PLATTSBURGH - The nine Republican hopefuls for the 23rd Congressional District seat came to Plattsburgh Thursday evening to convince Republican committee members and elected officials that they would be the best choice for the job.

Thursday's meeting was the fourth and last such meeting held as part of the Republican search for a candidate for the seat John McHugh is expected to vacate when confirmed as Army secretary.

The meetings, in which candidates are allowed to make speeches and answer questions, are only open to the committee members and elected officials; however, the candidates are available to the media outside, and while one candidate is giving a speech, the other eight wait their turn.

The committee members and officials have been asking the candidates about "everything," said large-animal veterinarian Gary Cooke of Port Henry, one of the candidates. He listed the economy, the environment, the military and Fort Drum as issues he was asked about.

The candidates have also been asked about their views on the recent cap-and-trade bill, as well as their involvement in the Republican Party, said Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava of Gouverneur, another candidate.

Ronald Uva of Oswego, a gynecologist and one of the candidates, said the people at the meetings have listened to all the candidates.

"The progress has been transparent and democratic," Uva said. "We get the impression it's really honest - no back-door dealing."

In a special election for Congress, the candidate is chosen by a weighted vote of the party county chairs in each of the district's 11 counties. The vote is tentatively scheduled for July 22, said Franklin County Republican Committee Chairman Jim Ellis, and it is weighted based on the percentage of people in that district's portion of the county who voted for the Republican candidate in the last congressional election.

The counties with the biggest shares of the weight are Oswego, with more than 19 percent; Jefferson County, with about 18 percent; and St. Lawrence County, with about 16 percent, Ellis said. Franklin County has about 6 percent and Essex County about 4 percent. Hamilton County, with about 1 percent, is the smallest.

The Democratic county chairs are still accepting applications from candidates until noon today and will start the interview process after that.

McHugh was one of only eight Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote for the cap-and-trade bill, which aims to cut carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 through increasing clean energy generation and putting limits on emissions. A majority of the potential candidates said they would have voted against it.

Franklin County Legislator Paul Maroun of Tupper Lake said the cost of the bill, in terms of higher energy costs, "is going to far outweigh what little we're saving." Maroun said he thought McHugh voted for the bill because it included legislation to reduce acid rain that McHugh has been advocating for years, and he had to agree to vote for the entire bill to get his amendment included.

Josh Lynch, a Waddington native and legislative policy aide for U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, characterized the cap-and-trade bill as "a redistribution of taxes on our rural communities," where people need to drive more often and further distances than cities and where cheap fuel is important to economic sectors such as farming and construction.

"You shouldn't be crowding out our old market when unemployment is this high and our businesses are suffering," Lynch said.

Douglas Hoffman, a Lake Placid accountant, said that, while large companies will be able to afford to make the 2020 deadline, small businesses will not be able to.

"I think now, more than ever, we need to be very sensitive to increasing taxes and fees," Scozzafava said.

Andrew Bisselle, director of YMCA Camp Dudley in Westport, is the only one who said he would have voted for it. Bisselle said he thinks the bill is probably unpopular in the 23rd District and that normally he agrees with the majority of people here, but, "There are some times a Congressman has to vote their conscience," Bisselle said. "We need to lead in controlling emissions."

Out of the nine, Maroun and Scozzafava are the only two who currently hold elective office. Many of the others say their professional experience will help them in Congress. Uva, for example, said Medicare and Medicaid are losing money, which doesn't bode well for a national health-care system.

"The government wants to run health care?" Uva said. "They can't even run the post office."

Uva said he thinks the federal government should take steps to make private health insurance more affordable, and provide universal access to maternity care and contraceptive counseling.

Cooke, a former Port Henry mayor, who takes care of cows and deals with dairy farmers frequently at his veterinary practice, said milk prices have fallen from $20 per hundredweight (100 pints) to $10, only $4 above the production cost. Cooke said a "growth management plan" is needed for the dairy industry, as small spikes in production can lead to large drops in price.

Matt Doheny, of Watertown, who has been an investor for the past 10 years helping troubled companies back to health, also said his business experience has given him a good understanding of the economy, and said not being a career politician means he is "not part of what's going on in Washington or Albany."

Lynch, who at 26 is just one year over the Constitutional minimum age of 25, said he thinks putting a new, young face on the Republican Party could help it promote its ideas.

Some of the candidates also said that stopping the Democrats is one of their reasons for running.

Bart Bonner, a semi-retired businessman and horse rancher from Watertown, said he is running "to stop the Democrats from destroying our country - (there is) no greater calling. They're trying to nationalize our health care, destroy American industry through cap and trade, grant amnesty to illegal aliens, the list goes on and on. They're going to raise taxes on the most productive segment of our society."

Doheny said the Democrats are "changing the way we live" in many ways, such as health-care policy, the economy and energy policy, and "interjecting the federal government in ways that are unimaginable."

"This is one of the most important and watched congressional elections in the history of the country," Bonner said.

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Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.