Congressional candidates on the issues, part 2

In part 2 of this series (part 1 is here) I take a look at candidate stances on education and veterans’ affairs. This will also not be a tremendously long post, but I have some feedback at the end to share as well – feedback that affects the point scale as someone brought up legitimate supplemental information that’s actually going to assist me on subsequent parts.

I’ll begin this post with education and where candidates stand on it, beginning with Andy Harris who briefly discusses his views here. Also representing the GOP challengers is John Leo Walter, who talks about education on this part of his site.

Meanwhile, Wayne Gilchrest has generally been in favor of measures taken in the 110th Congress to expand the federal reach into eduction – in particular, voting to increase the amount of Pell Grants and lower the interest rate on student loans. Interestingly enough, back in 2001 Wayne voted against No Child Left Behind, joining a number of the solidly conservative House members in doing so.

On the Democrat side, Christopher Robinson has this to say:

Christopher Robinson believes that a well educated, skilled workforce is essential to the economic strength of our communities. As a nation, we must be able to compete in a growing, competitive global market. A first rate education, whether academic or vocational, is absolutely essential to meeting the complex challenges we face today. Early involvement of parents, better pay for teachers, increased federal funding for early education like Headstart, a renewed emphasis on vocational education are all key components in the campaign for excellence in education.

I’ll probably hear more from Andy’s handlers on this, but the short statement he has leaves me wanting more specifics. I give him props on the charter school work and accountability aspects, but would prefer that, as part of allowing kids to succeed in the workplace, he encourages them to learn critical thinking too! But for lack of specifics, I can only give him three of 13 points.

Similarly, John Leo Walter talks nicely about school choice and that’s an important aspect. But what about taking things farther like doing away with NCLB as a federal program as well as dismantling the Department of Education? Now THAT’s real reform. I’ll give Walter the same three points I gave Harris.

By the same token, Wayne Gilchrest has a mixed record. I have to give him credit for having the foresight to vote against NCLB (albeit maybe for the wrong reasons) but don’t like the vote to place more federal money into the college system because I see it as encouraging colleges to continue marking up their costs as the federal pot of money becomes larger. He’ll get two points.

In both of the challengers’ cases, they have room for growth if they follow up with more specifics. As for the incumbent I’m not convinced that Wayne’s record will be much more than spotty.

On the other hand, Christopher Robinson’s statement shows that he’s foursquare behind federalizing education at an earlier age. How else for a Democrat would parents be encouraged and teacher pay be increased? I do like the encouragement of vocational education though, with the caveat I’d like to see being that of maintaining a rigorous emphasis on the basics of reading, math, and particularly history along with training in a trade. Just because one is a bricklayer doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know about events the world has seen. As a whole I do have to deduct from Robinson for his advocacy of more federal involvement, but I’ll lightly penalize him by just two points.

Now I turn to what I call veterans affairs – basically how vets are treated after theit duties are complete. Most of that issue in recent years has swirled around the health care aspect of the VA.

Andy Harris speaks out (briefly) on veterans’ affairs, looking at their health care. Again, it’s a lack of specifics I’m certain will be addressed since Andy is a veteran himself. It’s worth 1/2 point at the moment, very little when 15 points are at stake.

The only votes Wayne Gilchrest had put on record in the recent past that touch on the veterans’ affairs subject have to do with the amount of time our troops have to spend outside theatre. But I’m going to look at that as part of the Long War and not in this section, so no points given or deducted.

However, before I refigure my totals, I have to mention that I received a communication from Andy Harris’s campaign manager, Chris Meekins, regarding some of what I brought up in Part 1. Far from being upset about things I said being questioned, I encourage it because while the point system reflects how I feel about the issue, anything constructive the hopefuls have to say adds to the knowledge base of all my readers. So here’s part of what Meekins wrote:

I just wanted to point out some things you may want to include on your scoring.

1. 2nd Amendment: Andy has been endorsed by the Gun Owners of America. You won’t find a a stronger 2nd Amendment group in the country.

2. Trade and Job Creation: Andy’s endorsement by the Club for Growth should be evidence enough of Andy’s position. The Club opposes excessive government regulation (which they would argue and Andy would agree, we have now) and they support free-trade policies. They also advocate lower taxes and eliminating wasteful government spending. I think it is very consistent with your position. On the job creation front on the Lower Shore, the fact that three of the largest employers on the shore have co-hosted and or donated to Andy’s campaign – Jim Perdue, Charles Allen of Allen Family Foods, and Fred Lankford (Sysco) – should give Andy the networks necessary to keep the jobs already on the Shore and expand the job base.

3. Eminent Domain – Andy has opposed government eminent domain powers at the state level. He has sponsored SB 74 which would limit the ability of Baltimore County to use eminent domain. He adamantly opposes the Kelo Decision. (Gilchrest voted to prohibit those challenging government attempts to take their property rights access to federal courts 9/26/2006 Roll Call Vote 477)

4. Election Reform – Andy was a strong advocate for a paper trail for electronic voting machines and was given an award for his support for this cause. Andy also opposes McCain-Feingold (Gilchrest voted for it) because he believes it infringes on the first amendment.

We do not include everything on our website because we have not had time to write extensive issue statements on all of those issues, but when people inquire about a specific issue, we are quick to respond with Andy’s position.

(Editor’s note: links added to original.)

Point by point, it’s nice to know that Andy received the GOA endorsement and their positions generally fall in line with mine so I’ll add four points, giving him a total of six of seven. Meanwhile, in using the VoteSmart site Meekins cited I found Gilchrest had a 50% GOA rating in 2006 and a grade of C from the NRA. It’s a record I can neither fault or praise without specifics, nor will it change Wayne’s score.

Yes, the Club For Growth weighed in and endorsed Andy, but they may just see him as an improvement from the 40% rating they gave Wayne in 2006. However, I will give them the benefit of a doubt and add six points of the eleven I gave for that particular aspect because Andy’s stance rates at least as well as Joe Arminio’s and he got six points.

On eniment domain (point number three) I think Harris sponsored a good bill in the proper venue and has the correct stance on eniment domain. My only misgiving is that a bill such as SB 74 wouldn’t be appropriate if introduced on a federal level; however, I’ll still give Andy two of the five points and deduct one point from Wayne Gilchrest for that vote I wasn’t aware of.

If you recall how I hammered John McCain on election reform because of McCain-Feingold, you know by Wayne voting for it I have to dock him the same (all nine points). Simultaneously I’ll grant Harris two points of nine for bringing it up – while other candidates may also be against McCain-Feingold, hey, they didn’t step up and tell me so yet.

With all the adjustments now calculated in, the standings are like this on the GOP side:

  1. Andy Harris, 19.5 points
  2. John Leo Walter, 7 points
  3. Joe Arminio, 6 points
  4. Wayne Gilchrest, -8 points

For the Democrats, Frank Kratovil leads by being silent on issues so far (zero points) while Christopher Robinson is at -1.5 points.

The next time around I look at energy independence and entitlements. That oughta be interesting as far as shaking up the standings.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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