Sola_Fide
05-01-2012, 12:05 AM
The Republican candidates running in Kentucky's Fourth Congressional District described their vision for government to about 150 people at Northern Kentucky University Monday evening.
All seven attended the forum sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce: Owen County lawyer and blogger Marc Carey, Lewis County Judge-executive Thomas Massie, Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore, Oldham County school teacher Brian Oerther, Oldham County developer and school board member Walt Schumm, former state trooper and State Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Fort Mitchell businessman Tom Wurtz.
Some of the candidates took Massie to task on certain issues.
Moore said how Boone County handled a land conservation grant compared to how Lewis County handled a trails grant illustrates a difference between him and other candidates like Massie. A private foundation, not tax money, funded the local 20 percent match for the Boone County grant, Moore said. He, however, criticized Massie for using public dollars for the match.
"In their case, the taxpayers of Lewis County will be paying $100,000 to match a $100,000 federal trails grant, so I think when you look at how you manage what you have, how you keep the belt tight, and how you stretch the dollar is very important," Moore said. "And I think that's a clear difference between a couple of us up here." Massie said they used inmate labor and private donations for the match.
"Judge Moore should stick to talking about things he knows what he's talking about," Massie said.
Moore remained skeptical.
"If you can find enough inmate labor to come up with $100,000, he's paying them a whole lot more per hour than he is the good people of Lewis County to work for him," Moore said.
Massie reiterated his pledge to not take a pension if elected to Congress. Moderator Ryan Alessi challenged this saying the law requires members of Congress to contribute to the pension system and take a pension.
Massie said he would write a check to the treasury to compensate for his pension. "If they force me to take a check, then I will write it over to the treasury and let's pay the debt with it " Massie said.
Wurtz called it political theater.
"I find it cheap political theater" Wurtz said. "I think it's irrelevant. You can send as much money back as you want to the federal government anytime you want. You don't have to grandstand about it."
Candidates differed on federal funding in areas such as early child hood education. Moore, Webb-Edgington, Oerther and Schumm raised their hands in support of federal funds for the Head Start Program.
"I"m a teacher, and I see it first hand, working in the alternative school and dealing with the type of students I deal with, and my wife works in corrections," Oerther said. "You know how they determine how many beds they build in prison? They look at reading scores in the first grade. Would you rather spend $5,000-$10,000 on that student or would you rather pay $35,000-$40,000 as an inmate?"
Webb-Edgington said she saw as a state trooper how a lack of ability to read at an early age increased the likelihood of ending up in a penitentiary.
"At the end of the day, it cost each one of you in this room $19,200 to put somebody in the penitentiary," Webb-Edgington said. "Pay now or pay later."
Schumm said he believes the federal government should fund early childhood education as long as the funding is there, but in the long run, the state should fund it.
"I also believe the federal department of education should cease to exist because it's taking our tax dollars and turning them into tax dimes," Schumm said. "The federal government does not need to be in the education business."
But others didn't see it as a worthwhile investment for the federal government. A child's future depends on the environment at home, Massie said.
"We need to get our homes back together and you can't fix split homes with Head Start," Massie said. "I'm a proponent of home schooling, charter schools, private schools and public schools. I'm a product of the of the public schools."
Tom Wurtz also said he was against federal Head Start funding.
"What I found is that the federal government has spent $166 billion on Head Start," Wurtz said. "The federal government has done three separate studies, and they found no value, no enhancement of the children who went through it and children who didn't."
Erin Parker, a 2008 graduate of NKU from Alexandria, asked the candidates to raise their hand if they considered themselves a member of the tea party movement. Moore and Carey said while they believe in the tea party principles of limited government, they feel political interests have hijacked the movement.
"I believe it is moving more toward kind of an activist group being used by the Ron Paul organization," Carey said. "To the extent they're espousing conservative principals, I'm raising my hand. To the extent they espouse the principals of legalizing heroin and prostitution and doing some of the things like abandoning our ally Israel and calling abortion a states' right issue, my hand is down."
Parker said she's still undecided after hearing all the candidates speak. She doesn't believe the tea party has been hijacked by political interests.
"I think every person on that stage would be better than any Democrat who's in favor of murdering unborn children and increasing taxes and not supporting a strong national defense," Parker said. "Everyone up there had great things to say, and I appreciate all their honest answers about my opinion. I wish they would all be pro tea party, but until they understand fully what we stand for, I can understand people being confused about that."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120430/NEWS0103/304300134/Fourth-Congressional-District-candidates-share-vision
All seven attended the forum sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce: Owen County lawyer and blogger Marc Carey, Lewis County Judge-executive Thomas Massie, Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore, Oldham County school teacher Brian Oerther, Oldham County developer and school board member Walt Schumm, former state trooper and State Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Fort Mitchell businessman Tom Wurtz.
Some of the candidates took Massie to task on certain issues.
Moore said how Boone County handled a land conservation grant compared to how Lewis County handled a trails grant illustrates a difference between him and other candidates like Massie. A private foundation, not tax money, funded the local 20 percent match for the Boone County grant, Moore said. He, however, criticized Massie for using public dollars for the match.
"In their case, the taxpayers of Lewis County will be paying $100,000 to match a $100,000 federal trails grant, so I think when you look at how you manage what you have, how you keep the belt tight, and how you stretch the dollar is very important," Moore said. "And I think that's a clear difference between a couple of us up here." Massie said they used inmate labor and private donations for the match.
"Judge Moore should stick to talking about things he knows what he's talking about," Massie said.
Moore remained skeptical.
"If you can find enough inmate labor to come up with $100,000, he's paying them a whole lot more per hour than he is the good people of Lewis County to work for him," Moore said.
Massie reiterated his pledge to not take a pension if elected to Congress. Moderator Ryan Alessi challenged this saying the law requires members of Congress to contribute to the pension system and take a pension.
Massie said he would write a check to the treasury to compensate for his pension. "If they force me to take a check, then I will write it over to the treasury and let's pay the debt with it " Massie said.
Wurtz called it political theater.
"I find it cheap political theater" Wurtz said. "I think it's irrelevant. You can send as much money back as you want to the federal government anytime you want. You don't have to grandstand about it."
Candidates differed on federal funding in areas such as early child hood education. Moore, Webb-Edgington, Oerther and Schumm raised their hands in support of federal funds for the Head Start Program.
"I"m a teacher, and I see it first hand, working in the alternative school and dealing with the type of students I deal with, and my wife works in corrections," Oerther said. "You know how they determine how many beds they build in prison? They look at reading scores in the first grade. Would you rather spend $5,000-$10,000 on that student or would you rather pay $35,000-$40,000 as an inmate?"
Webb-Edgington said she saw as a state trooper how a lack of ability to read at an early age increased the likelihood of ending up in a penitentiary.
"At the end of the day, it cost each one of you in this room $19,200 to put somebody in the penitentiary," Webb-Edgington said. "Pay now or pay later."
Schumm said he believes the federal government should fund early childhood education as long as the funding is there, but in the long run, the state should fund it.
"I also believe the federal department of education should cease to exist because it's taking our tax dollars and turning them into tax dimes," Schumm said. "The federal government does not need to be in the education business."
But others didn't see it as a worthwhile investment for the federal government. A child's future depends on the environment at home, Massie said.
"We need to get our homes back together and you can't fix split homes with Head Start," Massie said. "I'm a proponent of home schooling, charter schools, private schools and public schools. I'm a product of the of the public schools."
Tom Wurtz also said he was against federal Head Start funding.
"What I found is that the federal government has spent $166 billion on Head Start," Wurtz said. "The federal government has done three separate studies, and they found no value, no enhancement of the children who went through it and children who didn't."
Erin Parker, a 2008 graduate of NKU from Alexandria, asked the candidates to raise their hand if they considered themselves a member of the tea party movement. Moore and Carey said while they believe in the tea party principles of limited government, they feel political interests have hijacked the movement.
"I believe it is moving more toward kind of an activist group being used by the Ron Paul organization," Carey said. "To the extent they're espousing conservative principals, I'm raising my hand. To the extent they espouse the principals of legalizing heroin and prostitution and doing some of the things like abandoning our ally Israel and calling abortion a states' right issue, my hand is down."
Parker said she's still undecided after hearing all the candidates speak. She doesn't believe the tea party has been hijacked by political interests.
"I think every person on that stage would be better than any Democrat who's in favor of murdering unborn children and increasing taxes and not supporting a strong national defense," Parker said. "Everyone up there had great things to say, and I appreciate all their honest answers about my opinion. I wish they would all be pro tea party, but until they understand fully what we stand for, I can understand people being confused about that."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120430/NEWS0103/304300134/Fourth-Congressional-District-candidates-share-vision