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Videos
PLATFORM
"I come from a family that has been involved with public service for a long time. I want to work for you as well. We need to restore our salmon runs while there is still time. I have advocated economic diversity, such as tourism and downstream manufacturing of wood products. We need to create more living wage jobs, improve our schools, and make public safety a top priority. With decades of experience such as serving on an irrigation district board, dealing with government agencies, I know what it takes to find solutions and get things done."
LIST OF ISSUES
Education
My Father was a teacher at Douglas High School. I know how hard it is to be a good teacher. I also know the value of a good education to both the individual getting the education and our society getting the long term benefits of an educated citizen. Education is also a lot more than reading and writing and arithmetic. It is art, music and drama; sports and competition. It is exploring the past and recognizing the future. This where we inspire the citizens of the next century and is in my opinion, one of the best investments the State can make, from kindergarten to our Universities. Gaining long term funding for education will be one of my primary objectives in the State Legislature.
Diversity
Both a healthy biosphere and society depend on diversity to combine and recombine to create successful adaptations. Part of a free society means we need to tolerate people and lifestyles of citizens that are different from us. Liberals and progressives need to tolerate conservatives and religious citizens as much as these persuasions need to tolerate liberals and progressives. We all contribute to a healthy and dynamic society that adapts to change and seizes opportunity.
Healthcare
Rural citizens need their health care to come to them. Rural people suffer needlessly because they can't afford a trip hours long to the major medical centers. These basic services should go out at rural communities where people can and do go. We have seen traveling dentists in the past and I think we should set up mobile clinics that go out to rural communities. These enterprises can serve women and young children with their heath care, deliver basic dental service, preventive and diagnostic care and mental therapy.
Housing
We need affordable housing for working families and decent shelter for the homeless. Small starter homes need to be build so working families can buy a place to live and build the equity to work their way up. The Housing crisis of 2007 washed trillions of dollars of equity out of the hands of good hard working Americans. I was a Realtor and I saw it every day.
We also need to realize people become homeless for a variety of reasons and address those reasons. We need safe shelter for homeless teens to stay in school and off the streets. We need federal housing for homeless veterans. Small houses and community works centers are within our grasp. I refuse to demonize the homeless. They are our brothers and sisters, classmates and old friends who have slid off the rails of our society. This does not mean the waste and refuse, drugs and drinking is OK. Nor is wasteful spending for short term fixes. We need broad community support and I see such support growing. As a legislator I will listen to the ideas and try to bring innovation and accountability to this problem