Carolina Politics Online

Charleston business executive, Linda Ketner, has thrown her hat in the ring to challenge Henry Brown for his seat in Congress representing South Carolina’s First Congressional District which covers the coastal region from Myrtle Beach down to Charleston. She would be only the third Democratic challenger to Henry in the past five election cycles as the district is so heavily Republican Henry has only faced minor party candidates in 2002 and 2004.

She has a campaign Web site put together that appears to still be a work in progress as the Issues section only details two main subjects: Education and Veterans’ Care. I don’t see eye to eye with her on her ideas for improving education, but I do fully support her recommendations for improving veterans’ care.

Her platform on education seems to follow the typical viewpoint of the Democratic Party. She supports pre-kindergarten education, smaller class sizes, and an increase in Federal intervention. I am of the belief that this agenda will not result in any improvement in public education and in some instances worsen it further. I think four years old is far too young for a child to be attending school all day away from his parents. There is no scientific data proving that smaller class sizes lead to better education and if history is any indicator, public education went south in this country once the Federal Dept of Education was established by the Carter Administration. Increased Federal intrusion and mandates have made it more difficult to teach kids and they are not being taught the knowledge and skills they need that are practical for the working world. I think less restrictions and more “entrepreneurship” on the part of teachers with the freedom to tailor their classes to their specific learning abilities are the keys to success.

On veterans’ affairs, Ms Ketner is to be applauded for her ideas. The way our military veterans are treated is despicable and the Republican Party, which claims to hold the mantle on military support, had their heads in the sand on this until the deplorable conditions of Walter Reed were leaked to the media. Ms Ketner proposes the following changes:

• Provide full disability and retirement benefits to disabled veterans
• Guarantee survivor benefits equal to those of federal employees
• Lower the current retirement age for national guard and reservists to 55, just as it is for federal civilian employees
• Expand the military healthcare system so that America’s Guard and Reservists receive health care benefits even when not on active duty
• Provide travel for active duty personnel and Guard and Reserve soldiers return home from the battlefield
• Provide full GI college benefits for Guard and Reservists
• Automatically accept all disability claims of soldiers returning from the battlefield

Two thumbs up!

Undoubtedly, Linda Ketner is a woman of great character and accomplishment. She is the founder of the South Carolina Citizens for Housing. She personally spent her own time and money volunteering to help victims in Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and has sat on the boards of several charitable organizations. She doesn’t just talk, she walks the walk! Furthermore, she is a small business entrepreneur and the founder and current President of KSI Leadership & Management Development.

Linda Ketner has an uphill battle for this seat, but I have a feeling this will not prove to be a typical election year when you look at both the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees, so nothing should be assumed in 2008.

It was 30 minutes before Friday’s filing deadline, and Parks Helms was wavering.

He called his wife, Eleanor. He knew she didn’t want him running for re-election as a Mecklenburg County commissioner.

Are you sure? he asked her.

“There’s life after politics,” she replied.

So for the first time in 16 years, Helms, 72, a Democrat, won’t be running for elected office. It may mark the beginning of the end of a political career that has spanned more than three decades in Charlotte and Raleigh.

Charlotte Observer

Helms is a well known fixture in Charlotte politics and, at times, a controversial one. His retirement certainly changes the political landscape.

RALEIGH — A new program of public financing for N.C. elections, designed to reduce the influence of special-interest money, is proving popular among candidates.The program will provide at least $300,000 each to candidates for three lesser-known state offices — auditor, insurance commissioner and superintendent of public instruction. To qualify, candidates will have to abide by spending limits, raise small donations from at least 750 registered voters and meet other requirements.

As of Friday, six of the 11 candidates for those offices plan to participate. One said he would not. The rest are undecided.

“It allows for regular, ordinary citizens to be involved in a campaign without having to raise millions and millions of dollars,” said Eddie Davis, who is running for public-instruction superintendent and is head of the state’s largest teachers’ group.

“I don’t think I would have done it if this had not happened,” he added.

The Charlotte Observer

Overall, I am opposed to public financing of elections. One, I don’t want my tax dollars being funneled to a candidate who I have no interest in supporting. Second, this amounts to incumbent protection. Incumbents have a built in advantage when running for reelection because of their name recognition. A challenger needs to have the ability to raise as much money as possible to boost their profile to the public to overcome that recognition advantage of the incumbent opponent.

There is a plus side, however, that Mr. Davis does bring up. Let’s face it, unless you are running for a small local office, you need to be either a well known person or very wealthy. This basically keeps us regular Joe Schmoes out of most political races. Public financing would open the door to more of your average citizens to run for office and truly make us a citizen legislature.