Audio: Wiley-Ragsdale interview
Rep. Laura Wiley and her challenger in the Republican primary interviewed with the News & Record's editorial board today.
As it was in this story, funding for the furniture market was an issue during the interview.
Click here to listen to the exchange.
Ragsdale's contention during the interview was that Wiley had voted against state budgets that contained funding for the furniture market.
Wiley voted against budgets in 2005 and 2007 that had market funding.
In 2006, she voted for the budget. That budget, she said, included a major increase in funds for the market to sell itself to potential exhibitors and buyers. It was also a budget when Democratic House leaders - specifically Jim Black - leaned on Wiley and others to vote for the budget.
Out of fairness, the flip-side of the issue Ragsdale is pressing Wiley on is this: If voting against a budget that contains market money means you're not fully for the market, does voting FOR a budget mean you're FOR everything in that budget. For example, if voting against the 2007 budget means you're against the market, does voting for it (or in Ragsdale's case, say you'd vote for it) mean you embrace all its provisions, such as the one that cut the percentage of lottery funding dedicated to education?
