Col. Chris Gibson says he is running for Congress to change the direction of our country."I'm very concerned," the Kinderhook native said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "We continue to pile up a mountain of debt, and we threaten to be the first generation that leaves our country worse off than we found it."
Gibson said he wants to see less federal spending and a balanced federal budget. When asked for specifics, he said he favors abolishing the Department of Homeland Security, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"After the 11th of September, our response was typical, but it was not effective," said Gibson, who is a 24-year Army veteran. "We didn't need more government. The problem was that government wasn't coordinating well."
Gibson stressed he wasn't talking about cutting first responders such as police and firefighters, but about getting rid of the department and creating an interagency task force to coordinate the War on Terror. He called this "adding by subtraction," saying it would both reduce the size of government and increase its effectiveness.
Gibson served one tour in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War and three tours during the current war. He said the U.S. needs to be more offensive in the war against Al-Qaeda, gathering intelligence to go after the group.
"We're fighting this war regionally, and our enemy is fighting it globally," Gibson said.
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Campaign
Although a primary is still a theoretical possibility, Gibson seems the likely Republican nominee to run for New York's 20th District congressional seat. He has the support of the Republican Party in the district, and the other previous contenders have dropped out.
The district, which stretches from Saranac Lake to the outskirts of Poughkeepsie and Cooperstown and includes the towns of Keene and North Elba, is currently represented by Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, who won a special election last year. Murphy plans to run for a full term, and no Democratic opponents have emerged.
The Republican Party has been having trouble raising money at the state and the national level, but Gibson said he didn't think this would hurt his campaign.
"I think we're going to raise enough money to have a competitive campaign to win," Gibson said. "We're also going to be highly mobilized on the ground. You're going to see a very effective and enthusiastic grassroots operation for us."
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Health care, the economy and the budget
"The central parts of our program are lower taxes, fewer regulations, and new, bipartisan legislation to drive down health care costs that focuses on increased competition," Gibson said.
Gibson said he wants to see people allowed to buy health insurance across state lines, and tort reform to limit malpractice suit damages and bring down costs. He said he favors repealing the health care reform bill that passed recently and has signed a pledge to do so, "but I'm realistic" about the possibility of this happening and would work for new legislation to bring down costs. He said he thinks the bill will drive up premiums and federal spending, citing the 17,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents being hired under the bill.
Gibson said he doesn't think the economy is headed in the right direction and said he thought the stimulus bill was a "huge mistake" that hasn't reduced unemployment. Unemployment has increased since its passage. Instead of spending money to stimulate the economy, Gibson said the government needs to "move those impediments" standing in the way of small businesses, such as regulations, taxes and high health care costs.
"They deal with a whole slew of government agencies," Gibson said of small businesses, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers at the federal level and the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency at the state level.
"We literally have jobs ready to go," Gibson said. "Small businesses are trying to grow, but they have to get through all the wickets."
When asked about earmarks, Gibson said the bigger problem is the budget process. The president works on the budget for months and then delivers it to Congress, which adds to it; if Congress collaborated more in the budget's development, "we wouldn't have the need for add-ons because Congress was involved from the very start," Gibson said.
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Cap and trade
Gibson said he opposes the cap-and-trade bill that passed the House of Representatives in June 2009 but hasn't passed in the Senate.
"We ought to take more creative measures to protect the environment and reduce emissions," Gibson said.
One suggestion Gibson had was adding another lane to the Northway near Albany, to reduce the hours-long traffic jams that happen as people go to and from work there.
"You'll cut down on carbon emissions, you won't have cars idling, (you could) get people home to their families sooner," Gibson said. "Then you won't hurt small business owners with the cap-and-trade bill."
The bill aims to cut carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 through increasing clean-energy generation and putting limits on overall emissions. Opponents say polluting power companies will pass these costs down to households and small businesses with increased energy bills.
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Gun laws and abortion
Gibson said he supports allowing people to carry concealed handguns as well as "reciprocity," meaning that someone who can legally carry a gun in their home state can carry it anywhere in the U.S.
"I fully support the Second Amendment," Gibson said.
Gibson said he thinks abortion should be legal in the first trimester.
"I think it's a private choice between a woman and her doctor," Gibson said. "But no public monies for private choices. I fully supported the Stupak amendment," meaning an amendment to the health care bill to ban federal funding of abortion.
Gibson also praised the right-to-life community for working to reduce the number of abortions and said the law needs to be changed to make adoption easier.
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Background
Gibson went to Ichabod Crane High School in Columbia County, where he was the co-captain and point guard of the basketball team. He also played baseball. He went to Siena College, where he majored in history and graduated magna cum laude. He was in the Army ROTC and commissioned as an infantry officer.
After college, Gibson served in the Army for 24 years. As well as Iraq, he also went to Kosovo as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's mission there and did a tour in the U.S. Southwest as part of a counter-drug operation.
Gibson's last assignment was as commander of the second brigade combat team of the 82nd Airborne Aivision; he was an airborne ranger and paratrooper, and earned four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. His last deployment was in Haiti after this year's earthquake, as part of the humanitarian relief operation.
