Candidates make push for Senate seat(GA)

The event was billed as a candidate forum, but it quickly shaped up as a battle among the participants to stand out in a crowded field for a single vacant state Senate seat.

Seven of nine District 28 candidates participated in the Thursday night forum at Whitesburg Elementary School, sponsored by the Carrollton-Carroll County League of Women Voters. About 50 people were in the audience.

The other two candidates, unable to attend, sent representatives to deliver prepared opening statements, the only recourse allowed them under forum rules.

All candidates want to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Mitch Seabaugh, a Republican from Sharpsburg who accepted a position as deputy treasurer in Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration.

Carroll County’s only candidate in the race, entrepreneur Wayne Seabolt, 69, running as a Democrat, pushed his plan to legalize thoroughbred horse racing as a means to shore up the ailing state budget and support education.

“I want to put 23,000 people to work immediately and it won’t cost the people anything,” Seabolt said. “And before it comes up, I’m opposed to casino gambling. Horse racing has nothing to do with casinos.”

Seabolt said horse racing could bring $50 million into Georgia and the proceeds could be earmarked for education. He said it could help augment the HOPE scholarship program.

Seabolt also bills himself as a product of public education and said education gave him an opportunity to serve. He said he paid 100 percent of his own college expenses.

“If elected, I’ll do everything possible to support education,” he pledged.

Seabolt taught in Clayton County schools and worked in administration for seven years at West Georgia College. He later operated small businesses and served as chairman of the Carroll County Board of Education.

Ed Stone, 44, Republican, an attorney from Senoia, sought early to establish himself as the law and order, gun rights, small government and anti-immigration candidate.

Stone has been an attorney for 10 years and was previously a police office for 12 years, part of the time while attending Georgia State University and Emory School of Law.

He boasts of being a founder of GeorgiaCarry.org, an organization for Second Amendment rights. He claims endorsements from Seabaugh and the president of the Georgia Sheriffs Association.

“I want to get rid of laws, cut the size of government, and as revenue increases, return money to the people,” he said.

“No, I don’t think we should set up incentives for those who break the law to be rewarded,” he said in response to a question on immigration. “I’m very much in favor of legal immigration.”

“I believe you know what’s best for your children,” he told the crowd. “Dollars should follow the child where they choose to go. I’m for the voucher system and charter or magnet schools.”

Cynthia Bennett, 55, a teacher from Newnan, is the only registered non-partisan candidate and she established herself Thursday night as an education candidate.

“As a high school teacher, I’ve had the opportunity to see the importance of having children ready to learn,” she said in response to a question on pre-K cuts.

Bennett said she supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and she supports guest workers. She said House Bill 87 (immigration bill) did huge harm to Georgia.

She said education cuts have not only included teacher furloughs and cost of living cuts, but teachers having to spend their own money in the classroom.

“One exciting thing in education is the return to local control,” she said, noting that the state is giving more control back to the districts.

Bennett pledged to fight for restoring of education funds, noting, “Education is our future.”

Jammie Williams, 41, a Sharpsburg engineer, is one of only two Democrats in the race. He wants to provide small business with tax breaks and said the area has a “manufacturing powerhouse,” referring to the auto industry.

“If we don’t educate our children, industry is not going to come here,” he said.

Williams favors a pathway to citizens for immigrants, calling them “good, solid people with good work ethics. ... I don’t see why we’re holding them back.”

Williams called health care “a basic right” and said people are paying more for health insurance now and getting less.

He claimed the state has a “rainy day fund” that it could use to shore up education expenses.

Matt Brass, 33, a Newnan Republican and small business owner, pledged “to oppose any new taxes, to fight burdensome regulations and work every day to attract industry. He billed himself as “pro-life and pro Second Amendment.”

On immigration, he cited an example of his uncle, a blackberry farmer, who had fruit rotting due to lack of immigrant workers. However, he said the workers later came back legally.

Brass said “Obamacare” is “not going to happen, it’s not coming to Georgia.”

He said Carroll, Coweta and Troup counties have great medical facilities and they are “economic drivers.”

He praised the recent General Assembly redistricting process and said that type of procedure should be used in tackling water issues.

Mike Crane, 48, Republican from Newnan, and a general contractor, said he’s been working as a builder since has was 15 years old.

“I learned there’s two things you need to build a good house – a good foundation and good plans,” Crane said. He added that the same applies to government.

He called for a “free market” approach to education, including vouchers so students could go to the school of their choice.

On immigration, he said he doesn’t support a citizenship path for illegal immigrants.

Crane said he’s against Obamacare and said Georgia has good health care although insurance is too expensive.

He called for a free market in health care “to drive costs down so we can all afford it.”

Crane talked about having to pay $200 for a builder’s license when he’d been building without it for 20 years. He held up his “smartphone” and said it was a better buy for $200.

He called the government “out of control” and said it should be run like a business.

Kyle Frank, 60, a Senoia Republican and real estate appraiser, summed up his campaign as a three-point program, “Jobs, jobs and jobs.’

“I’m about jobs and the economy. I’ll focus on jobs like a laser beam,” he pledged.

On education, he said he thinks the voucher system and charter schools are good and he believes in competition.

He said he differs with his “Republican brothers” at the forum and said he is for a citizenship path for illegal immigrants.

“I don’t see the U.S. deporting 12 million immigrants,” he said. “We should secure the border and we should have a path to citizenship for hard-working people, if they learn English, pay their taxes and stay out of trouble.”

Frank said he thinks horse racing might be “a good idea.” He also called for the elimination of state income tax. He said Florida, Texas and Tennessee don’t have income tax and “they are growing jobs.”

Republican candidates Dale Blackburn, 61, a retiree from Newnan, and Dale Pepper, 52, an airline pilot from Newnan, were not present. By the rules of the forum, representatives were allowed to deliver messages for them.

He noted that Blackburn had worked in the 1996 Olympic games and served in the Department of Corrections for Gov. Zell Miler.

“I believe we need less talk and more action,” Lee read from Blackburn’s written statement. “I can work with those on both sides of the aisle.”

She read a statement which traced Pepper’s background as an Air Force mechanic, a veteran of the first Gulf conflict and his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Pepper chaired the Newnan-Coweta County Airport Authority for the past nine years and has brought six new businesses, with 139 new jobs and an $8.2 million payroll to the airport, adding $30 million to the economy.

“I want to put Georgia back to work,” Pepper said in his statement. “I have done that on the airport authority. I’ll also work to prevent needless regulations.”

"Ed Stone, 44, Republican, an attorney from Senoia, sought early to establish himself as the law and order, gun rights, small government and anti-immigration candidate."

The banglist connection may be a little tenuous on this article, but I have posted several articles about Georgia Carry here, so I did it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.