Editor’s note: Welcome back to Rocklandia, our (relatively) new column designed to inform you, dear reader, about stuff (news, stories, people, politics, public safety, music, movements, wild animal versus human interactions, etc.) going on in Rockland County, from a Nyack-centric perspective. Here at Rocklandia, we love conversation and feedback. Please email us with thoughts, stories, ideas, food recs or anything else at alex@nyacknewsandviews.com.
At the beginning of the first of two debates before the general election, NY-17 Republican Congressman Mike Lawler and his Democratic challenger, former special operations soldier Cait Conley, stared into the News 12 cameras inside of a Long Island studio and smiled awkwardly. Like a bad blind date between two polar opposites who both wanted to bail but then got caught on a Madison Square Garden kiss camera during a Knicks game.
While the debate started off cordially, with Lawler thanking Conley for her military service after Conley led with an attack, it ended with rampant accusations of lying and Conley referring to Lawler as “Dude.”
Good times! Great TV!
We’ll dive into the debate, remind you about some other races going on, check in on some local news and finish with some food for dessert. Cherry firmly on top.
The Lineup:
- NY-17 debate gets testy
- Don’t forget about these other races
- ICYMI: Rockland News
- Food for Thought
- Musical Outro
From Debate to ‘Dude’
If didn’t get a chance and you’re still on the fence in the NY-17 race, please take hour to dive in. I promise it gets more entertaining in the second half. But if you just want some highlights, just keep on scrolling down to get to the good stuff.
Let’s be real. If this were an arm-wrestling match, marital arts competition, or really any feat rewarding physical prowess, Cait Conley would kick the crap out of Mike Lawler. But a debate is basically a Sonny Gray fastball right into Lawler’s wheelhouse.
Throughout Monday’s battle of words, Lawler deftly dodged Conley’s attacks and mounted several counter offensives and rebuttals that left his opponent figuratively bloodied. However, it should be noted that Conley hung tough, stuck to her message and managed to land a few upper cuts of her own.
Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the more interesting and insightful exchanges.
The Economy
When the candidates were asked about the affordability crisis in America and New York state, Lawler went first and immediately talked up the Big Beautiful Bill (Conley referred to it as the “Big Ugly Bill” several times), the landmark legislation that cut taxes across the board (with the wealthiest Americans seeing the biggest cuts, it should be noted) and eliminated taxes on tips and overtime.
Lawler mentioned his biggest win out of the 2025 bill, which was a return of a higher state and local tax deduction (known as SALT). The raising of the SALT deduction from $10,000 to $40,000, is indeed a line item Lawler campaigned on in both 2022 and 2024 and worked hard to include. But mostly it was simply a return to the status quo after the reduction was included in Trump’s 2017 tax-slashing bill. Many experts believe SALT “primarily benefits, generally, it’s upper middle income taxpayers, folks in high tax states [with] a lot of property taxes or income taxes” like New Yorkers in Rockland and Wesctchester, who make up a large portion of NY-17 voters.
Aside from hailing this win, Lawler laid out a strong case for why New Yorkers have some of the nation’s highest utility bills and advocated for a return to nuclear power, which would mean the re-opening of Indian Point, a nuclear plant decommissioned by Democratically controlled Albany located just up the Hudson. It would also cost billions of taxpayer dollars to restart.
Conley took the opportunity, as she did several times, to connect Lawler to President Trump’s “reckless tariff” agenda, which is contributing to rising costs on all sorts of consumer goods and services, including the building of new homes. One specific idea she mentioned was the creation of an American Public Service home loan program modeled after a popular VA program that would allow first responders, nurses and teachers to acquire more affordable mortgages.
(Speaking of affordability, at one point Rosenblum asked how each candidate paid for either their rent or mortgage mortgage. Lawler, who lives in Pearl River, said more than $3,000, while Conley, who lives in Westchester, said $5,000. Fun facts: Conley shops at Decicco’s, while Lawler goes to Shoprite.)
Foreign Policy
Basically, this part of the action boiled down to the wildly divisive issue about what the United States government should do about Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which each candidate refused to call a “genocide,” as many pro-Palestinian supporters (like Macklemore, who Roseblum name dropped) have charged over the past two years of destruction and death in Gaza.
Lawler, a devout and uncompromising supporter of Israel, painted Democrats as monolithically antisemitic, while Conley did her best not to get lumped into the Democratic Socialists of America camp, saying she “firmly” disagreed with many of their views.
At one point, Lawler hounded Conley to “denounce” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who has called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — for what Lawler considered antisemitic views. (Note: We, as a country, are far from a widely agreed upon definition of what is considered antisemitic or genocide, so we’ll refrain from making any judgments here.)
Conley refused, but said she denounced “any form of hate” and at one point clarified that she did not consider what Israel is doing in Palestinian territories to be genocide and agreed that the United States should not suspend aid to their Middle Eastern allies. But did say she agreed with the Leahy Law, which says the United States should not provide aid to countries committing human rights violations, and that she wouldn’t be afraid to criticize Netanyahu for his tactics.
(Note: Estimates vary on the overall death count, mostly because Israel refuses to allow journalists in to report on what’s going on. But neutral observers, like the British Red Cross, generally agree that more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since October 7, 2024, which is when Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israeli citizens and took roughly 200 hostages during a terrorist attack. Some 90 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced from their homes. We’ll leave it at that.)
It was during the exchange over antisemitism and Mamdani that it got interesting, entertaining and a little hilarious. Conley asked Lawler why he hadn’t denounced Trump and repeated an attack designed to lump the two Republicans as inseparable, saying Lawler is always hanging out with the president and voted with the Trump agenda “100 percent of the time,” which Lawler said was “provably false.” (Note: We won’t get into too much semantics here. As laid out in this lohud piece, Lawler does get recognized for his bipartisanship, which is increasingly rare in Congress, but he’s also been found, by at least one nonpartisan measure, to have voted “100 percent” of the time with Trump in 2025 when the president had taken a strong stance on a bill.)
In any case, after the debate had devolved into a back-and-forth where each candidate fell into “I know you are, but what am I?” territory, Conley stopped Lawler with a quick “Dude.” Which is when my wife walked in and said, “Did she just call Lawler “dude.” Yeah, dude, she did.
Immigration
When the discussion turned to immigration, things got heart-breaking and turned dramatically in Lawler’s favor. In what appeared to be a section of the debate dreamed up by Lawler’s campaign team, News 12 brought in the parents of Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old freshman at Loyola-Chicago from Yorktown who was shot and killed in March, allegedly by an undocumented man who was released by Border Patrol agents in 2023 (damningly still under the Biden administration) and then again a couple of months later by police Chicago, a so-called sanctuary city that refuses to cooperate with ICE. The grieving parents tearfully asked the candidates how they would prevent another tragedy like the one involving their daughter. (Note: Gorman’s parents are now taking a starring role in Lawler’s campaign.)
In response, Conley voiced empathy and said secure borders were a priority for her as a former military policewoman. She went on to criticize Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, saying it led to the deaths of Americans and that non-criminals were being swept up in reckless and unnecessary raids. She specifically mentioned all of the Haitian families affected in Rockland Country, who she said made up the “backbone of our healthcare system.”
But Lawler smelled blood in the water, saying he condemned the ICE killings and had worked to prevent many Haitian deportations through his constituent services arm. Then, looking directly into the camera, Lawler said agreed with Trump’s policies to end sanctuary cities and stood with the Gormans. He added that under Governor Kathy Hochul, some 7,000 convicted criminals had been released back into the general population and not deported during Trump’s tenure.
Mental Health
Nothing to see here. They pretty much agreed we should do more to help people receive more mental health services. Glad we figure that out. Now, can someone actually do something about this.
Tech and AI
Lots of talk about data centers and who likes them less. This is where we probably need to do some more digging into campaign finance reports and historical context to sort it out, but basically this exchange also devolved into a series of accusations about who was more deeply in the pocket of Big Tech and AI. We’ll re-address this issue in a coming episode.
Conclusion
If you’re scoring at home, Lawler probably won the night, but Conley didn’t hurt her case and didn’t make any huge missteps that cost her the election. This remains, as moderator Tara Rosenblum pointed out, one of the tightest races in the entire nation and one that very well could decide which party controls Congress come January.
Stay tuned.
If a Debate Dies in Rockland, Does it Make a Sound?
This is usually where we do some quick hits on stories people may have missed and drop in on some local multimedia. But we’re getting close to deadline, so we’ll focus on this one.
We’re going to tackle the 38th District State Senate race in our next episode, but Democrat and current Nyack Mayor Joe Rand is calling out his opponent, incumbent Republican Bill Weber, for refusing to debate.
Rand says the two have invites on the table from Rockland Community College, Rockland News, and Rockland Daily, and he’s gladly accepted all of them.
“The voters of the 38th district deserve the chance to hear Senator Weber and me debate our different ideas for the future of Rockland County,” said Joe Rand. “In an ideal world, I think we should have four debates, one in each town in the district. Unfortunately, maybe because he can’t defend either his record or his policies, my opponent has refused to accept an invitation to even one debate so far.”
Meanwhile, Weber, in his latest, “What’s Up With Weber?” email blast, touted his attendance at a series of events, including a senior fair, and said Rand is “getting increasingly desperate and constantly in attack mode.”
Attack mode? Come on, dude. I’m not sure if that’s accurate. But it’s definitely debatable.
Food for Thought:
A few foodie thoughts on our way out the door.
- What’s going with Dean’s (formerly Greekish)? Feels like they’ve been on their “spring reset” for a few too many seasons. We miss your cheap oysters during happy hour!
- My son lamented the loss of the Village Market yesterday.
- And what’s happening with this Aloha joint (pun intended) that recently popped up in the market’s former location? We hear there may be some legal obstacles in its way.
- Here’s an idea, maybe they should scrap the weed shop and just turn it into a nice little local market with fresh produce, good sandwiches and solid sushi / poke. Aloha!
If you have any information (or recommendations or Top 5 lists or a good recipe), please email Rocklandia: alex@nyacknewsandviews.com.
Exit Music
Because every good show needs some good exit music to send you on your way! Please be in touch, this DJ takes recommendations: alex@nyacknewsandviews.com. See you next time! (Probably, hopefully in two weeks)
Dude, where’s our musical outro?
Oh, wait, here it is! It’s been stuck in my head for a while now. You got the music in you!
