Congressional candidates debate economy, education and Constitution
Candidates shared their insights on politics and how they could serve their community and state in the Meet the Candidates Night at Whittier Community Center on Monday evening.
The candidates vying for positions on the Logan School Board and U.S. House of Representatives were James Blair, Carrie Debb, Mark Hudson, Steve Olsen, Lynn Badler and the incumbent representative, Rob Bishop.
James Blair, running for a Logan School Board position against Carrie Debb, said he decided to run two years ago because the school board didn’t seem to be very responsive to parents and teachers.
“I would work with administrators to bring about public education,” he said, while emphasizing the public aspect.
Carrie Debb told about her passion for education and public service, stating she has served on the school’s parent-teacher association numerous times, avidly attended school board meetings and has a degree in child development.
“I want to do what is best for the children, because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” Debb said.
She emphasized the school board’s position in providing a vision and goals for the districts, as well as finding a superintendent to carry out those goals and turning that vision into a reality.
Both Debb and Blair outlined problems facing the Logan School District, but had confidence they could make the difference promoting change through increased communication.
In her closing statement, Debb said she declined a position on the school board once before because she felt she didn’t have the knowledge and experience necessary at that time, but said she knew she wanted to run in the future and has devoted much time and energy to gaining the needed experience and understanding to be a good board member.
In his closing statement, Blair told listeners he was the man for the job.
“In education, no one is in it for the money,” he said. “It is about the children.”
Blair said children need to get the best education they can get and administrators need to be held accountable for their success and failure.
House of Representative candidates opened with introductions of their differing political philosophies.
Congressman Rob Bishop said he was someone who worked hard and has gotten results in congress while still maintaining his ties and loyalties to this area.
Bishop, a teacher for 28 years, wrote on his Web site at www.house.gov/robbishop/issues/education.html: “If there’s one thing that experience taught me, it’s that education is a local issue. Our education priorities in Utah should be established by parents and local teachers, not mandated by the federal government.”
Bishop’s son, Zenock, a USU student, sat in the audience to support his father.
To counter Bishop’s views was a representative for Lynn Bagler, running for the Libertarian party, who read a speech Bagler sent.
Bagler said Americans were more dissatisfied with government than ever before and urged listeners to vote for her, and take their lives back from the government.
She is running on a platform that includes elimination of income taxes and federal involvement in education.
Her campaign flyer says: “Your property, your children, your health, your money, your eating, your career – Are they your business or some bureaucrat’s?”
Mark Hudson is running for office as part of the Constitution party of Utah, in which he advocates the Constitution.
Hudson said the founders of the country set up a republic founded on laws that never change and that straying from the Constitution has lead to the decline of America.
He added that the improper use of government has lead to national debt, and NAFTA and CAFTA, which take away jobs from Americans by outsourcing.
Steve Olsen, the Democratic candidate, said the country’s Republican leadership has abandoned the ideals set forth by President Regan and sold out to special interest groups.
He said America is currently experiencing the fastest increase in domestic spending since WWII.
In his campaign pamphlet, he talks about the GOP after the Civil War and how it left people out of the power structure of economics.
“This experiment in allowing the excesses of capitalism to run unrestrained resulted in the near implosion of American capitalism known as the Great Depression,” Olsen said.
In closing, Olsen said, “Rob Bishop votes with his party 98 percent of the time. I am a Western Democrat who is a rubber stamp for nobody.”
lyndim@cc.usu.edu