News-Record.com

Energy. Education. Health insurance. Decision-making abilities.

Members of the News & Record’s Voterspeak panel consider these and other issues imporant as they watch the U.S. Senate and North Carolina gubernatorial campaigns and try to determine which candidates will win their support.

The question for Voterspeak: “If you had one question to ask the candidates for governor or senator, what would it be and why?”

Their responses:

Jeff Bartolet, 38, Republican:
I would ask Sens. Hagan and Dole, “What practically and proactively will you do to move the USA toward energy independence?” Energy independence is a non-partisan issue, affecting everyone in this country who doesn’t have the privilege of government-funded mileage or utility reimbursement. It needs to be attacked aggressively, creatively and with a goal of independence by 2020, if not sooner.

Phyllis Davis, 64, Republican:
For Sen. Dole, I would ask what her “fix” would be for Social Security and Medicare? Would she support individually controlled investment accounts vs. government-controlled Social Security?

If I could ask her another question, it would be how she plans to correct the impact on our economy brought on by predatory lenders along with the take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

For Pat McCrory, I would ask how he would turn our state budget back to pre-Demoractic control without raising state taxes and perhaps lowering the gas tax? (We have one of the highest gas taxes in the nation — we are in the top 15 states). I believe our state constitution says we must have a balanced budget and we don’t have one in this administration. If I could ask McCrory another question, it would be his plans to place cable companies under the control of our Utilities Commission. Cable companies are not controlled by the Utilities Commission now but by local governments and of course our attorney general’s office.

Kendall Garvin, 29, unaffiliated:
I would ask Elizabeth Dole what she plans to do about the students in the public school system who are being left behind and are not the students she believes are eligible for vouchers. Vouchers can be beneficial to those students who are already doing well and might get a more rigorous curriculum at a different school. Furthermore, these students would probably excel regardless of the school he or she attended. But several students are being left behind as evidenced by students dropping out of school and students graduating from school who can barely read, write and do simple math equations. The voucher system does not address the students who we need to help the most.

Trevor Hamm, 25, Democrat:
I would ask them what principles they use to guide their decision-making process. Good judgment is essential for anyone serving in a leadership capacity. Knowing the values that a candidate keeps in view when approaching an issue gives me a good idea of how they will respond to new problems that arise.

Mike Kelly, 60, Republican:
To Sen. Dole: Where have you been? I mean, is she that sort of political cicada who emerges sexennially and then returns to whence she came? The Honorable Dole not only needs to account for her whereabouts but her how-comes. As in how come her ratings in comparison to other senators are so paltry? Though she is a first-term legislator, she is hardly a rookie, having served in government for decades and we, the good folk of North Carolina, should have benefited more from her experience and proximity to power.

Marlene Costa Nielsen, 67, Democrat:
I would ask candidates what they will do to help the 15 percent of North Carolina residents without health insurance coverage because of the impact on infant mortality, life expectancy and the quality of life in our state.

Kate Peeples, 27, unaffiliated:
I would ask Kay Hagan about her position on merit pay for public school teachers. In her information packet, “Education: The knowledge to succeed” (www.kayhagan.com/issues), Hagan goes into great detail about her support of a fully funded No Child Left Behind Act. She is also supporting the addition of alternative measures of improvement to the current tests, tests and more tests system. But it is on these tests that teacher merit pay, or bonuses — another aspect of NCLB’s reward-or-punishment system — are based. And recently, North Carolina’s budget was cut so sharply that the bonuses teachers have earned will be cut by a significant percentage. If North Carolina is to add alternative methods of evaluating its schools’ and teachers’ accountability, how would Hagan figure merit pay into that revision? Does she support the merit pay system at all?

Deonna Kelli Sayed, 34, Democrat:
What action, if any, would Dole or Hagan support against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs who have huge severance packages while Americans are losing their homes? More specifically, how will they approach white-collar corruption?

Regarding the lending crisis, North Carolina fares better than most because of laws against predatory lending, dating to 1999. Noticeably, Sen. Dole supported the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Kay Hagan is an advocate of financial literacy. The biggest problem, however, isn’t how average Americans use money but the mismanagement and corruption of companies who deal with our money.

Rooting out political party corruption is great conversation these days. Yet few lawmakers seem prepared to address CEO perks and protection, which is part of the larger culture of corruption in Washington. I suspect many of these companies, especially those located in or near the Beltway like Freddie and Fannie, have deep pockets that are able to silence critics on Capitol Hill.

Mike Sigmon, 61, Republican:
What is your position on drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of North Carolina and what is your rationale for that position?

Ruth Mary Weston, 54, Democrat:
Our politicians in this hotheaded debate over energy policy seem cocksure they’ve each got the only right answer. I’ve spent dozens of hours researching. I found very few definitive answers, and a huge cascade of new questions. Every technical detail seems to have dueling experts and a Pandora’s Box of unintended consequences. We can’t absorb a multitrillion-dollar, 50-year blunder on this. That’s exactly what we’ll get from legislation based on election politics. It worries me half to death.

Maybe candidates have information I can’t find. Will you post online all the raw input you’re getting on energy so we citizens can choose the wisest policies to support?