(PHOTO: Re-election candidate Lawler at in-depth sit-down with Gannett reporters.)

Westchester-Rockland incumbent touts his bipartisan record, his sponsorship of five bills signed into law, and his securing of $38 million in grants for local projects in  District 17 last year.

 

By Chris McKenna, New York State Team | lohud/Journal News

Rep. Mike Lawler dove into some of the meatiest issues in one of the nation’s most closely watched House races in an interview on Tuesday with reporters from the Journal News/lohud.

The Republican freshman from Rockland County staked out positions on key topics like immigration and abortion, while drawing contrasts with former Rep. Mondaire Jones, the Democrat looking to unseat him.

He also dug into local issues like the financial plight of the East Ramapo School District and fielded questions about former President Donald Trump, his party’s standard bearer.

Lawler, a former GOP consultant and state assemblyman, claimed New York’s 17th Congressional District seat in 2022 by narrowly beating then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a five-term Democratic incumbent.

Now he is seeking a second term and is being challenged by Jones, who represented a different version of the 17th District for a term before New York’s House lines were shifted in 2022.

Lawler opened by touting his bipartisan record, his sponsoring five bills that were signed into law, and his securing $38 million in grants for local projects in his district last year, which he said was far more than his opponent got in two years.

“We’re not going to agree on everything,” he said of his constituents. “But I think during my two years in Congress, I have proven myself to be bipartisan, independent and willing to engage every community across the 17th Congressional District, and work to accomplish and achieve legislation that is important to our community.”

He and Jones are competing on Nov. 5 for a critical swing seat that will help decide which party rules the House, now in GOP hands by a slim margin. The redrawn 17th District takes in all of Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess.

Jones was interviewed separately by The Journal News/lohud. An account and video of the discussion were published on Wednesday.

Here are some takeaways from what Lawler had to say on key topics in his 53-minute interview.

Abortion: ‘Most people agree’ on first-term abortions

Lawler, who has said he personally opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or the life and health of the mother, was asked about his statement in a recent interview that “the vast majority of Americans believe there is a reasonable time period for an elective abortion.”

How many weeks of pregnancy did he think was a “reasonable time period,” and did he want Congress to set a single, national policy rather than allow each state to set its own rules?

“The decision on this issue is up to the people,” Lawler said. “And I think most people reasonably believe that an elective abortion should occur in the first trimester,” which is up to 13 weeks.

“And I think when you talk to rational —and have a rational discussion about this, that’s where most people fall. The sad part about this debate is that the extremes are what drives the conversation.”

He dismissed the idea of a national abortion policy as politically impossible, given the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate. (States have been left to decide set their own rules since the Supreme Court decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.)

“You’re not going to get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate for that,” Lawler said. “You’re not going to get consensus among members of Congress on abortion.”

He repeated his vows to vote against any proposal to ban abortion nationwide, and pointed out that he opposed GOP attempts to ban the abortion pill mifepristone.

Gun control: Supports some steps, not assault-weapons ban

Lawler was asked about restoring a federal ban on [so-called] assault weapons or enacting any other new gun restrictions to prevent further mass shootings. Jones went after him on that topic last month after a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a Georgia high school with an AR-15 rifle and killed two fellow students and two teachers.

Lawler argued the current bill to ban ‘assault’ weapons is too broadly written and can’t clear Congress in that form. A Democratic-led House narrowly passed a ban in 2022 with Jones voting in support, but the Senate later voted down the proposal.

“The way that the bill is currently framed, they’re not going to be able to get consensus, because it pretty much bans any semiautomatic weapon, and most guns today are semiautomatic,” he said.

Lawler also touted his sponsoring a bill that renewed a 1988 ban on guns that can evade metal detectors, and said he supports expanded laws on safe-storage of guns and expanded ‘red flag’ laws to keep guns away from people who are deemed dangerous.

Immigration: Mass-deportation pledge is unrealistic, ‘not right’

Lawler was asked about Trump’s pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

He has taken a far different stance on how to address the nation’s undocumented population, co-sponsoring a bill that would create a path to citizenship or legal status for those who have committed no crimes.

“Are you going to mass deport everybody? No, it’s unrealistic and it’s not right,” he said. “You have people who have been here for 15, 20 years, who have children, grandchildren who are citizens. You’re not looking to tear apart families. But you do have to have a process for them to become legal.”

Policing stance:Rep. Mike Lawler rips opponent Mondaire Jones for 2021 vote to let felons vote in prison

He went after the Biden administration for the migrant surge into the U.S. since 2021, which he blamed on its reversals of Trump orders.

He argued for stopping the influx by hiring more border personnel and more court personnel to hear asylum and parole cases within 60 days; by extending the southern border wall; and by cracking down on drug cartels.

Budget: Steep cuts GOP sought were ‘negotiating tool’

Lawler was asked about his voting for a stopgap spending measure last year that would have slashed federal funding for domestic programs by up to 29 percent.

House Democrats and and some Republican opponents blocked that proposal, leading to a replacement that staved off a government shutdown at the last minute — without the steep cuts.

Lawler said he didn’t actually support the spending cuts that he voted for in that initial measure, known as a continuing resolution. He described it as a negotiating tactic that House Republicans took with a Democratic-led Senate, partly to force a vote on a border-security bill that they had put in the resolution.