Voters hear from local candidates during public forum

The public had the opportunity to ask local candidates questions during the State Elections Candidate Forum event at Go Ye Village Tuesday, Sept. 17.

The event, which is hosted by the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce, featured District 4 State Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah; District 86 State Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell; District 3 State Senate candidates Dr. Julie McIntosh, a Republican, and independent Margaret Cook; District 4 State representative candidate Christopher Wier, a Democrat; and District 86 State representative candidate Anne Fite, a Democrat.

The first question asked of the panel was what their plan was to improve education as Oklahoma is ranked 50 in education. McIntosh said the state needed to get back to basics and get students back to the ability to read and write.

"All of those things should not be a partisan issues, we should be doing our best to get money in the classrooms where the teachers can use it to teach our children.. to prepare them. If they're not prepared to enter the workforce then they're not prepared to have prosperous families, then they're not prepared to take care of their own bills, children, etc.," she said.

Cook said the issue wasn't education, it was that the funds aren't going to the places it's needed.

"There's a very complex formula, something needs to be tweaked. Additionally, we need multiple career paths for kids. It can't be that if you finish high school and don't go to college that you're just done," Cook said. "I also agree that control needs to come back to the local school boards."

Hardin believes pouring more money into the education system isn't the answer but retaining teachers is.

Fite said she'd increase teachers' salaries as that's one of the reasons why schools are losing teachers.

"I also want to make sure that the money that is allocated for our public schools goes to our public schools and it's not held in some hold over, that it is actually used for students and for education," she said.

Culver said money isn't the issue as well and he believes the problem with education boils down to the "break down of the family unit."

"Most everybody in here when they were in school, they knew where they were going to sleep at night. They knew they were going to have supper. Right now, that is not happening with our kids so we've got to get back where we work on the homelife. The money is there in to education so we've got to take care of the other things, getting the kids to school," he said.

Wier said salary programs are the way to effectively retain teachers and he said he believes there are ways to expand on such programs.

Candidates were asked what their stance was when it came to school vouchers and all six agreed its not needed in rural schools.

"The vouchers we have here in Oklahoma are about $7,000 per year and that goes directly toward these private schools," Wier said. "I'm not saying that is necessarily a bad thing I'm just going to say that if we want to have public dollars in public education, we have to vote that way and guarantee that our public education is safe."

The panel was asked what their thoughts were on House Bill 4118, which changed how Oklahoma enforces and inspect poultry farms. The bill exempts poultry growers from environmental lawsuits.

Wier said the bill was dangerous for the state, especially for the area as there's the Illinois River. He said the bill eliminates the protection that consumers and individuals have as corporations can pollute the water as much as they want.

"It is a lack of attention to detail and a lack of attention of what the implications of these bills will do," he said.

Fite also called the bill dangerous and said it's essentially protecting corporations to use "our drinking water as a toilet."

"Our economy here is based on tourism. People are stopping coming to the Illinois River because it is so polluted. People on Spring Creek are selling their properties because the harm that's been done," Fite said.

Hardin, who authored the legislation, said the bill is dead as it never made it out of the senate. He went on to explain that the bill was to protect the "farmer on the ground."

"If you're following your nutrient management plan to a letter, you're not being written up by the Department of Agriculture - you have no violation, then you are going to be protected. If not, this bill doesn't protect you," he said.

Candidates were asked what their stance on tribal sovereignty was and if they were for or against the right of tribal citizens to hunt and fish on native lands without a state license as promised in the treaty.

"Tribal sovereignty is guaranteed through treaties, it trumps everything. Tribal sovereignty is not a choice, tribal sovereignty is etched in the law. I think most of us in Oklahoma recognize that it's a symbiotic relationship and neither the state can function without the tribe and the tribe can't function without the state. We have to have each other," Cook said.

They were asked if they were in favor of any restrictions on gun ownership, especially on semi-automatic weapons or gun confiscation. Culver answered, "No, no, and no." Wier said he doesn't believe there should be further restrictions.

"But, the people who are committing the atrocities that we're seeing on the news every day are not the same citizens who care about things like this. They're not our neighbors, they're people who wherever they came from have hate and evil in their heart. We have to protect our children from them first regardless of what or how they choose to do harm our children," he said.

McIntosh, Cook, and Hardin also agreed there shouldn't be restrictions while Fite, a gun owner herself, said assault weapons should not be legal.

Candidates were asked what their stance was on Oklahoma ever being a sanctuary state in reference to immigration.

"I have an issue if we allow ourselves to be a sanctuary state for any person that would choose to go against the law of land. If you disobey the law, there ought to be consequences. We should not say, 'Hey, we want all law breakers to come here,' for whatever the crime is," McIntosh said.

Cook said it's a complicated issue as there's a difference between illegals crossing the border and illegals who have been in the states for 20 years and have citizen children.

Hardin said he's been to the border twice and those coming into the country aren't the same as those who were crossing in the 1980s and the 1990s.

"They were true Hispanics coming across wanting to do day work. They were coming to Oklahoma City, sending money back to their families. They knew the risk by the laws at least in Oklahoma City, in the state," he said. "That's not what you have coming across today. What you see coming across today, they're not Hispanics, they're coming from all over the world, they're coming here."

Culver is against sanctuary states as there are legal ways for those crossing the border to become citizens.

"We've got to shut the border down. The ones that want to come, there are different programs, different ways to get your American citizenship so that's what we need to be focused on rather than turning our cities and state wide open to the wild west of 'Come one, come all.' There are legal ways to do it, we need to follow the rules and the laws that are already in place to make that happen," Culver said.

They were asked if they support a woman's right to choose and if they support House Bill 3013, which prohibits the use of in vitro fertilization medications, and what they can do to help Oklahoma families achieve the dream of having a child. Hardin and Culver spoke on their faith and said they wouldn't support the bill.

McIntosh, a Christian and a physician, believes God created every life but she also said she had a hard time picking which life is the most valuable.

"As a woman who has fought through basically a man's field to be where I am and [I've] thought a lot about women's rights, I also have to say which woman because which woman's rights; the one in the womb or the one bearing the child," she said. "Who am I to decide which life God wants preserved or taken."

Cook said McIntosh is the perfect person to have a conversation with; a patient who is dealing with a pregnancy whether it's an unhealthy pregnancy or a pregnancy by rape or incest.

"I would much rather that decision be made with Dr. McIntosh and her client - excuse me gentlemen - than by Mr. Hardin, Mr. Culver, and Mr. Wier. I believe that there are sanctity of life but I believe there are exceptions and complications that there are too many to legislate. Dr. McIntosh gets to choose when someone's life ends. She gets to determine, legally with a license, when a life starts," Cook said.

Fite said she's not familiar with the bill; however, she trusts women and doctors and how they can make the decision themselves.

"When we start telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies, we're opening Pandor's box to lose all of our rights. As far as in vitro fertilization, this whole movement has ripped this country apart and I think that we're bigger than that, we're better than that. We have to realize that there are unwanted pregnancies and we've got to handle it in a way that makes sense, not a knee-jerk reaction," Fite said.

Wier said IVF needs to be protected and needs to be accessible to women.

"I actually really, really agree with folks on the other side of the aisle on one thing and that's I think we should have a small government and I think that means the government not be able to pose their beliefs in your body, in your door, in your bedroom, in your bathroom, wherever. They have no right," he said.