she said.

She also said that the more elections she runs in, the more support she receives. She said if she does not win this election, which she admits is a strong possibility, she plans on maybe running for Hillary Clinton’s senate seat.

‘I am encouraged by the fact that I am getting a lot more support,’ Rosetti said. ‘People are listening.’

Published on September 6, 2006 at 12:00 pm