by JIM KEVLIN

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SPRINGFIELD CENTER

In not even two years as a congressman, Mike Arcuri, the Utica Democrat, seems quite at home in the role.
And so he was at the famous Fourth of July Parade here, marching up Main Street with his pretty blonde wife Sabrina by his side, oldest son Carmen, a high school senior, carrying one end of the “reelect Arcuri” banner.
The freshman congressman was likewise perfectly poised later at the community center, pinning an Italian war medal – albeit 60 years late – on the chest of Chet Scerra, Richfield Springs, who served in the OSS.
In an interview, Arcuri credits Bob Ford, his “great college football coach” at SUNY Albany, with teaching him about hard work, but also patience and “staying focused on your goal.”
Look at Mike Arcuri’s official biography, and you can see that focus reflected there, as he moved methodically from SUNY Albany to New York Law School to counsel for local school districts to Oneida County district attorney.
He was elected in 1993, at age 34. After 13 years, it just seemed to make sense to do so when he was approached to run for Congress as Republican Sherwood Boehlert retired from the 24th District seat in 2006.
It’s not extraordinary to hear him say “all politics is local,” but it is interesting to hear him interpret the experience of his first term through the prism of what his district needs.
For instance, he recounted how, through an interpreter, he engaged a Hadifa shopkeeper in conversations during a trip to Iraq with U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana.
“Are you feeling safe?” he asked.
“There’s no danger,” was the reply. “We feel comfortable. We feel very safe. What we need from America is more money. Our power is on only two hours a day.”
Exactly, Arcuri said to himself, that’s exactly what the 24th District needs, “billions and billions of dollars” for roads, bridges, mass transit, sewage-treatment plants, all the infrastructure that’s been deteriorating over the past quarter-century.
He learned of a program, costing $21 million a week, to pay Iraqi youths $300 a week to work with the Americans.
“If I would have proposed we pay every gang member in Chicago, New York, Utica, Syracuse, New York and Los Angeles to stay out of gangs,” he mused, “they would never allow me to do that.”
Instead of pouring largesse into Iraq, we should be spending that money “on the sons of America and the daughters of America.
“We should do it here.”
His roommate is Zach Space, an Ohio Democrat. He’s friendly with Heath Schuler of North Carolina, and also Patrick Kennedy of Pennsylvania, the first Iraq War vet elected to Congress.
“I’ve made some great, great friends,” he said.
They’re Democrats, but the friendly trip to Iraq with a Republican congressman is not out of character. Arcuri is a “Blue Dog” Democrat, a centrist.
But on specific issues, as you might expect, he tilts Democratic.
He echoes the view that oil companies already have 68 million acres available for drilling. “They’re trying to change the debate” from windfall profits.
If Barack Obama is elected, “it will be a change in direction. It will be a beginning to getting the troops home. I don’t think there’s anything more important than bringing the troops home.
“The economy is linked to the war in Iraq. Gas prices are up. World oil production has dropped dramatically. Iran tests missiles and oil prices jump.
“Destabilization of the Middle East is the problem.”
In the interview, the talk keeps circling around to family.
His father, Carmen, was director of the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District and “the best mentor I could ever have.”
It astonished him when Bob Ford would say after a practice, “Hey, have you guys called your parents to tell them you love them?”
In addition to son Carmen, he has two children by his second marriage, daughter Dominique, 14, and son Nicky, 10.
The hardest part of the job? He talks about not being able to bring the troops home and related issues, but then gets back to family.
Negative campaigning – a blog or two in the Utica area digs up embarrassing allegations about his extended family; the NRCC has come after him – is tough, because it’s tough on the family.
“I see my role as a congressman as really trying to improve families,” he said. “I received a 100 percent voting record for families and children by national organizations.
“To me, there’s nothing more important with respect to what I do in Congress.”

A profile of Arcuri’s opponent, Richard Hanna, appeared in May.

Labels: congressman, Front Page, michael arcuri