"The cure for cancer is a reachable goal," said Pete Gallego, Democratic candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, "We can put a man on the moon when no one thought we could, so yes, we can find a cure to this disease, we just have to prioritize." The group that organized this event was counting on the presence of all four candidates who are vying for the position of District 23 Representative, Gallego, incumbent Republican Kiko Canseco, Libertarian Jeffrey Blunt and Green Party candidate Ed Scharf, however only Gallego was present at the International Bank of Commerce Conference Room in Eagle Pass on a cool morning. "Our goal is to talk to people in the district on how the candidates stand on key issues," stated Bacon who mentioned that their luncheon on Monday evening in Del Rio was very productive and had a great turnout and both Gallego and Canseco were there to give their stances on this prevalent issue, "We also want the winner to know that he has constituents who have the disease and are counting on him to provide much needed funding to continue research." Bacon added that questionnaires were passed out to all four candidates, but only two have responded thus far, Gallego and Scharf. In this questionnaire we ask the candidates to provide insight into their platforms on cancer research. "Most people want to do the right thing and fight cancer," added Bacon, "But it's like any other issue, you have to be hard at work, and in coordination with the National Institute of Health, we hope to see these goals met." When asked about how the campaign was going, Gallego felt confident that constituents will see through his opponent and his party's rhetoric as most recently, he debated Canseco in a televised debate which boded well for his chances on November 6th. "His strategy is not necessarily to attack me as he has in a series of ads online and on TV, but his strategy was to attack our president and his policies," said Gallego, "As you may or may not know, Romney is running behind The Ryan Plan (Named after Vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan, a US Representative from Wisconsin), and this plan calls for cuts in cancer research, it cuts funding for diabetes research, it decimates funding for this and Canseco has voted twice for this plan, what does this say?" Both candidates have been affected by cancer, Gallego's parents both dealt with the disease in the same year, his father with oral cancer and his mother with colon cancer and he recalls seeing them deal with this killer together and does not wish it on anyone. Canseco's mother in law died of breast cancer. Although November will soon be upon us, Gallego is choosing to take a positive approach to his campaign, but is feeling the sting of negative ad tactics by his opponent who has been saving up over a million dollars to attack him in the final four weeks before the general election. "If he so chooses, I've got a couple of things that would interest the voters. There was an amendment on the floor to increase combat pay to our soldiers in Afghanistan by $325.00, a small price to pay for the soldiers on the front line in the war against terror. Canseco voted 'No'. In an effort to cut Congressional spending, there was a motion to do away with a beauty salon in the Congress as well as a gym which is located there which he also voted against, he protected his own pay, but voted against our troops."