Thursday, April 27, 2006

Bill Pritchard and Jim Bob Dugger



This is from the Washington County Republican Women's Senate District 35 Forum. Bill Pritchard and Jim Bob Dugger are running for Senate District 35. I was very impressed with both candidates. Either one would fill the seat very well.

The first questions were about Education. Concerning rural schools Dugger said that forcing children to spend hours on buses was wrong especially since the Internet was available for teaching. Pritchard said he understand the need to consolidate schools but thought that provisions were available to protect the rural schools. Regarding the Board of Education, should it be elected or appointed. Pritchard indicated that he didn't think that the current Board of Education was the problem. Dugger thought that the Board should be accountable to the people and should be elected. Dugger supported tax credits instead of vouchers for those that elected not to use the public schools. Pritchard supported school vouchers, but thought that if people felt the need to take their child out of the public school then it was a problem that should be address at the local school board. He declared that God and Prayer should be back in the schools. Both candidates were concerned about using state funds for Preschool. They didn't want the state to become a babysitting service.

There was just a couple of questions regarding economics. Both felt that the state should invest in super projects, especially for the more depressed parts of the state. They also agreed that some sort of "rainy day" fund should be set up from any surplus the state has. Dugger said that the current general improvement funds could be used as such a fund instead of dividing it up among the districts to be spent on whatever they wanted.

Last was the question regarding illegal immigration. Pritchard kept it short: Get legal or go home. Dugger said that we must first firmly seal off the border.

It's going to really difficult to decide between the two of them. It's too bad that we can't send them both.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pritchard's a phoney who has learned the conservative lingo. When are we going to stop settling for mere cheap talk?

Both men have legislative records; THAT is what should be examined, not their election speeches.