Alabama Candidate Questionnaire

1. Are you in favor of the Federal Government's program to encourage illegal immigration and guest workers?

I personally have no problem with immigration of hard working Christian people. Alabama can use all the help we can get. However,There are legal channels and it is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce the existing laws. Arizona is in the uncomfortable position of having to enforce federal laws. Alabama is not far behind.

2. Explain how you would solve the illegal immigration problem, especially by local or state governments in Alabama?

One has to consider the reach of the Alabama legislature on the issue. Currently it is not against any law to be "legal". So although we can detain suspected Illegals our local law enforcement is subject to the usual 48 hour rules and it my presently take more time than that for the NIS to respond. We can and we should make it a felony to obtain an illegal identification for a non citizen for the purpose of obtaining employment. And we can make it illegal to hire undocumented workers. This would make the activity we find most offensive, taking Alabamian's jobs, illegal. This is well within the reach of the Alabama legislature.

3. Should the government limit a woman's right to have an abortion and if so, what limits should the government impose?

Yes. Insofar as my authority permits me to say.

Comments? My response is threefold.

1. To the people who would allow abortion for rape an incest I say "What did those children do to deserve to die?"

2. We impose government limits on theft and murder, so why not abortion.

3. The economic burden of having a child is born at least partially by the public trust but there is still a significant cost in raising a child. To have an abortion to avoid paying that cost is offensive to me. To make me as a taxpayer pay for retroactive birth control is offensive to my pocketbook.

4. Are Abortions morally wrong?

Yes Insofar as I understand it murder is wrong.

Please explain your position on Abortion.

My position is biblical - Romans 12:19 -- Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,says the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."..

So I am opposed to killing babies.

Particularly if they send me the bill.

5. Should Homosexuals be permitted to join the Alabama National Guard?

   
   No, if only because historically there has been conflict within the ranks that distracts from the duties of the Guard. But remember public servants have to be concerned for the welfare of all the people they serve not the ones most like them. On the other hand one has to consider that the National Guard might be deployed to an area of the world where the lifestyle is a capital crime. A commander would have to take that into account on missions which would complicate an already complex situation.

6. Who are the other candidates in the race, Democrat and Republican?
Explain why you are the better candidate?

The Senate District Six race has a 25 year incumbent Democrat as my opponent. It's time for a change.

I am running against no one. I am running for the people of district six. I stand on using our TVA in lieu of Tax money, our ADECA money, and our Severance Tax money, to be used to attract industry or to provide tax incentives for small business. Instead of "discretionary money" to buy votes.

7. What are the 3 most important issues in your campaign, and your position on them?

a. The first issue is Jobs. Currently parts of our district have official unemployment rates at twice the state level. Close inspection reveals that many of the manufacturing facilities located in the adjacent states first considered Alabama but were scared off by the lack of support and interest at our legislative level.

b. We all have family and friends who are dead, disabled, or disfigured by the use of Methamphetamine and Crack Cocaine. Pills follow a close second in the death and destruction. Crime and pestilence follow. As your State Senator I would first introduce legislation that would make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug as has Mississippi. I would introduce a mandatory drug registry for the doctors and pharmacists for prescription narcotics.

The computer technology exists and reputable doctors already subscribe to it but it must be mandatory to take out the legal pill pushers.

c. Taxes.

Alabama is the only of the southeastern states that have

a Real Property tax,

a Personal property tax,

an income tax

and a sales tax.

People tout the "low property tax" while taxes on food for the poor are at a regional high.

I propose a tax abatement on all farm and food items produced in Alabama for resale in Alabama.

Taxes in general are regressive in a downturn economy. I support no increase in taxes.

8. Should public schools have public prayer and Bible reading?

Yes, I believe. and have publicly published that i believe that we can establish that a time of prayer and meditation in the schools every morning is socially beneficial. Even the counselor groups admit that daily prayer and meditation are more effective at lowering depression and suicide rates than professional counseling. I propose a law to provide such a time. In past decades the US supreme court was packed 5-4 and upholding such a law would be impossible. Now the court is 4-5 and i believe that a state's rights law providing meditation time in the public schools would be upheld.

9. Are you born again?Yes.

Please state your personal testimony?

Like many nine year old boys in the sixties I attended the annual revival services and upon the revelation that i was going to go home, die in my sleep and be dammed to eternal hell fire I, along with my two school friends sought out the quenching water of the baptismal pool.

I believed and i still believe that if i had died in my sleep my soul would have been in the hands of the lord. But something wasn't complete about the whole thing. In 1974 i worked at Federal Mogul in Hamilton Alabama on the night shift as a semiskilled machinist. Amid the oil and grime of manufacturing bearings I began to cry. I went out back behind that plant and fell in the mud and oil and prayed until peace fell upon me.

Following the message in my heart I sought our a place to be baptized. I found a local preacher with a line at Turkey Creek in Franklin county and I absolutely broke line to get into the water. As i came up from that cold water the world was anew. A place filled with colors and smells and feelings that were a gray blur before. A voice inside me said “ I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

“ I lost my father when i was 6 and from October 1960 till October 1974 my insides were hollow and I was alone. I have been baptized every time I changed churches since, to appease my preacher or the deacons or the congregation , but all those times it was just a bath.

Since that day in 74 I have never been alone.

10. What are your beliefs concerning the separation of church and state? As Mike Huckabee said Separation of church and State was never intended to include separation of state from church. We are a nation, under God, Undivided and we need to acknowledge our religious roots.

11. Did you support the Tax increase that was voted on September 2003, called Amendment 1 of 2003? Are there any circumstances that you would support a tax increase? Comments? I do not support tax increases in recessionary times. I oppose the creation of “fees” and mandatory services that are just taxes by another name.

12. Should we have annual reappraisals of property values as recently been imposed by the State of Alabama? The previous system of reappraisals based upon spot checks, an appraisal of the system as a whole which would trigger an appraisal only if the values were plus or minus 15% of the true market value was adequate. In fact one ponders with the number of foreclosures and the prevalent buyers market if perhaps a valuation 15% downward is in order.

13. What is the best way to improve public schools? Public Schools work best if they are small and local. Many consolidations have taken place and in many rural areas of my district students may spend as much time on the bus as they do in the classroom. (Maybe we should put a teacher on the bus?) Local schools have local support. Bake sales, and parental involvement. Distinct and county schools are isolated, run rampant with gangs and drugs and turn out mediocre graduates.

14. Are you willing to sign a "No Tax Pledge"? YES

15. What is your position of the rewrite of the Alabama Constitution? A rewrite of the constitution by trial lawyers would only result in a Constitution that made it profitable to sue your neighbor. We need some revision to the arcane and sometimes embarrassing Constitution but we need to make sure it is rewritten by ordinary folk not trial lawyers.
    Why do we need (or don't need) a new constitution? The constitution requires an amendment for all but the most trivial of local issues. This has resulted in the worlds longest Constitution.

16. Do you support the idea of a Constitutional Convention or favor rewrite by other means? If there is to be a new constitution it must come from grass roots constitutional conventions and it must be with agreement before hand that the legislators will be bound by the result before they give authority to do so.

17 Is Gambling morally wrong?If you had the authority to impact gambling activities, what would you do? Would you legalize and tax it, or would you suppress gambling activities?
Comments?

Robbing from Peter to pay Paul has no effect on the total economy. Taxing gambling, That is allowing the State to profit from gambling is the part that is morally wrong.