MANHATTAN, NY – First time Democratic candidate for Congress Dan O’Connor has issued an invitation to current Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez to hold a public debate. His campaign sent a formal letter to the Velazquez campaign on February 2nd asking for the open forum.

“Dan O’Connor represents a fresh face for the Democratic party in New York city,” said O’Connor’s Campaign Manager Christina Tobin. “It is vitally important Democratic voters in the 12th district get a chance to learn about his positions on the issues facing our nation.”

A brief interaction was caught on tape between O’Connor and Velazquez at the Youth Bike Summit at the New School on January 14th. In the video, O’Connor had requested a public discussion between the two candidates to which Velazquez responded, “in the future, sure.” The video can be seen on O’Connor’s YouTube channel.

As a follow up to the brief encounter, the O’Connor Campaign sent a letter to Velazquez’s office asking for her participation. As of today there has been no response from the Velazquez campaign.

“We appreciate Congresswoman Velazquez agreeing to a public discussion between the two candidates and look forward to holding it as soon as possible,” said Tobin. “Dan O’Connor’s campaign represents the first Democratic primary challenger to Velazquez in more than 10 years and voters deserve to hear from all the candidates.”

18 years and older	2002 census data	2010 census data	2012 (projected)
White	130,721 (27%)	158,594 (30%)	31%
Other	15,652 (2%)	10,265 (2%)	1%
Asian	82,263 (17%)	99,344 (19%)	20%
Hispanic	217,271 (46%)	220,316 (41%)	40%
African American	39,622 (8%)	42,162 (8%)	8%

View census stats here.

Dan O’Connor will push to limit the power of politicians.

More than 95% of incumbent politicians win re-election to the US Congress. Incumbents win re-election at a higher rate than they did in the Soviet Politburo.

With each successive term, politicians grow more and more distant from the people. It is hard to understand the plight of ordinary citizens when Congressman make over $170,000 per year, have health care benefits worth another $15,000 and become fully vested in a lucrative pension plan within a few years.

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CHINATOWN – Congressional candidate Dan O’Connor announced the addition of election-reform and voters’ rights activist Christina Tobin to his campaign as Campaign Manager. Christina is an expert in ballot-access issues, and has defended access rights of both major and minor political parties, to ensure voices in the political process for all. A successful ballot access drive will be a change from past elections for incumbent Nydia Velazquez, who has faced little electoral opposition due to court challenges to other candidates’ attempts to compete in a primary that have all but guaranteed the incumbent’s re-election.

In 2008, Tobin was successful in obtaining ballot access for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader as the campaign’s National Ballot Access Coordinator. In 2009 she founded the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, a coalition that crosses the entire political spectrum, in seeking fairness and transparency in U.S. elections.

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