At press time, four Congressional candidates had submitted survey responses to The Record's survey form. They include:
Kenneth Stepp is a Democrat candidate from Manchester. He was that party’s nominee in 2006, losing to Republican Hal Rogers. Stepp and his wife Wilma have two sons, Carson and Conrad. Stepp is an attorney with a degree from University of Georgia School of Law; Masters Degree in Management from the United States Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey, California; Bachelor of Science Degree from Clemson University in Industrial Management with a minor in Economics. He served in the United States Navy from 1968 through 1973.
James E. “Jim” Holbert is a Democrat candidate from London. He and wife Cindy have three children. His degree was in Education, with High School Teacher certification. He served as a military officer for a total of 21 years in the Army and Coast Guard, and also worked in civilian jobs throughout the U.S. and overseas. He now works as an EMS Helicopter Pilot in southeast Kentucky.
David Prince is a Democrat candidate from Louisa. Of his background, Prince says: “ I was born into a family locked in the cycle of generational poverty. My parents bounced from job to job and we were always on assistance. I continued that trend. By age 19 I was married with a child, living in a house with no plumbing and on assistance. We found out from some friends about Pell grants and decided to try to make something of ourselves. It was a struggle, but ten years later we had both earned degrees in education. I now have a Masters degree and I am in my tenth year of teaching government and economics at Lawrence County High School. My wife and I were the first in both of our families to attend college. I want to be an example to everyone coming from disadvantaged families.”
Congressman Hal Rogers is a Republican candidate for the seat he was first elected to in 1980. He was married to Shirley McDowell Rogers for 37 years until her death in 1995. They had three children, Anthony, Allison and John. In May 1999, he remarried to Cynthia Doyle Rogers.
WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES FOR THE 5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT? FOR McCREARY COUNTY?
STEPP: My first priority is additional funding for educational programs in the 5th Congressional District. We need more Pell Grants, more other educational grants, and more educational loan money made available. Educational loan requirements should be made providing for loan forgiveness for doctors and other professional people who practice in impoverished rural areas, and who practice in the 5th Congressional District, and who give public service.
My first priority is additional funding for educational programs in McCreary County. We need more Pell Grants, more other educational grants, and more educational loan money made available. Educational loan requirements should be made providing for loan forgiveness for doctors and other professional people who practice in impoverished rural areas, and who practice in McCreary County, and who give public service.
HOLBERT: Development to create jobs: coal gasification, alternative energy production, resource marketing, and environmental remediation.
PRINCE: In these times jobs seem to be a top priority. Mineral extraction is a major industry in most of the district as well as manufacturing. I will work to make certain those industries are still viable. However government should not be seen as the answer to all economic problems. Individuals need to continue to work and develop new opportunities for employment. Everyone asks me what am I going to do about this and that. Let me turn the table for a second. What are they going to do about it? Real growth occurs when the private sector develops and grows.
McCreary County is very unique. It is filled with scenic beauty. I think it must find ways to capitalize on that beauty to draw dollars to the region. Harry Caudill wrote long ago that America would be looking for a place to allow them to get away from the “metropolis”. With that being said I realize tourism doesn’t solve all problems. Once again I call on the citizens of McCreary County to look around them and decide what direction to take the county. Then I will support them as best I can.
ROGERS: Southern and eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest regions in the entire nation, and on top of that we are in the midst of a deep recession coupled with double digit unemployment. That is why I will continue to remain focused on economic development, job creation and education. We have come a long way and through organizations like PRIDE, TOUR SEKY and SKED we continue to invest in our local communities and bring new opportunities for the hard working families of Kentucky’s 5th Congressional district.
In order to continue to expand McCreary County it’s important that we complete Highway 92 between McCreary County and Whitley County. I will also continue my work with the Chamber of Commerce, SKED and the Economic Development Council to create jobs- we have made great progress by expanding Outdoor Venture Corporation, the McCreary County Heritage Foundation and McCreary County Hardwoods and by starting up BAM Pizza, South Kentucky Pest Solutions, The Red Door Bargains, Mountain View Development and the McCreary Professional Corporation. I will also remain focused on growing local tourism at the Big South Fork Recreational Park so that we can continue to draw more tourists in and utilize this economic tool.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE?
STEPP: I favor advancing Medicaid, Medicare, and Veterans Administration health care coverage, and advancing existing programs. It looks like the present national legislation will not be enacted because the Senate plan and the House plan are too different from each other. I prefer the House of Representatives plan and support it.
HOLBERT: I support single payer health care because our people need it and it will help American business be more competitive in world markets.
PRINCE: Health Care in this country is about one thing. PROFIT. It should not be. I propose one of two things.
1.We need to put a system in place to cover ALL Americans. When I was poor I was covered by Medicaid and it worked great, so don’t tell me the government can’t provide health insurance. Would there be challenges? Of course, but it could be done.
2.Force the health care industry to operate in a TURE free market system. The current situation amounts to nothing more that an overpriced system being subsidized by working families via insurance companies. It should not cost $1200 to go to the emergency room to be seen for ten minutes and sent home with no treatment rendered. But it happened to someone in my family. Practices like this would soon disappear in free market!
ROGERS: Recently, Congress debated the issue of health care reform. I am proud to have supported bills that would have lowered your health care costs by allowing small businesses to band together to purchase insurance, stopping junk lawsuits which dramatically raise health care costs, stopped waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and opened up access to more people. Unfortunately, liberals in Congress chose to shut my opinion out of the debate and instead opted for a bill that will raise your taxes, do nothing to lower health care costs and put a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. Rest assured, I will continue to stand up for true health care reform and I will be your voice in Congress to fight for affordable health care that doesn’t raise your taxes or give the government more control over your personal health decisions.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON EDUCATION? OUR NATIONAL ECONOMY? THE WAR ON TERROR?
STEPP: Education does not cost, it pays. Education is an area of government expenditure that actually generates revenue, sometimes for thirty years after the education expenditure. Education gives us better national defense, and better production of goods and services. The best economic policy for the Fifth District and for the United States is to improve education.
Our national economy? Our free enterprise economy has served America well for over two hundred years. Due to the spending binge by the last Republican Administration assisted by our Republican Congressman, the bubble burst and now we have 12 per cent unemployment and 12 per cent of the people seriously behind on their mortgage payments. Right now, we are on an upswing on the business cycle. There was a panic, people quit buying and businessmen sought to reduce their inventories. The panic is not over, but the inventories of durable goods have been reduced, and businesses are now ordering more production to keep their inventories from shrinking further. That puts people back to work. If we keep on the current Democratic policies, production should continue to expand and we will be approaching the relative full employment,expanding economy that we used to have during the Clinton Administration.
The War on Terror? The War on Terror is being won. We need to keep pressure on terrorists, to be sure that people get the message that "Terrorism does not pay!" We should not cancel our Bill of Rights because the terrorists want us to; they should have jury trials and then, if found guilty, sentenced under Federal sentencing procedures. The 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates; none of them were from Iraq and we should pull our troops out of Iraq because our military occupation of Iraq has not advanced the War on Terror, has not improved the situation in the Middle East, and has costed approx. 4,000 U.S. service personnel lives.
HOLBERT: America needs education reforms to produce skilled workers and professional people in less time, at far less cost.
Our #1 domestic priority must be to bring jobs back to America. Secure, well-paying jobs mean prosperity for all, not just a few.
Endless, politically mismanaged wars destroy our military and bankrupt us. We should immediately bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, take proper care of veterans, and remove America from Middle East involvement by ending dependence on Middle East oil.
Please see more on the issues at: http://holbertforcongress.com/issues.html
PRINCE: Being a teacher as well as someone who overcame poverty to become self-sufficient, I know how important education can be. However, throwing money at something is never the right answer. First, Schools must be fully staffed. And within those schools I would like to see the creation of an “identification and action” program that would target students from low-income families and work with them to help change the culture of poverty. They should be made aware that aid is available to them for post secondary education. When teachers take a real interest in the lives of students, it makes ALL of the difference in the life of that child. I want there to be people in every school whose job is to care about those children, but to also show them they need to think about their future and walk with them down that path. People on assistance do not look far into the future. They are worried about right now. I know. I was one of them.
Our national economy? First and foremost, we must have a balanced budget. No president should ever send a budget proposal to congress that cannot be fully funded that year. I also disagree with the bailouts of the huge financial institutions. Our economy is currently built on sand and it is destined to correct itself at some point. What does Wall Street sell? The promise of riches because you bought “ownership” of a company and you are going to resell it to someone else, even though the company itself has not really become more valuable. I find that to be an unsound practice as in wealth building. Speculative investing makes rich people wealthier for no apparent reason. We need to concentrate on producing goods and services, which would include but not be limited to tech industries. I feel better about an economy based on production rather that speculation.
The War on Terror? I am a common citizen of the United States just like everyone else. I do not have access to classified information about what has gone on in the past, so it would be foolish of me to speculate as to the best course of action without that information. I do believe we should allocate resources for our citizens here at home and use less abroad. While I realize isolationism is not possible in our ever-shrinking world, I feel the less involvement we have in other countries, the fewer problems we would experience. But when we were attacked, we should strike back with everything we have. The United States should be viewed as a sleeping giant. If you leave them alone everything is fine. If you disturb them the consequences will be dire.
ROGERS: Education: Providing students with access to quality educational opportunities is essential to improving the quality of life in southern and eastern Kentucky. In today’s modern world we must ensure that students not only have the fundamental building blocks of an education – such as reading, writing and arithmetic – but that they also have the technological skills to compete for the jobs of the future. Over the years, I have worked hard to provide better educational opportunities for our youth through Rogers Scholars, Forward in the Fifth, and youth programs through PRIDE and Operation UNITE.
Economy: There is no doubt that we face unprecedented challenges in today’s economy. With double digit unemployment we need to focus on investing in our small businesses- the backbone of our economy. We have had a lot of success here in southern Kentucky with organizations like SKED that give loans to businesses and help create jobs right here in our communities. We also need to lower taxes so that businesses can continue to invest in their workforce and so that families can put food on the table and provide for their children.
War on Terror: The safety and security of our nation should be the number one priority of the Congress. Serving as the top Republican on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee I have worked tirelessly to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security addresses every threat and every vulnerability. The recent attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day underscores that we must remain vigilant against the violent extremists that threaten our nation each and every day.
