My campaign/request for prayers and thoughts

First of all: 3,000th post!

Now on to business: for my 3,000th post I decided to get a little personal. I am running for State Representative here in TN and would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

My opponent is the former Speaker of the House (2008-09). Despite being an Independent (after getting kicked out of the GOP), he is very well-funded by special interest groups.

More to the point he is not afraid to get extremely low with his attacks. In 2008, for instance, he repeatedly attacked his opponent for not getting state funding for a local women's shelter...that openly advertises and takes pride in refusing state and federal funding. I expect much of the same in my own campaign.

Please pray for wisdom for me, that I would stick to my guns and keep my integrity even if the campaign gets nasty; and for my wife and daughter, that they won't get dragged into any political bloodletting or get hurt by it.

Thanks in advance. As much and as furiously as we often disagree, a lot of good thoughts and discussions come out of this Board.

Blayz said:

What's your platform?

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I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to link here or get too detailed because it might constitute using CF to "campaign" or seek donations. Let me see how general I can be:

Big three priorities: jobs, education, and limited government.

Three biggest concrete ideas (doable ones, anyway):

1. Move our court filing system to a fully electronic system and move toward doing the same for all state and local offices, significantly reducing long-term costs.

2. Reduce or eliminate our state's sales tax on essential goods, especially groceries and necessary school supplies.

3. Greatly expand high school students' access to technical education and job skills training. Specifically, make it easier for high schoolers to take tech center classes while still in school (likely by taking advantage of the Internet) and eventually create a high school tech path that combines a diploma with a formal Associate's Degree. This can be done without even increasing costs if we eliminate waste in other areas.

Those are three things that will make a positive difference and can really get done. There is a lot else I'd like to see happen in TN but you can't go for it all at once realistically.

Other than that I'll be guided by four basic principles: Individual Liberty, Personal Responsibility, Limited Government and the Free Market.

Blayz said:

I'd vote for you on 1-3, although it is fascinating that your top 3 items have nothing to do with individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government or the free market.

Your specific cases are much more appealing than your general rhetoric. Could yuo give an example of what you'd do in the are of personal responsibility?

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Numbers 1 and 2 are limited government measures in that they 1.) reduce the government's invasion into individual lives (there should not be a tax on the right to eat), and 2.) reduce government spending to make room for tax cuts like #1.

As far as what I'd like to see done to promote personal responsibility, #3 is one example. Unlike most people in the "lower-left quadrant" I do believe that public education is legitimate, insofar as it is better to have those who cannot afford private alternatives educated by the government (risky and inefficient as that is) than to have them go without education at all. But that education has to arm them with the skills to survive on their own, to seek jobs they are best-suited for. Give kids the opportunity to graduate high school with the necessary skills to get a decent-paying starting job. If they don't utilize that opportunity, then what happens to them after high school is their responsibility.

MattRose said:

Okay, so I understand you're for a woman's right to an abortion and gay's right to marry. Right on! I'm glad to see someone who wants limited government and will prevent the government from trying to invade individuals lives.

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Make no mistake, I am staunchly pro-life; but I don't believe we should waste tax dollars fighting costly legal battles to defend statutes that are doomed from the start. To me the best way we can prevent abortions is to maximize young people's economic opportunities to take away economic pressure to abort children. There is a negative correlation between states' GDPs and their abortion rates. If we keep our focus on jobs and education, we'll save children.

As for marriage, I'm not a big fan of government marriage licenses in general, nor of the government regulations that make them necessary or desirable.

One of the big problems we have in TN right now is that despite having a governor and Republican leaders who have great economic ideas and plans to reform our civil service system, we keep getting derailed and obscured by ridiculous faux-social issues that have nothing to do with conservatism and no real impact whatsoever. What I'm getting from Republican leaders is that while they are wary of the pro-liberty movement, they are open to having more voices that want to keep the debate on the issues people actually vote on: jobs, jobs, and jobs. I'm on board with that to be sure.

Tax cuts sound good too. Do you know approximately how much essential services cost in TN? I mean, how do you know that cutting taxes is the proper strategy? Maybe TN needs more prisons, police, teachers, highways, etc. I suppose you would be willing to raise taxes if that's what's required to fund all essential services. Wait a minute, you aren't just talking about tax cuts because that's what people want to hear?

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TN has been running large budget surpluses for a couple decades now, even in the midst of the recession. When the Democrats were in power (the last 100 years or so) the surpluses would go into either the "Rainy Day Fund" or the "Black Hole Fund," a slush fund controlled by the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees. The Rainy Day Fund is not so bad an idea although even in the worst times we've barely tapped it. The Black Hole Fund, however, has been a huge problem, as money sent there has literally disappeared with no paper trail year after year.

TN has no state income tax and our people have repeatedly rejected it; in fact a traditional income tax is unconstitutional under the TN Constitution. Thus a sales tax is pretty much what we have and what we're going to have. Sales taxes are naturally regressive, because I come from one of the poorer areas of the state, it is vital to me to do whatever I can to make it less so. We're already working on cutting the sales tax on groceries, so I see that as an opening, a place to push harder and get even more tax relief for my constituents.

Grizzly said:

Good for you! It's nice to see people take action instead of just sitting on the sidelines. Can I make a request? When the campaign is over I think it would be great if you could share with us your experience with the system. What its like to run for office and some of the choices you have to make along the way. I think it would be incredibly interesting.

Good luck!

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I will. It has been an interesting journey already.