House Dist. 5 Republicans to square off

There are almost a half dozen candidates for U.S. House Dist. 5, but only two names will appear on the June 14 primary ballot. They belong to Republicans Ray Craig and Mick Mulvaney.

Craig, a challenger from Lake Wylie, looks to unseat Mulvaney, from Indian Land. Craig grew up in an Army officer’s household before graduating Clover High School and Clemson University. His work life covers academic, for-profit and nonprofit fields. Mulvaney has degrees from Georgetown University, UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard Business School.

Both have three children.

The Lake Wylie Pilot asked the candidates to answer a few questions on current issues and their plans for the office:

Question: What makes you the best candidate for the most people in this district?

Craig: “I offer fresh, optimistic leadership. A three-term career lawyer politician has had his turn and shown himself more concerned with raising money and vain grandstanding than of identifying with the practical needs of 663,000 citizens. To serve, to problem solve, to know these 10 counties like the back of my hand is what I will do in office.”

Mulvaney: “The overwhelming majority of people who live here, regardless of their party affiliation, are conservative – in the way they live their lives, raise their families, practice their faith and make a living. They also practice a good bit of common sense. That’s exactly the approach I bring to this job.”

Q: What’s one stance on a timely issue where you absolutely won’t budge?

Craig: “It would be easy to point to a given moral issue or deep economic rut, but I think restoration of elevated public discourse is vital. We don’t need officeholders who pour time into Facebook and tweet sarcastically; we need serious public servants with long-term perspectives who engage others to persuade and actually win over.”

Mulvaney: “Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with something that makes health care affordable. It isn’t working. We knew it wouldn’t work. Sadly, I don’t think it was ever intended to work.”

Q: What’s one timely issue where you aren’t sure of your stance yet?

Craig: “Has Mr. Trump played the most remarkable long con in American history ... or will he cut the Gordian knot of a government with more than enough posturing politicos?”

Mulvaney: “The best way to defeat ISIS. I’ve heard everything from ‘bombing them back into the stone age’ to ‘containing’ them to ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the terrorists. None of those seem satisfactory. All I know is that an open border policy – like what they have right now in Europe – is absolutely NOT part of any answer. I wish the president had some strategy that he would bring to Congress so we could debate it.”

Q: If elected, how would you work to compromise with non-Republicans in Congress?

Craig: This is where huge daylight stands between the incumbent and me. Spending more time in Washington to make friends, initially, will lead to positive relationships. Then, as a conservative who is ‘just right’ instead of far right, I will find commonality. ‘Politics is the art of the possible’ – not the mule-headedness of ideological purity.”

Mulvaney: “The same way I have for the last five years: by finding the stuff we agree on. That’s how we managed to pass – into law – a bill I co-authored with a Democrat from Florida to end “improper payments” – including payments to dead people – in government welfare programs.”

Q: What needs to be done to improve the Affordable Care Act? If repealing it is the way to go, with what would you replace it?

Craig: “Above all, you oust the folk who wasted six years on meaningless symbolic charges against the gates of settled law instead of agreeing on an alternative. (Memo to Mick: The Far Right can no more turn back the clock than the Far Left can give away free lunches.) Let Adam Smith’s invisible hand loose and price points will fall like gravity.”

Mulvaney: “Ha! Two or three sentences on how to replace Obamacare! That would be quite a feat. The short version: It needs to be repealed and replaced with something that allows the marketplace for health care to work. Most things we buy have gotten cheaper, while increasing in quality, over our lifetimes. We can do that with health care as well, but not through government intervention.”

Q: How can, or should, the federal government help ease what many consider a student loan debt crisis?

Craig: “Repayment of student loans is an obligation which marks a young man or woman’s movement forward in life. The very generosity of student loan availability has been a major reason for ever-rising tuition costs. The debt is most often at very low interest.”

Mulvaney: “Allow banks to make the loans again. The government nationalized the student loan business during the financial crisis. As a result, student loan costs are up. Repayments are also down ... thus driving up future costs even more (as those who repay their loans subsidize those who don’t ... that simply isn’t fair.) Again, government control is not a way to get better quality and lower costs.”

Q: What’s a question you haven't been asked this campaign season, but people should be asking? What would be your answer to it?

Craig: What are you reading? A: “Daily habits, circle of friends and books actually read, shape our world view. I try to absorb a chapter of a good book daily – biography, history, humor, literature, poetry, science or the Scriptures. Past informs present and shapes the future. I value equally the data, reporting and opinion pieces of The Wall Street Journal.”

Mulvaney: What is one thing that a Donald Trump presidency would bring? A: “Accountability in government. Face it, we need a President who can look at folks who aren’t doing their jobs at the IRS (and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security and…) and tell them “You’re Fired.’”

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 12:05 PM with the headline "House Dist. 5 Republicans to square off."