Candidates make pitches at Red, White & Blue Picnic
Charles Booker, the Louisville Democrat who is running to take the U.S. Senate seat from incumbent Rand Paul, draw large applause Thursday at the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce’s Red, White & Blue Picnic.
The crowd on the Daviess County Courthouse lawn wasn’t as large as it has been at previous Red, White & Blue events. But almost every candidate for every local office up for grabs attended the event, along with Booker and candidates for Second District U.S. House of Representatives and the 13th District state House.
Paul and Second District Rep. Brett Guthrie did not attend the event, with the moderator saying they had scheduling conflicts.
Booker, a former state representative, said running for the U.S. Senate seat “is the privilege of my life.”
“We all need change, and we need leadership at the federal level that cares about us,” Booker told the crowd. Booker said he would work to expand healthcare options “so no one has to ration their medicine to stay alive,” and he would support Social Security, education and veterans issues.
“You are my family,” said Booker, who added that he would be accessible if elected to the Senate. “I’m going to Washington to fight for you, but I am going to bring you with me.”
Guthrie’s Democratic opponent in the Second District race, Hank Linderman, said Guthrie has enriched himself while in Congress, and “I think we need more working people in government.”
“As our prosperity has increased, somehow working people have been left out of the bargain,” Linderman said. If elected, he said he would work for rural Kentucky and would work to reach out to people of all political perspectives.
“I think we are suffering in the U.S. from a division that I have never seen in my life,” Linderman said. “Every single one of us can heal that division.”
In the race for Daviess County judge-executive, Republican Charlie Castlen and Democrat Bruce Kunze, who have both served on Fiscal Court, drew on their achievements in office.
“I think I’m the best candidate,” Castlen said. “I have a track record of accomplishing things.”
Castlen said as commissioner, Fiscal Court relocated residents out of Wyndcrest Drive, which was in the Rhodes Creek flood basin, worked to elevate U.S. 60 near Stanley to prevent the roadway from flooding and raised Crooked Creek Road.
“I worked with the current Fiscal Court to get the insurance tax removed,” Castlen said. Fiscal Court dropped the insurance premium tax rate from 7.2% to 4.9%, the rate it was before the city and county both raised their rates to finance the Owensboro Convention Center in 2009.
In his address, Kunze said he was a member of the Fiscal Court that created the WKU-Owensboro campus, passed the countywide smoking ordinance and voted to raise the insurance premium tax to create the convention center.
“I think we need leadership that looks forward and makes tough decisions,” Kunze said. “The tough decisions are like supporting downtown development, which I supported and (Castlen) did not.” Castlen was a member of the Owensboro City Commission, was the sole city commissioner to vote against raising the insurance premium tax for the convention center.”
Later, Kunze said, “I believe in fiscal management. I want to keep taxes low.” He said he was optimistic about the the community and “what we can do.”
In the 13th District House race, incumbent DJ Johnson, a Republican, and Democrat Michael Johnson, a member of the Owensboro Public Schools board, both discussed education.
DJ Johnson said he worked with an area principal to get House Bill 194 passed into law, which allows students on an alternate learning track to receive their GED if they are not on track to graduate from a traditional high school.
“I listen, I learn, and I help where I can,” DJ Johnson said. He said he also was involved in the process of getting Daviess County a second Family Court judgeship and in securing funding for the Commonwealth West Healthcare Innovation Center, which will train medical professionals in Owensboro.
If reelected, “I will fight for fiscal responsibility. I will fight for balanced budgets” and lowering the state’s income tax, DJ Johnson said.
Michael Johnson said he is running for 13th District representative “because I love Daviess County and the people of Daviess County. I want to see our families thrive and succeed.
“I believe in a living wage that all Kentuckians can agree on.”
He said the state needs “accessibility to affordable healthcare.” On education, Johnson, who is the OPS board’s vice chair, said public education needs to keep its funding.
“This is not the time to cut public education,” he said. “This is not the time to privatize it.”
Candidates for central Daviess County commissioner, District Court judge, Circuit Court judge and Family Court judge also spoke at the event.
By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer