Candidates bring up local, state issues at forum

Published 11:59 pm Tuesday, October 17, 2006

From health care to property taxes, local candidates tackled a wide range of issues at Tuesday’s meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Dalton Area.

Jeannie Babb Taylor, a candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives, said she decided to make her first run for office this year because she is concerned the state is declining in many important ways.

“Over 1 million Georgians have no health coverage, and over 70 percent of those people live in families where someone works full time,” she told the League.

Taylor was one of several candidates for federal, state and local offices who addressed the group.

“Georgia ranks 49th in the nation in high school graduation rates. Depending upon what studies you look at, between one-third and one-half of Georgia students don’t graduate,” Taylor said.

Taylor, a Catoosa County resident, is seeking the District 3 seat in the state House. That district includes most of Catoosa County and parts of western and southern Whitfield County.

Republican Ron Forster, who currently represents District 3, was not at the forum.

Mike Cowan, the incumbent Republican candidate for Whitfield County Board of Commissioners District 1, noted he was the first state certified commissioner in Whitfield County history and the first to receive advanced certification.

“All of the commissioners who came after me also pursued certification, and today we have the first fully certified board in (Whitfield) history,” he said.

Cowan pointed to what he called the board’s accomplishments during his time in office: expanding the courthouse, building a new jail, expanding drinking water across the county and creating an information technology department.

“We did all of that, and we still have one of the lowest millage rates in the state and the lowest rate of any county in our population range,” he said.

Cowan’s Democratic opponent, former commissioner C.G. “Pat” Hicks, was not at the forum.

Barbara Vaughn, the Democratic candidate for Board of Commissioners District 3, noted she has experience in both politics and business. In addition to owning a catering firm and restaurant, Vaughn served as mayor of Tunnel Hill for eight years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Vaughn said one of her top priorities will be finding ways to extend sewers throughout the county. She said she would carefully scrutinize all spending decisions the board makes.

“I’m there to ask questions,” she said.

Vaughn’s opponent, Republican Randy Waskul, said issues such as federal storm water rules and sewer expansion will be the biggest issues facing the board in coming years.

“I deal with those issues on a daily basis,” said Waskul, who heads environmental services for Mohawk Industries.

Waskul says the board must work on increasing communication with other governments as well as the county school board. Waskul noted that planning and zoning decisions made by the board can have a big impact on the schools.

Democrat John Bradbury, who is challenging Republican incumbent Nathan Deal for Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District, said the country needs legislators “who share the common values of working people and have the common sense of working people.” The district includes Whitfield and Murray counties.

“My opponent is a 25-year professional politician,” Bradbury said of Deal.

Bradbury, a Rising Fawn resident, is a truck driver and former school teacher.

Deal did not attend the forum.