Anson County residents had the chance to meet both local and state candidates during a meet-and-greet at the Hampton B. Allen Library on Sunday.

Twenty candidates spoke, including many who traveled from outside Anson County.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Attorney O’Neal Jones spoke on behalf of his daughter, Holly Jones, a former Anson resident who lives in Asheville and is a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

“She is smarter than I am, works harder than I do, and sure as hell is better looking than I am,” Jones joked. “I’m proud that Holly is running for lieutenant governor. She was a resident of Anson County, and always considers Anson her basic residence. Holly has three degrees, is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and served 16 years on the Buncombe County commissioners. I wish you would give Holly your consideration.”

Jones said that since his daughter graduated from Duke, she has carried an ID card that simply reads, “Eliminate racism” on the back.

“She carries that card around with her everywhere she goes, and it only says one thing: ‘Eliminate racism,’” he said. “I am proud of Holly. Give her a chance.”

Robert Earl Wilson, another Democratic candidate vying for the same seat, spoke next.

Wilson formerly served as the assistant secretary of state and has spent 31 years in state government, which, in addition to his time with the North Carolina Secretary of State office, included time with the state community college system and North Carolina Department of Correction.

Twenty-one of those years were spent in the Secretary of State’s office, which he said has given him experience with legislation and creating positions, he said.

“I helped create the most diverse agency in state government,” he said.

As part of the job, Wilson worked with the General Assembly under six speakers of the House, he said.

“Ironically, three Republicans, three Democrats,” Wilson said. “And I had to work with them to make sure we got things done. When I got there, they had a budget of about $3 million. When I left, we had a budget of $12 million.”

Wilson said that the state has to decide whether to be progressive or regressive.

“What we’re seeing now is the most blatant disrespect of our public education that we’ve seen in the last 20 or 30 years,” he said. “They are dismantling public education by running superb teachers out of the classroom, they’ve taken teacher tenure, they won’t compensate for master’s pay and for some ungodly reason, they’ve taken the teachers fellows program out. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s wrong, and without a shadow of a doubt, we’ve got to change it, because our children now are not growing up in the same country that we did.”

Wilson said that he thinks community college should be free, and universities affordable, to provide job training for the current and upcoming generations.

“They cannot now go to work, work 30 years, retire,” he said. “Those days are gone. They will have to be retrained three or four different times. That is going to be critical for their survival.”

He also said the state should expand Medicaid, whether through the General Assembly or through a referendum for voters to choose, and to raise the minimum wage.

“There’s something morally wrong when someone can work 40 hours a week and they’re still living in poverty,” he said. “The North Carolina I know is better than, and we’re going to fight like hell to change it.”

Ronald Newton, a Democrat running for the same seat, also shared his vision.

“My principal initiatives are economic opportunity for all, tax reform that benefits everybody, education and our environment,” he said. “I think that most of the other issues that we deal with day-to-day will flow from one of those categories.”

Newton said he’s had a varied career ranging from a football player and school board president to a chief financial officer and managing director, and that he graduated from law school with a specialization in taxation.

“North Carolina has the highest poverty rate in the country,” he said. “We have the highest poverty rate in the country. We have 18 counties in North Carolina that has a poverty rate in excess of 25 percent. We have seven counties that have a poverty rate in excess of 30 percent. North Carolina is the ninth-poorest state in the country. The only way you solve that is you have to have federal and state comprehensive legislation, and I’m talking about legislation that rises to the level of the great Civil Rights Act of 1964, which this organization (NAACP) was very key in.”

Newton said drastic changes need to be made to ensure success.

“We cannot continue to move in the direction we’re moving,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I’m not so sure that North Carolina isn’t in violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, Section 1, which requires equal protection of the law. When we talk about tax reform, wages, income issues, the legislation passed in Raleigh was the worst piece of legislation passed in the last 100 years. It made North Carolina a regressive tax state and what it did was it’s reverse Robin Hood, it’s taking from the poor and giving to the rich.”

Tax rates need to be set so that all pay the same rate, he said.

Newton said education is another problem.

“I don’t need to tell you what’s going on with education; everybody knows what’s going on with education,” he said. “But I’ve got news for you, the North Carolina Constitution and the federal Constitution require that public education must exist, and we will educate our children. And I tell you this, you remember that the greatest human capital you have is your children. Don’t let anybody tell you anything different. We will do all we can to raise teacher salary. We’re going to talk about career status, we’re going to talk about tenure. See, we’re going to run them out of town because we’re going to put the money back in education where it belongs.”

He also cited environmental issues as a concern, saying that the state loses 1,800 people per year due to air quality problems, and said he wants to help keep fracking out of North Carolina.

N.C. HOUSE

Rep. Mark Brody, a Republican seeking a third term in the House, first remarked that he could empathize with Wilson in dealing with the General Assembly, and that the General Assembly has to deal with agencies, as well.

“You know what, it may seem like, because of the reaction, that I may be coming into hostile territory,” he said. “And you know what, I guess maybe people would think that, but you know what, I come here anyways. Because I want to face the questions. If questions are tough, I want to face them. You know what, I’m stating publicly that I am a Republican; I believe in the Republican platform very strongly. Sometimes I ask, ‘Why don’t you?’ If anybody wants to read the Republican platform, I would certainly encourage them to do that.”

Brody expanded on some of his projects within the House, saying that he has co-chaired the agriculture committee, co-chaired the committee of community colleges, is on the oversight committee on economic development, and is on the oversight committee for general government.

Brody said each of those are important to Anson, since agriculture is a main business in Anson, he believes community colleges key to job creation and his “specialty” is economic development.

“I believe that Anson County is primed for economic development,” Brody said. “I guess sometimes you’ve heard rumors that there might be a big company coming here, and what we’re doing is just sitting back saying, ‘OK, let them make their decision.’ It’s a game-changer if we do that. Not only is it a game-changer initially, but we need to build on that. We need to build the infrastructure of Anson County.”

Brody said that economic development has four parts: how the state deals with taxes, regulation, education and policy.

“There are often times people say that, ‘This is the key. Education is the key,’ and I say it’s one of the keys,” Brody said. “Because I sit on the committees and I listen to the professionals in that area, and companies that want come here vary greatly. Some companies don’t care about education as long as you can read and write. Other companies would say technology is the key. Some say, ‘I need to be near an airport, and water lines and sewer lines;’ some say, ‘How is North Carolina going to protect my intellectual property, the products that I made?’ so they don’t get sued for something and this becomes public knowledge.

“Some say, ‘What’s the tax structure? How much regulation are you going to put on me if we’re coming here? How much regulation can I fit in the regulatory policy?’ I want to make the point real clear that economic development is a process and covers a lot of areas, so please don’t get stuck on one or two areas to where you might end up losing somebody because you’re not concentrating.”

N.C. SENATE

Dannie Montgomery, a Democrat and Anson teacher, said she is running because she does not want to hear excuses from legislators anymore.

“I am sick and tired of the folks in Raleigh acting like we are so dumb that we can’t understand that the policies, the bills and legislation that they are creating are impacting our lives in a negative way,” she said. “I am sick and tired of them acting like we don’t know the difference whenever the budget for education is still less than it was in 2010. When we have children who are graduating from high school unprepared because of policies and legislation that has been created, they carry the burden.”

Montgomery said she is frustrated with a variety of policies, including Medicaid and environmental issues.

“I’m sick and tired of my students having to deal with health care issues with their families because those folks in Raleigh don’t have the wherewithal, the guts, to stand up and say, ‘We need the Medicaid expansion,’” she said. “I’m sick and tired of companies like Duke Energy and large corporations being able to have fracking and other things going on in small communities, rural communities. Yes, we have poverty, but we by far are not stupid.”

Montgomery said she will be an advocate if elected.

“I submit to you that it is now time, this is the time, to get a real and a true voice in Raleigh that speaks for us, that cares about us, and that thinks about the children, the generations to come,” she said. “The Medicaid expansion covers that group of young people who recently finished college and are off their parents’ insurance and many of them can’t afford insurance. Well, these are also the ones that will be getting pregnant, also the ones that will be building the future.”

Montgomery inserted a barb seemingly directed at Brody.

“Medicaid expansion. Health care. Education. Economics,” she said. “We’re tired of people telling us that Anson County is ‘prime’ for economic development. We want results. We want results. We’re tired of folks telling us we have so much potential, so much wide open space, just ready for something great. We’re tired of folks telling us that the agriculture land that we have, but yet, they can’t figure out any large companies to bring here.

“All of that is hogwash, and it’s strictly lies, and it’s time that we stand up and send them a message that we don’t believe it, and we do not accept it. North Carolina can do better than that. We are stronger, we are more intelligent, and we have greater understanding of what’s happening in Raleigh than they give us credit for.”

Brody spoke briefly on behalf of Sen. Tom McInnis, saying the senator had hoped to attend but was unable due to pain from and medications for a recent medical problem.

COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE

Ronald Pierce, a Republican from Charlotte, said he became a North Carolina general contractor in 1999 and saw the damage from Hurricane Katrina firsthand in 2005.

“You want to see horror?” he said. “That was pure horror. I also saw how the insurance companies tread on the people that were down there. It was horrible, it really was. There’s no other word for it. I came back and started learning insurance law. Then I combined them both: I know insurance law, I know building codes, and I know that you all are being hosed.”

“Right now in Raleigh, you have no voice,” he said. “None. If you make a complaint to the North Carolina Department of Insurance, they send, because they have to by law, they send an inquiry to the insurance company. When that inquiry comes back, they accept it as it is, even if it’s illegal. Please understand that I am here as a public advocate to change the way that our office of the North Carolina Department is run. I’ll do it any way possible, any which way I need to do it. I will run for office. I will embarrass them in front of the public. And I will take them to court.”

Pierce said that he wrote 20-25 letters of complaint to the Department of Insurance and attorney general’s office seeking an investigation into how insurance companies operate.

“Does anybody realize what happened?” he said. “I was the only one investigating. My companies, my self. I went through a two-year investigation of the Department of Insurance. Every customer that I was trying to put their home back together after a fire, water, damage to their roof, every one of my customers were contacted by the Department of Insurance to see if they would throw me up under the bus. None of them did. You want to know why? Because what I do is I go to your home, I assign that claim directly to me as a general contractor, then I place suit against the insurance company to make them pay me properly for putting your home back together.”

Pierce also said that Blue Cross Blue Shield should not be the only insurance company for the state, and that there should be at least three insurance companies available.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT

In a true educator’s style, Henry J. Pankey, a Democrat, began his comments with a message for the youth in attendance: he recited the poem, “Be the best of whatever you are,” which encourages listeners to “be the best” at whatever they do, whether they are in a role that seems big or small.

“Your children deserve better that what we’re getting,” Pankey said. “Five hundred eighty-one low-performing schools in the state of North Carolina. That’s professional child abuse, education malpractice. Period. No excuses, no whining. We want an unconditional commitment to excellence. Dare to dream the impossible dream.”

Pankey said he has helped turn around schools from low-performing to exemplary status and has earned 100 awards for education.

“Children are reason enough to have an educator with the history of success,” he said. “Our teachers need tenure. It’s nothing but racism to believe that poor children can’t learn. Free and reduced lunch is how you eat, it has nothing to do with the way that you learn. Our children deserve teachers with tenure. Teachers deserve good pay, teacher assistants need money, bus drivers need money, all children deserve to be able to go to a school that’s safe and orderly. November 2016: that is the end of sagging pants in the state of North Carolina.”

He encouraged voters to ask incumbent June Atkinson or Republican candidates if they have the same record of success he has had.

“It’s education malpractice not to focus on our children,” he said.

After each candidate spoke, there was a time for moderator and audience questions.

This was the third year that the Anson County Democratic Party and the NAACP have co-hosted a meet-and-greet for candidates.

Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.

Imari Scarbrough | Anson Record State Rep. Mark Brody, R-Union, was one of the few Republican candidates, and the only House candidate, to speak at the meet-and-greet.
https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_IMG_4012.jpgImari Scarbrough | Anson Record State Rep. Mark Brody, R-Union, was one of the few Republican candidates, and the only House candidate, to speak at the meet-and-greet.

Imari Scarbrough | Anson Record Henry J. Pankey said his record of success in public schools makes him an excellent candidate for superintendent of North Carolina public schools.
https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_IMG_4055.jpgImari Scarbrough | Anson Record Henry J. Pankey said his record of success in public schools makes him an excellent candidate for superintendent of North Carolina public schools.

By Imari Scarbrough

iscarbrough@civitasmedia.com