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The
District 93 N.C. House of Representatives race is shaping up to
be a series of rematches, as incumbent Republican Gene Wilson of
Boone possibly faces two challengers he has defeated before.
Wilson
has twice defeated Dan Hense in the General Election for the seat,
in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Cullie Tarleton defeated Hense in the
2004 primary race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for
the ticket. Undaunted, Hense has changed parties and is making another
run at Wilson, this time in the Republican primary.
Hense
has continually run on a campaign pledging to bring government back
to the people, hammering Wilson for what Hense perceives as ineffectiveness.
In a filing statement, Hense said, “I want to bring back to
this county, this district, and to the state of North Carolina,
the dignity, the respect, and honor that I feel has been lost in
the General Assembly. Many people believe that things will never
change. They will not change until the people stand up and begin
to participate in the system again.”
Hense
said change could not be expected while the same people held office
year after year. “When the same few people are in power too
long, there is a potential for problems,” he said.
“I
think that it is time for us to have changes in leadership in both
the House of Representatives and the Senate,” he said. “Our
elected officials should represent both Republicans and Democrats
in their districts, and become a servant to the people, not to the
lobbyists and special interest groups.”
Hense
also leveled a direct attack at Wilson in his filing statement,
saying, “If the current representative represented you, our
roads would not feel like washboards, parents and teachers would
not have to buy supplies for their classrooms. Whenever the government
cuts budgets, the school system is the hardest hit.”
Hense
said he changed parties because he wanted to run against Wilson,
not because he’d shifted his political philosophy or allegiance.
“I’m still the same person, just with a different letter
stamped on my forehead,” he said. “He (Wilson) has been
in there 14 years and look where we’re at. It’s the working
people who suffer.”
Wilson
is facing his first Republican primary opponent in the 14 years
he has served. Tarleton proved to be what Wilson has called his
toughest opponent ever, getting 45 percent of the vote in 2004.
Tarleton
has also criticized Wilson, running under the campaign slogan “Enough
is enough.” “This district deserves a representative
who will be an engaging, active, energized, involved member, who
will be a strong voice on the House floor and will work hard every
day for the people of Ashe and Watauga (the two counties that comprise
the district).”
Tarleton
calls himself a fiscal conservative who is strongly pro-business.
A Blowing Rock resident, he is a retired broadcast executive and
has run radio and television stations WBT, WBTV and WCCB. He said
family-owned businesses are the key to the area’s economic
health.
“It’s
profitable businesses that create jobs and we need new jobs in this
district,” he said in his statement. “North Carolina has
lost more jobs than any other state, job losses that have been felt
in this district.
“I
will be a strong voice in Raleigh for our university, community
colleges, our public school system, improved health care, transportation
and roads, the environment and for ways to grow, manage and best
capitalize on tourism which is so important to our district.”
Tuesday
morning, Tarleton said he felt better prepared for a rematch even
though Wilson had more resources. “If I’d have had his
resources, I could have beat him,” Tarleton said. “He
gets tens of thousands of dollars from special interest groups and
lobbyists. And he went negative on me. If he attempts that this
time, I will respond in kind.”
Tarleton
added that the district didn’t get a “fair shake”
from Raleigh. “Appalachian State University is dead last among
the 16 UNC institutions in per-student appropriations,” he
said. “Somebody has to be last, but it doesn’t have to
be Appalachian.”
Wilson,
a local business owner, said he didn’t completely make up his
mind to run for an eighth term until the morning the filing period
opened.
“There
are just a lot of things I’d like to see done,” he said.
He said he wanted to work to shift more state money away from the
eastern and central portions of the state, typically Democratic
strongholds. Wilson said the state received an additional $200 million
in revenues and he said that money should go to repay funds that
legislators have raided in recent years.
Wilson
said the highway fund and the state employees’ retirement fund
should be repaid, and that he supported limits on malpractice to
lower malpractice insurance costs and the effect on health care.
He also plans to fight for a repeal of a gas tax increase that took
effect on Jan. 1.
Regarding
the lottery, Wilson said he was against it and there were too many
questions about the state’s operation of it, as several people
connected with the lottery commission, including House Speaker Jim
Black, have undergone scrutiny due to prior business associations
with firms seeking to run the lottery. “It’s a mess,”
Wilson said.
Wilson
had previously served 12 years as a Watauga County commissioner
and has said he has been viewed as ineffective because he doesn’t
introduce unnecessary bills. In the 2004 campaign, he said, “Ninety
percent of them aren’t worth the paper they’re printed
on.”
General
Assembly candidates are required to pay a $207 filing fee. The filing
period ends on Feb. 28.
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