Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current, May 11, 2022, Image 4

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Newspaper Page Text4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, May 11,2022 U.S. DISTRICT 6 GOP candidates vie for voters during May 1 debate By Julia Fechter DCN Staff Of the nine Republicans vying to become the top contender for Georgia’s U.S. House District 6, all recently agreed that the 2020 elections were stolen in some form. During a May 1 debate hosted by The Atlanta Press Club, voters had the opportunity to hear from all of those candidates about that and other issues ahead of the May 24 primary election. Following the conclusion of the U.S. Census, District 6 was redrawn to include all of Forsyth and Dawson Counties, as well as parts of Cobb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties. These changes, the multiple law suits in response and the lit any of issues facing rural and north metro Atlanta areas has made this prima ry race one of Georgia’s most interesting to watch. Though primary election day isn’t for another two weeks, voters began casting advance ballots as early as May 2. If no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote plus one vote in the primary, the top two vote recipients will face each other in a runoff election on Tuesday, June 21. The winning Republican will go on to compete against the winning Democrat in the November general election. Candidates answered three rounds of questions, both from their opponents and moderators. Elections Multiple contenders highlighted elections integ rity as voters’ top concern going into the 2022 voting season. “People have lost confi dence in the sacred right to vote,” candidate Mallory Staples said. “When we have lost that, we are lost... it’s on the shoulders of state officials who govern to answer the cry of the peo ple.” As a lawyer, Meagan Hanson emphasized that the evidence such as mail- in ballots and ballot har vesting give her “pause on multiple occasions.” She commended Georgia’s General Assembly for pass ing Senate Bill 202, which she called “an important step in righting a wrong.” “As someone who won a [2020 state] runoff by 27 votes, let me say that every single vote matters,” she added, “and I’d encourage every 6th District person who can go vote to cast your vote because it mat ters.” Citing her two decades of experience as a poll manager, Suzi Voyles reit erated the importance of each person’s vote being counted properly and emphasized that “no one else is allowed to impede upon that in any way.” She pointed out that “sig nificant fraud” occurred in Georgia and beyond in 2020, claiming that the Secretary of State’s office is aware but hasn’t fol lowed up on affidavits alleging that people regis tered to vote in the state or a particular county different from where they live. Candidate Eugene Yu also said that there’s “hard evidence everywhere” of large-scale fraud, particu larly in other states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona. “When it comes to Georgia, [Gov.] Kemp had a limited say in what could be overturned, and with [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger, he has a lot of responsibility, and we don’t want to repeat it again from now on, in the future.” Paulette Smith shared her belief that election fraud extended down from the presidential level to senators, congresspeople and local officials, too, cit ing that she and others in Cobb County “can’t believe the results” given her district’s history of being almost all Republican. She also advo cated for getting rid of Dominion voting machines and ousting Brad Raffensperger, who is run ning for reelection against three other people. Harbin echoed that both parties’ focus on voting integrity this time around and specifically mentioned concerns about Fulton County ballots in 2020. Rich McCormick explained that “no one was hurt more by voter fraud at the end of the night” than him, explaining that he was told he was “up 5,000 votes” before learning that he lost the then-District 7 seat to Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux. He qualified while redistricting maps were being drawn, so he said he’s moving to reside in District 6. After requesting drop box videotapes, his cam paign was told that the records cost would be about $15,000, and he wouldn’t get them back until after the 15-day stat ute of limitations to file a court case. While adamantly stating he “never conceded the election,” he did say that some of the egregious vot ing problems have been corrected and pushed for the state to block federal attempts at controlling elections regulations. Gatewood summarized the voting problem as a “lack of transparency” because available evidence won’t be reviewed but criti cized McCormick’s per sonalization of the past election as a “me-first mentality that can’t serve somebody in a servant leader position.” Attorney Jake Evans said he was the “only candidate to have fought to overturn two races in Georgia histo ry” Like others, he called for the elimination of drop boxes, scaleback of absen tee ballots and prosecution of voter fraud as well as audits, immunity for law yers and requirement of voter ID. Consistency Throughout his debate answers, Jake Evans emphasized that he would work with fellow Republicans to craft bills to further fundamental American principles and protect “the soul of the country” against “bills that fold to leftists, the media and the [Washington] D.C. establishment.” As one of the more prominent candidates, he also got proverbial shots from multiple sides. Evans shrugged off sug gestions that he hasn’t sup ported past president Donald Trump and reaf firmed his “very vocal” stance against fraud leading up to and during the 2020 election cycle. He clarified that he’s sent a cease-and-desist letter to a superPAC supporting Mallory Staples after alle gations were made that he supports “defunding the police,” and Evans “never suggested” taking legal action against Meagan Hanson. “Most of us have never held office, but each of us does have a background,” Staples said, doubling down on what she called Evans’ “disqualifying story of flip-flopping and oppor tunism.” Hanson mentioned a 2015 paper by Evans pub lished in the “Social Justice Law Review” when sug gesting that he supports “defunding the police,” and Evans called the assertion “blatantly false.” “I encourage anyone to read the paper that my des perate opportunities keep bringing up over and over again to make your own conclusions and conclude whether I in any way sug gested law enforcement shouldn’t have the resourc es they need,” he said. McCormick also took some heat from Evans, who asked about the for mer’s “endorsement by the most liberal faction of the Republican caucus.” McCormick said he did not accept that overall endorsement and went on to say that he’s been given the thumbs up from mem bers of the U.S. House’s Freedom Caucus as well as local leaders and “tens of thousands of others,” who all have in common a will ingness to “fight the left.” Evans called that differ ent from what he said a couple of months ago. “Politicians that tell peo ple what they want to hear are destroying our country,” Evans later said. “Politicians that try to play both sides are destroying our country.” “I am absolutely com pletely fed up, [just] like the people in District 6, with people who when it’s beneficial career-wise say something and then, when it comes down to making hard choices, do something else,” Staples said. She said she’s running so that her children’s futures will be protected by people consistently keep to their word, and she added that with a teenager approach ing the age that he could be drafted, “the thought of a flip-flopper in Congress makes my blood run cold.” Economy and infrastructure Paulette Smith, herself a recording artist and cosme tologist, shared that she would want to help small and mid-sized business owners qualify for loans and take advantage of classes to help teach busi ness skills to help them endure economic hardship and thrive. “Everyone’s concerned about things that hit them in the wallet, such as infla tion and runaway costs that are going to cost our chil dren their future if we’re not careful,” McCormick said. He also commented on his intent to focus on mili tary spending, given some of his children’s interest in serving and the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I’m worried about our healthcare and what we’re doing that has increased the healthcare costs by 10 per cent... and the increased inflation and costs in edu cation and in general,” he said. He also pointed to the societal need to focus on healthcare for individuals once they’re out of the mil itary and referenced several local organizations that connect veterans with solu tions. “Not always is the gov ernment going to be the solution to our problems. We as a society, as chuch- es, as families, as friends... we have to do our part, too,” he said. Hanson was asked about how she would hold gov ernment agencies or con tractors accountable that fail military service mem bers by allowing them access to deficient housing. She said those people deserve “nothing less than our best” and was not able to specify in-depth steps without being in the posi tion but said she’d assist “in any way allowed.” Gatewood, himself a vet eran, clarified that he wasn’t asking a “gotcha question” but wanted to highlight the issue, since Fort Gordon was men tioned in the military hous ing scandal. “These aren’t the gener als, colonels or admirals that are affected by this,” he said. “These are folks way down the chain of com mand who are less likely and less able to sound the alarms on their own behalf. This is something that deserves America’s and Georgia’s attention.” Staples specifically spoke about education, not ing her previous experienc es teaching at a private school, attending public school and homeschooling her children. She explained her pas sion involves “believing that parents are the best fit to make decisions for their children” and elaborated that she’s a “huge propo nent of school choice. “Money should follow the best choice for chil dren... I look forward to dismantling the Department of Education and returning education responsibility to the state,” she added. Turning to traffic infra structure, McCormick acknowledged the rural- urban distinction through out different parts of District 6. “The people that are developing their infrastruc ture such as Forsyth want to make sure their roads and infrastructure are built up quickly because the amount of congestion is incredible,” he said. Evans said it’s key to ensure infrastructure in the “suburban-based district” is at a point “where we can service the growing com munities... and maintain the sustainable growth that we have.” Kiwanis hosts forum for Dem. congressional candidates By DCN Regional Staff Two Democrats running for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District recently met in Forsyth County to discuss issues and answer questions from the community. The Kiwanis Club of Forsyth County hosted a candidate forum at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9143 between Bob Christian and Wayne White, who fill face off in the May 24 primary for the district, which includes all of Forsyth and Dawson counties and portions of Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. In November, the winner of the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary, which includes candidates Jake Evans, Rich McCormick, Paulette Smith, Mallory Staples, Byron Gatewood, Blake Harbin, Suzi Voyles, Meagan Hanson and Eugene Yu. Education In Forsyth County and across the nation, education, materials taught in schools and school programming have become a big topic of debate, and during the forum, the candidates were asked about teachers leav ing the profession and the role of the feder al government in education. Christian, a combat veteran and busi nessman, said part of his campaign has been an outreach program for teachers and problems discussed at those meetings are typically different than the national conver sation on education. “It was an eye-opening conversation because the number one concern of the teachers is that we no longer trust them,” he said. “They are educated, well-trained professionals who care about our children as much if not more than we do and go out of their way every single day to provide a safe, comfortable learning environment for our kids. We send them to those environ ments eight hours a day, and we no longer seem to value our teachers for the value they bring to the classroom.” White, a consultant in international development, said he believed top-down approaches to education from previous presidential administrations had created new issues. Instead, he said more focus should be on empowering teachers to use their existing skills and returning respect to teachers. “They learn so much in their training about learning styles, individual personali ty, individual developmental rates of stu dents, but then they’re placed in a situation that, because they have to teach to the test, it’s factory,” White said. “My kids are in college now; I just went through this with my kids. There is tremendous pressure for the kids to meet expectations, one-size-fits- all at each age up coming up. It’s not where we need to be.” Climate change During the forum, questions were asked by three moderators, who were students at Denmark High School. One question for the candidates was what market-based solutions would they support for dealing with climate change. White said in the coming decades, the world will see a big increase in the number of electric vehicles on roadways, which will also mean investing in the infrastruc ture to deal with the increase, and the U.S. needs to be a leader in those changes. “We’re going to need to be able to gen erate more clean electricity, but we’re also going to have to move more electricity,” he said. “In places, the capacity of the electric lines is going to have to quadruple, so we’re about to see a huge reinvestment in infrastructure, but in this case, energy infrastructure. It’s going to happen one way or another.” Christian said climate change is a big factor for young voters because they are more likely to experience the changes and a market-based way to take on was to sup port the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, introduced by Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida’s 22 Congressional District. “It puts in place what is proven to be the most effective market-based plan almost worldwide, which is a carbon fee and redistribution system that taxes carbon at a level that makes it more expensive to use,” Christian said. “It forces the corporations to find other methods to produce their products at a cheaper rate, and to prevent that impacting from affecting the local citi zenry, it is refunded to them in the form of a carbon reimbursement.” Health care It has been more than 12 years since the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, was signed into law. The candidates were asked whether the government should have a larger role in healthcare and what changes need to be made to the system. Christian said some changes would be looking at why certain states do not take part in the program and what can be done to bring them in and studying how the pro gram has worked so far. “This money that has been set aside, this is money that has already been put in the pot, this is money that belongs to those states, the people in them, but half the states didn’t participate because there was an option to not,” he said. “Now, some of that is sheerly due to red-blue politics, plain and simple, and we’re not going to sway the states that make a decision based purely on that unless we change who is in charge of the states. “But we can go back and look at the bill. We have [12] years of data, and we can build on what works and try to excise those things that didn’t.” White said he was a supporter of the ACA and, as a self-employed person, was able to cover his family through the act. He said he would rather build on the current act rather than introduce a new single-pay er system or other changes. “I look forward to when we go even fur ther with providing access, then we can put even more effort into cost containment,” White said. “When I was a kid, healthcare was about 5% of the U.S. economy. Now, it’s about 20% of the U.S. economy and growing.” “As a percentage, it should be the same. It’s just growing,” he said. “It’s very com plex, but we have smart people, we can work on cost containment and certainly joint negotiations with pharmaceutical companies is only one example of how that can happen.” Note: Bob Christian wrote sports con tent for DCN from 2018 to 2020.