New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District incumbent Rep. Tom Kean, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Sue Altman traded barbs and presented conflicting policy positions in a spirited debate on the evening of Oct. 13, touching on issues as varied as abortion, tax policy, the Gaza conflict, Ukraine, and the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Kean hopes to retain the seat, which he has held since January 2023. He sought to portray his opponent as someone aligned with radical elements within the Democratic Party, while Altman tried to associate Kean with what she described as an exclusive club of wealthy Republicans.
Altman said Kean was someone who favors a national abortion ban even in cases where bringing a child to term would endanger the life of the mother. Kean denied this.
“I am pro-choice. I have a 21-year record of supporting pro-choice positions and I would oppose a national abortion ban,” Kean said.
The candidates also disagreed over fiscal and tax policy and who was more aligned with the interests of New Jersey’s entrepreneurs.
Altman described the district as one of the wealthier and more educated in the nation, with median incomes around $125,000. She said that it has also suffered from the capping of a tax break known as the state and local tax (SALT) deduction during the Trump administration.
“Prices have just gotten too high and wages are too low, and in this district I will fight to bring back the SALT deduction,” Altman said.
Kean responded by citing Altman’s opposition to the deduction as recently as two years ago.
“She said it was a giveaway to the rich,” Kean said. “As you know, the tax package will be renegotiated next year, and we need to get the SALT deduction restored, and, as I have been fighting [to do] since I got here, I will make sure it gets included.”
Altman said that she was just old enough to remember a time when the Republican Party tried to foster robust competition among small businesses. Those times are long gone, Altman said. Today, the party serves the interests of big corporations and has helped bring about an economic reality in which four corporations produce 75 percent of the pork and three companies produce 85 percent of the beef. Tax incentives tend to go to Iowa farmers raising corn, she said.
Under this dispensation, small family-run farms, such as those that fill parts of New Jersey’s District Seven, are the victims, Altman said.
Kean responded that Altman’s and other Democrats’ support for the Green New Deal has had bad consequences for precisely those types of local entrepreneurs. The deal, he said, will increase costs for New Jersey families by $630,000 over 10 years.
The two candidates both expressed strong support for Israel in its current war with the Hamas terrorist group.
Kean said that Altman would not take a stand on foreign policy independent of the federal government.
He called for providing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with the missiles and other weaponry he had asked for.
Altman said that she used to teach history and knows what happens if you don’t stand up to a bully, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
