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  Democrat candidates make case for national and state offices at forum web posted May 16, 2008 EDGEFIELD – The Edgefield County Democrat Party held their Democrat candidate forum Thursday night with a total of eight of the eleven invitees attending. Edgefield Democrat Party Chairman Willie Bright welcomed the candidates and the public to the gathering and explaining the rules which would give each candidate five minutes to speak and would then open the floor to attendees to ask questions. The first to speak was Jane Dyer who is challenging Gresham Barrett for the third congressional US House seat. Dyer, who hails from Easley SC, said that she was unhappy with the way things in Washington were heading and decided to enter the race. “Policies in the country are not working,” Dyer said, “and Gresham Barrett has been in lock-step with President Bush.” Dyer said that the current policies were allowing “big oil” and insurance companies to rake in huge profits. “There’s a point when huge profits become greed.” Touching on the War on Islamic terrorism, mainly in Iraq, Dyer said the current direction was not working and that she supported bringing the troops home. “The Generals have said there is no military solution in Iraq, and I agree with them. Mrs. Dyer said what needed to happen is a political solution, however, she later stated that the chances of a political solution was not going to happen either because the culture in the Middle East “is not like our government. I’d like to think we could place our form of government there, but it just won’t happen.” Mrs. Dyer’s website is http://www.janedyerforcongress.com State Representative Bill Clyburn, who is unopposed this year, stated that he was glad to seen so many turn out for the event and thanked the local media for being present as well. Rep. Clyburn said having the volunteers working and the media reporting what is taking place “makes for good government”. Rep. Clyburn said there is “a litany on new laws” being debated in Columbia right now and some have passed the House but there was still a lot of work to do during the current session. Rep. Clyburn said he was a strong supporter of legislation on transparency in government, “We need to let the public see what we are doing,” and stated that much of the information can be found online. “We have to build back trust,” with the public because many people have become leery when a politician speaks, Rep. Clyburn said. Travis Johnson, Senate District 25 Democrat candidate from Aiken spoke next saying that the reason he was running was that he felt like it was time for “young people to stand up and take leadership” and that education was something he felt was not being properly addressed. Mr. Johnson said the main issues of his campaign were education, more recreational activities for children, making healthcare affordable, and hopes to bring more social workers to classrooms and schools. Another thing he would like to do, if elected, was to create a Senate District 25 Small Business Association to meet once a month to teach small businesses how to improve opportunities and to learn how to do business with the state. He also stated he wanted to see broadband internet access for the entire district as well as see the state create a program to ”adopt” and re-educate laid off workers. Next to take the podium was Mr. Johnson’s Democrat challenger Edgefield’s Greg Anderson. Mr. Anderson explained in his opening the main reason for running for the senate. “I’m running because I love our community,” he said. Mr. Anderson said as a lawyer he works with people everyday from all walks of life and the problems they face because he has been working with them for the last 28 years. Mr. Anderson said that one of the problems he sees is that the small towns are overlooked by the state. The larger counties seem to draw the much needed industries, “but if you try to get something for Edgefield County, the big wheels over there in Columbia will knock you down.” Mr. Anderson said one of the key issues for him was education and being that he has attended school board meetings as the district’s legal council for the last 20 years he has a unique understanding of what is needed in the educational field. “I understand it from the teacher’s perspective; I understand it from a school principal’s perspective, and the (school) board’s perspective. I understand those problems.” Anderson said that state mandates from Columbia do not always make sense in Edgefield County and gave an example of having all buses located in a central location rather than allowing the drivers to take them home. Now drivers have to leave their location in the county to come and pick up the buses and then drive them back to where they were to begin with to start the route. “That might have been good for Columbia,” Mr. Anderson said, “but it was absolutely ridiculous for Edgefield County.” In closing Mr. Anderson said South Carolina was 48th in the nation for unemployment and more needed to be done to bring jobs and industry to the district. Mr. Anderson said he has been involved in two recruitment efforts to bring industry to the area and when they looked to the state for help it did not materialize and the industries when to the state of Georgia. “If elected to the senate I personally will do everything in my power to bring industry to Edgefield County.” ©
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