Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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4 OCT 29 - NOV 4, 2014 ELECTION GUIDE 2014 ELECTION 2014: U.S. House of Representatives ELECTION 2014: N.C. SENATE Wesley Casteen, District 7, Libertarian Wesley Casteen is a lifelong resident of North Carolina, and his family roots extend for seven generations within the 7th District. Casteen graduated from James Kenan High School, and he received a degree in accounting from Wake Forest University. He later gradu- ated from law school at Campbell University, and he received a post-graduate Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Taxation from the University of Alabama. For more than a decade, he has resided and maintained a professional practice in Wilmington, as an attorney and CPA. He also authored a series of books, Musings of a Southern Lawyer, and he lec- tures frequently, including as an adjunct professor at UNC-Wilmington. When asked about his priorities in Congress, he says, "First and foremost: Jobs and the Economy." The rate of "unemployment" has returned to near "nor- mal" levels. However, that measure does not reflect the fact that millions of Americans are working part-time jobs because they cannot find full-time employment and millions more have stopped looking for work. Secondly, the federal government must address: "Deficit Spending and the National Debt." He identified the recommendations from the biparti- san Simpson-Bowles Commission as a good starting point. Related to both of the first two: Tax Reform. He said as a nation, we must have a more efficient means of revenue generation. This includes a whole- sale review of all current deductions and credits to assure that they are warranted and justified. Inefficient and ineffective government has resulted in a National Debt approaching $20 TRILLION, with related interest that could soon exceed $500 billion annually. That is money that cannot go to schools, roads or anything else that we expect government to do. The federal government is mortgaging the futures of America's children, and America must establish some challenging priorities in order to make government work. More than 80 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with Congress. That number does not represent dissatisfaction with a single individual, law or program. Instead, it dem- onstrates dissatisfaction with government generally. The current system identifies nearly every issue as us-versus- them: Democrat/Republican, Conservative/Liberal, Rich/ Poor, Urban/Rural, etc. There is a tug-of-war between the establishment parties (i.e. Democrat and Republican) over who controls the purse strings and power of government. Many politicians are seemingly more concerned about their job security than they are about the American people. "Politician" should not be a career objective. The proper role of any political leader should be to work himself out of a job. The overriding objectives of government should be to educate citizens and to provide them with the tools necessary to live their respective lives as productive and contributing individuals. In closing, Casteen said, "The 7th District is the only three-way Con- gressional race in North Carolina this year. I invite voters to take a care- ful look at the candidates, and I hope that voters will choose Casteen for Congress." William Odum (Billy) Richardson, District 19, Democrat My name is Billy Richardson. I'm an attorney and small businessman who grew up in Fayetteville and graduated from Cumberland County Public Schools, the University of North Carolina and Campbell Univer- sity Law School, returning home to work for the district attorney before starting private practice. I was honored to serve as your representative in the North Carolina House, then left public life to raise my family with my wife and high school sweetheart, Barbara. Our children are grown and successful now, giving us three grandchildren so far. I'm asking you to elect me as your state senator for District 19. I want to be your senator because things have clearly gotten out of hand in Raleigh. I'll repre- sent your vital interests and will work to make North Carolina the shining beacon of progress that we once were. I care about what you think, I listen and I will be your voice in Raleigh. I see our most pressing issues today as jobs and the economy, education and our natural resources — most critically, safe water. These things are key to our present welfare and are the foundation of the future we bequeath to our children and grandchildren. We need more good jobs in Cumberland County. That not only means enthusiastically supporting Fort Bragg and Pope Field, it means bringing in critical infrastructure like hyper-speed Internet (North Carolina Next Generation Network) and high quality education. Your children should be able to obtain the best possible public education, from kindergarten through graduate school, without ever having to leave their hometown. To get there, we need to reverse the trend of cutting teacher pay to among the lowest in the nation, defunding public schools, and cutting funding to our university and community college systems, once consid- ered the best in the U.S. We hear a lot about helping small business, but most of the "help" has been sent to corporations like Duke Energy. Not only has Duke been let off with barely a nod by N.C. DENR for failing to maintain their leaky old coal ash ponds, but DENR compounded the travesty by stepping into lawsuits against Duke and settling the cases for peanuts, meanwhile barring the plaintiffs from continuing their actions. In a scandal- ous move, the legislature has allowed Duke Energy to continue poisoning surrounding land, rather than clean up their toxic mess. We face other environmental policy questions as well, including coastal fisheries, sea level rise, fracking and control of public water resources. We're blessed in North Carolina with some of the nation's greatest natural resources. We're loaded with talented and innovative people and we have a history of making steady progress in education, busi- ness and cultural advancement for all our citizens, not just a select few. Watching what's happened to state government in the last four years has been painful for us all. I want to do my part to right this ship — elect me to the North Carolina Senate, "Common Sense Leadership for North Carolina."