E-mail interview conducted with GA House District 1 candidates John Deffenbaugh, Mike Nowlin, and Alan Painter. They are competing to replace retiring Rep. Martin Scott and will face Democrat Tom McMahon in November. District 1 represents Dade and West Walker including Rossville, Kensington, and Lookout Mountain. Third of twelve Q&A’s scheduled before the July 31st vote.

LU: What is your full name, and what name do you generally go by?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: William Alan Painter – Alan

LU: What is your age?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: 52

LU: What is your address? (We will only publish the street, not your house number.)

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: [redacted] Techwood Drive Rossville, Georgia 30741-6260

According to public records, Mr. Deffenbaugh lives in Dade County on Lookout Mountain and Mr. Nowlin lives in Chickamauga.

LU: How can voters contact you or stay in touch with your campaign? (Please include info like e-mail, phone, Facebook, Twitter, etc. if applicable.)

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: vote@painter.com 706.866.8888 facebook.com/alan.painter twitter.com/AlanPainter

LU: How long have you lived in the county, and (if applicable) where else have you lived?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Life long, except for college years

LU: What’s the best thing about living in this community?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Rural homestead living — I would not live any place else in the world!

LU: Starting as early as you want, what kind of education do you have?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Chattanooga Valley High, GA Tech, Northwest Technical College, Covenant College

LU: What is your current occupation?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Sr. Software Engineer – Thomson Reuters

LU: What previous jobs or elected positions have you held?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Elected GOP member – Walker County Board of Education
Software Engineer – DoD
Project Manager of Technology – Memorial Healthcare System
Computer Systems Manager – Wheland Foundry

According to media reports, Deffenbaugh is a Covenant graduate with a physics degree and served in the Navy. He served on the Dade County board of Commissioners and currently works as a salesman for Horizon Electronics. We haven’t found any record of Nowlin having any previous political experience.

LU: Will aspects of your education or job experiences make you a better State Representative? If so please explain.

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: The battle of health care services will take a large part of the attention under the Gold Dome.

LU: What would you say is the greatest accomplishment of Georgia’s current legislative body?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Passing HB 954 — fetal pain bill.
Passing HB 100 — creating informal Tax Court.

LU: What would you say is the biggest failure of the sitting legislature?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Passing HB 456 (But Governor vetoed) — Georgia Government Accountability Act (Sunset Bill)
Unsuccessful passing of HB 679 — Georgia Constitutional Carry Act of 2012

LU: What are your priorities for the 2013-2014 legislative sessions if you’re elected?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: Rebuilding the economy to allow new and existing small businesses to bring in new jobs.

LU: Is there any criteria, philosophy, or overall guideline you will use when deciding what legislation to support or oppose?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: PRO-Life, PRO-Guns, PRO-Limited Government

LU: What are the biggest problems faced today by residents of Northwest Georgia, and what (if anything) can you do as a state legislator to make those problems easier to overcome?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: High taxes and over regulation. Vote to lower taxes and pressure bureaucracies to cut regulations.

LU: Do you support or oppose the TSPLOST 1% sales tax? Why or why not? (All except Painter)

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

LU: You recently came out against the TSPLOST sales tax, saying the region won’t get back all the money it puts in. What are your alternate plans to fund road projects around the state if TSPLOST is defeated? (Painter only)

PAINTER: T-SPLOST, in my opinion, is unconstitutional. It creates a new layer of government between the State and Counties.
We have to go back to the drawing board and get G-DOT back into this business.

LU: Many in Walker County are concerned about cuts to school budgets and new insurance rules putting the squeeze on local libraries. What are your thoughts on funding or reforming education and keeping libraries around the state accessible to citizens?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: I can’t speak for libraries around the state. However it may be necessary to reorganize the regional library back into a set of community based libraries.

During the Candidate Forum on June 19th, all four HD 1 candidates were asked about their support for the charter schools amendment. Painter voiced tentative support for the measure, while Nowlin and Deffenbaugh failed to provide a clear yes or no answer. Democrat McMahon said he is opposed to it. See more…

LU: Georgia was recently ranked last out of 50 states in regards to ethics laws. Do you feel the state’s ethics laws are adequate and properly enforced, or should legislators work to beef up the rules and add teeth to agencies that enforce them? How do you feel about the proposed $100 gift cap for state legislators?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: I am the only GOP candidate for HD 1 to sign the lobbyist gift limit pledge. By not signing this pledge, my GOP opponents are signaling that they are for an unlimited dollar for gifts.
http://painter.com/Pledges/AlanPainter-GA-HD1-GaCC.pdf

LU: Another issue that we’re concerned about is accountability for local government leaders and law enforcement. Do you feel local elected officials like judges, prosecutors, commissioners, city leaders, and sheriffs are held properly accountable under existing state laws, or are reforms needed in those areas? If so what reforms would you like to see put into place?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: This may sound like political double talk, but without knowledge over a specific issue(s), I choose not to get into political “what ifs”.

LU: Please summarize in a single paragraph why residents of GA House District 1 should vote for you in the upcoming election:

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: The thesis for “Painter means MORE business” is simply my belief is that lower taxes leads to a greater economic freedom. If a voter happens to disagree with that basic, then the details are somewhat moot.
Some folks call for a “flat tax”, while some others call for a “fair tax”; I believe the political answer is somewhat in between.
While the likely hood for either being put in place is unknown by me, my view is to start by transforming our state tax system into what I would label a “simple tax”.
What a “simple tax” would look like after being put thru a state level political process, I honestly would not begin to predict.
But I do believe a good beginning to start this process is to take Georgia’s income tax and head towards being on equal footing with Tennessee and Florida (which these states does not have any personal income tax) by looking at what Oklahoma is discussing.
If passed, Oklahoma’s personal income tax drops the tax rate to something like 3.5% and then every year thereafter dropping by a .25 or .5 % until it was eliminated.
This would signal to the world that Georgia is open for the “next great” business or business idea.
If you agree, I hope to earn your vote.

LU: Is there anything else voters should know about you? Family, faith, philosophy, inspirations, etc.?

DEFFENBAUGH: [no response]

NOWLIN: [no response]

PAINTER: I am a husband to a 6th Grade math teacher. We are the parents of our only child, a son, who is an active outdoorsmen who enjoys working the land.
We are members & attend Oakwood Baptist Church (Chickamauga campus)

Mr. Nowlin and Mr. Deffenbaugh chose not to respond to our inquiry, which is a bad sign for their future as leaders responsible to the people. Mr. Painter’s answers were a bit on the short side, but he did respond and nothing in his answers gives us any reason to feel he would be bad for the job. He’s always been helpful and responsive, was fine during his years on the Walker County School Board, and has a diverse educational and career background.

Painter also seems to be the only candidate capable of going toe-to-toe with Tom McMahon in November, if that matters to you. Based on his willingness to respond and what we know of him personally, our preference in this race is Alan Painter.

Walker County Messenger: Alan Painter

The Chattanoogan: John Deffenbaugh

Elections are next Tuesday, July 31. LaFayette residents will vote at the Walker Co Senior Center, voting locations for other residents vary. Early voting is still being conducted at the Walker County Elections Office in the Courthouse through the end of this week.

THE RULES:

Last week the Underground e-mailed candidates for 12 competitive local races (all except County Surveyor) a series of questions. Candidates who have no opponent on the July ballot were not included; those with opposition in November will be contacted before the November vote.

Candidates were asked to respond to the questions via e-mail by a certain deadline, and were instructed not to share their answers with each other before we made them public. Every candidate in the same race was given the same set of questions except where noted above.

Candidates who did not respond by the deadline have [no response] after their name for each question asked, and candidates who responded but chose to skip certain questions are marked [no response]. Responses received after this point will not be accepted for a full post, but candidates are welcome to add to their responses, answer questions, or respond to our opinions in the comment section below.

Answers are copied directly from e-mail without corrections or changes except for redaction of addresses. Redactions or any editorial clarifications of questions or answers are made in [brackets]. Our thoughts are in italics beneath the responses.

Q&A responses will be posted up until election day.

All LaFayette Underground 2012 Election Posts