The Foothills Conservative Political Action Committee held a Meet the Candidates event for Republican candidates for county commissioner and state offices during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, April 3.
Candidates who spoke to those in attendance included Dan Forest, running for N.C. Lieutenant Governor; Trudi Walend and Chris Whitmire, both running for N.C. District 113; Marche Pitman, running for Polk County Clerk of Court; Michael Gage, Keith Holbert and Tom Pack, both running for the Polk County Board of Commissioners; and Sheila Whitmire, running unopposed for the position of Polk County Register of Deeds.
Dan Forest – Lt. governor
Lieutenant governor candidate Dan Forest spoke to a full house at the Harmon Field Log Cabin.
“Were living in very trying times,” Forest said. “I believe we are fighting for some of the very freedoms so many men fought and died for generations ago.”
A former architect, Forest said as lieutenant governor his focus would be on education, job creation and law enforcement. But he said at the root of how he would guide the state would be through the principles of limited government and more state control.
“Every generation has to fight to pass freedom on to the next,” Forest said. “We can save America but it’s got to start right here at the grassroots level, work its way up to state politics, work its way up to federal politics.”
At the state level, Forest said there were several things on his agenda should he be elected as lieutenant governor.
Some of those items would include limiting government spending, lowering the corporate income tax rate with the aim of eventually eliminating it, reducing gas tax rate and opting out of Obamacare.
Forest said he’d also like to see more choice introduced into education, a redesigned curriculum and reduced education bureaucracy.
In the realm of illegal immigration, Forest said he’d be prepared to lead the way in pushing for the E-Verify to be used by all employers, establish a voter ID bill in North Carolina and mandate English as the state’s official language.