Energy, environment, public aid among issues debated in U.S. House Dist. 5 event

A right-leaning, balanced crowd of more than 150 people turned out Monday night to hear six Republican candidates for U.S. House Dist. 5. It was the second local forum this month for most of the candidates present.

The Dist. 5 seat, opened when Mick Mulvaney accepted the budget director’s job in the Trump administration, has 15 suitors from six political parties. Only Republicans participated in the Oak Initiative event as they had filed by the time invitations were sent. Ray Craig from Lake Wylie was the only Republican candidate not in attendance.

Power — both higher and terrestrial — played big Monday night. Several questions related to energy consumption and security. Several responses played to the predictably pro-faith crowd at the Heritage International Ministries campus. The candidates were asked questions selected from among those submitted by audience members in advance. Here’s a sampling:

Keeping the faith

Indian Land attorney Kris Wampler spoke of his Southern Baptist roots and former state Republican Party chair Chad Connelly from Newberry of the Sunday school class he teaches, as they and other candidates did at a March 8 forum in Lake Wylie. More than in the previous event, candidates sprinkled terms of faith into their discussion and at times even mentioned their setting as a reason for it.

Rock Hill developer and former S.C. Rep. Ralph Norman saw the election of President Donald Trump last November in a spiritual light.

“Things changed,” Norman said. “I think it was a movement. I think it was a divine movement.”

Connelly talked about his role as faith engagement director for a group traveling to and working with 80,000 pastors in 40 states. He said his role in promoting Republican ideals is quantifiable and he sees a country ripe with “God-fearing, child-rearing, patriotic Americans.”

Wampler spoke of finding more domestic energy sources in a nation “blessed by God” to have them.

Lugoff resident Sheri Few harkened to “probably one of the best speeches I’ve ever given” at the Heritage site a few years ago when she was running for state superintendent of education.

“I believe it was fully anointed,” she said.

Few also leaned into faith when talking about the federalization of public education, something she is against and fears is harming citizens and mandating certain values against others.

“It’s anti-American, it’s anti-Christian and it needs to stop,” she said.

Energy

Several topics related to energy. How the country should get it, to how power grids should be protected. Candidates favored a wide range of traditional and modern energy sources.

“If we don’t have energy security we don’t have economic security,” said Camden attorney Tom Mullikin. “We don’t have national security.”

Mullikin has 30 years working with energy companies and said he believes a global solution is needed since there is “only one atmosphere.” He rebuffed claims from Few that Mullikin leans left on energy and environmental stances.

York attorney and state representative Tommy Pope, a former prosecutor, said energy concerns, like food and other issues, are about national security.

“One of the key elements of security is making sure this country is self-sufficient,” he said.

Norman said the top priority should be to put the country on solid economic footing, and energy consumption plays a role.

“We can’t do that if we’re indebted to other nations,” he said.

Connelly believes the market can dictate which power options are needed and “our problem is we keep getting the federal government involved.” Wampler supports offshore drilling and accessing other untapped domestic energy sources.

“Why are we buying oil from countries that want to fly planes into our buildings?” he asked.

Several candidates spoke of concern protecting the country’s electric grid, from threats both intentional and natural. Pope said getting people to pay attention to that threat is “going to be a tough sell because right now everybody’s lights are on.” Several pointed to a need for diverse energy sources. Wampler said foreign policy is important as “we are creating more enemies” which endangers the grid.

“It’s really a terrorism issue,” he said.

Environmental protection

Mullikin said he believes the far left “hijacked” environmentalism as a cause and that laws aimed at environmental protection stymies job growth and the economy. Those sentiments were shared across the panel Monday.

Restrictions gutting the economy, Mullikin said, spoil the worldwide environment by moving manufacturing to places like China.

“We’ve moved them from the most regulated environment in the world to the most unregulated environments in the world,” Mullikin said.

The Environmental Protection Agency didn’t fare well among the candidates. Norman said it’s bureaucracy and a “faceless name” that restricts business. Pope said EPA’s goal is “for the EPA to continue to exist,” while Wampler said it’s “to punish businesses” and it’s done a “terrible job of protecting the environment” as the federal government is a top polluter and goes unpunished.

Wampler favors increased property rights and local control as ways to protect the environment.

“I would abolish it,” Wampler said of the agency.

"The EPA is an unconstitutional agency, just like the Department of Education, just like the Federal Reserve,” Few said. “I say shut her down, shut her down...shut down the department of education and the EPA.”

Candidates said they aren’t in favor of pollution, but believe the agency is more of a limiting factor for business than it is a help to the environment.

“They’re really economic terrorists,” Connelly said.

Welfare

Wampler said the U.S. is a “massive welfare state” – an incentive for people to come here illegally to get a handout.

“I support welfare abolition,” Wampler said.

“People should have to earn the benefits they receive,” Few said. “They should have to work.”

Norman spoke of people coming to his company asking for a signature saying there are no jobs open, then leaving quickly when he stated there were positions.

“It pays more to get on welfare than it does to work,” Norman said. “If you want to enslave somebody, get them dependent on the government.”

Pope said he offered a woman a middle class job at his company after she had left a similar position elsewhere. It made more financial sense for her to remain on the unemployment benefits she was getting until they expire, than to start working. Pope said there is “collateral damage to the policies we create.”

“We are incentivizing bad conduct,” he said.

Mullikin said economic development is the best solution for welfare reform and the “cultural erosion in this country” it brought about. Connelly said the current system can “redistribute the money, but we don’t create any new money.”

“We’ve got to create incentives for the right activities,” he said.

On the offensive

Candidates debated several issues they tackled at the previous forum in Lake Wylie, like military spending and reform they say is needed for military veteran services. One candidate, Few, stood out as taking the fight to her fellow candidates on a variety of issues.

Much of it was directed at Mullikin, who joked people might think Few was his campaign manager for all the extra time he got Monday for rebuttal. Few pointed to a book Mullikin wrote on environmental issues and the dedication to left-leaning leaders like former Vice President Al Gore. She called it “totally fraudulent” that Mullikin favors term limits.

Mullikin defended his conservative stances on energy and other topics. Anyone who thought a liberal candidate would be found anywhere on last Monday’s stage, he said, “showed up at the wrong forum.”

Few went after Norman’s Club for Growth “A” rating, saying it was graded on a curve and he was awarded points for removing the Confederate flag from its spot on statehouse grounds which has little to do with economic improvement. Norman didn’t want do debate the score or letter grade, which ranked near the top among state legislators.

Few went after Pope on his recent vote to increase the state gas tax, saying many in the room wouldn’t support that type of tax increase. Pope said much of the bill increasing the tax involves state transportation department reform, an issue Few said earlier was needed. The vote was in service of constituents, he said, more concerned with repairing roads than paying for it.

“My people told me to fix the roads, so that’s what I did and that’s the vote I’ll live with,” Pope said.

He pointed to work in law enforcement and as a prosecutor as reasons why he can make tough decisions. Pope said if he can go into homes with guns and try death penalty cases, constituents can be sure he isn’t afraid to make the right call rather than simply the popular one. He quoted President Theodore Roosevelt in stating how easy it is to criticize others instead of having “the courage to go and do rather than sit on the sidelines.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Energy, environment, public aid among issues debated in U.S. House Dist. 5 event."