From the Chattahoochee River east to the Talbot County line, the jagged southern edge of Georgia Senate District 29 drops as far south in Columbus as the Manchester Expressway, Edgewood Road and Macon Road, taking in neighborhoods around Hardaway High School and Columbus State University’s main campus.
But the district covers only the north side of town in Muscogee County. Most of it lies elsewhere – encompassing all of Harris County, Meriwether County and much of Troup County, where it extends to the city of LaGrange.
Republican Seth Harp of Columbus held the post from 2004 to 2010, and Republican Josh McKoon has held it since 2010.
McKoon decided he would not seek re-election, so now someone new will represent this swath of land extending north from Columbus – either Democrat Valerie Haskins, a longtime educator, or Republican Randy Robertson, a retired law enforcement officer.
The Ledger-Enquirer asked each candidate to cite three priorities should he or she win the election, and both said healthcare and education were among their top concerns, and both said Georgia should extend broadband service.
Robertson’s name appears first on the ballot, so their response are in that order.
Randy Robertson
Besides healthcare and education, Robertson also named economic development as a priority, and said expanding broadband service is a component of that.
“The internet of 2018 must be approached in the same manner that the United States dealt with electricity in the early 1920s and 30s,” he wrote in an email, adding broadband should be classified as critical infrastructure under Homeland Security.
“Broadband Internet would greatly impact the business opportunities, healthcare needs, and future educational systems that are desperately needed throughout our state. We have areas in Georgia were businesses and health clinics cannot open due to the lack of this type of infrastructure. We have children that cannot go home after school and do their homework due to a lack of broadband Internet services. I feel that in 2018 the citizens of Georgia should not be hamstrung from opening businesses, receiving healthcare, or educating their children because of something that is readily available throughout other parts of the United States and the world.”
Robertson said he would promote health care “with partnerships through healthcare providers such as Mercer University who has started establishing Mercer clinics within rural Georgia that are staffed by experienced doctors and recently graduated Mercer physicians. Mercer has agreed to pay the full tuition for students who are willing to get their medical degree and work in rural healthcare for three years. This incredible program is paid by money that was reimbursed due to overpayments into the Medicaid program by the state of Georgia.”
He said he also supports tax credits that can be used to purchase traditional healthcare insurance: “With lower reimbursements in Medicaid and fewer physicians accepting that type of insurance, we must come up with creative ways for hard working Georgians to afford healthcare without destroying an already fragile and bloated program.”
Robertson said a “focus on literacy” early on would improve education in Georgia, as would local control and emphasizing school discipline and safety: “It seems that too many students are focused on programs that have little or no impact on their future,” he wrote. “We need to return to the days where the classroom teacher was in charge with 100-percent support from parents. We need to move away from school being a social gathering place and back to where school is the foundation of every person’s future success.”
Valerie Haskins
Haskins said she aims to expand Medicaid in Georgia to insure more patients, and to ensure schools are fully funded every year under the state’s Quality Basic Education Act. Like Robertson, she also said broadband service should be widely available.
Here are her responses:
(1) Healthcare: Healthcare is the number one priority that I want to focus on as a State Senator. I live in rural Georgia and I see and hear the needs facing Georgians. I want to expand health Insurance, Medicaid Expansion to insure 470,000 Georgians that fall into the insurance gap. This would also help support our rural hospitals. Georgia has closed the doors of seven rural hospitals since 2013, leaving many Georgians such a distance from a hospital to be life threatening. Georgia has the highest maternal death rate of any state in the country. I want to change this by providing health insurance and access to ob/gyn in rural areas. Working on solutions to the limited access to affordable health insurance is a problem I want to fix for Georgians.
(2) Education: I am a State of Georgia certified teacher and am endorsed by Georgia Association of Educators. I want to make sure our schools are fair and equitable for all students. The number-one priority is to make sure our schools are fully funded each year by the QBE, Quality Basic Education funding. The year 2018 is the first year in over a decade that the school districts have seen a fully funded year. I want to re-examine the 1985 formula of the QBE. This formula needs to reflect the needs of the schools that have a high population of students that live in poverty. As a state senator I would support public schools, teachers, support staff and students. Teachers need to be allowed to use their creativity and innovativeness and spend less time on teaching for tests. Parents, families and students need to be supported, ensuring healthcare and literacy programs are available to them. The Hope Scholarship needs to be protected and enhanced….
(3) Broadband in rural Georgia: Rural highspeed broadband in rural Georgia is a necessity and essential to healthcare, quality education and economic growth. I as your state senator will work tirelessly to make sure that residents in District 29 will have high rural internet speeds to ensure that the quality of life and communities is enhanced….
Education, experience
Here are brief biographies for each candidate:
Name: Randy Robertson
Age: 56
Occupation: Retired law enforcement officer.
Education: Graduated Harris County High School, 1980; studied criminal justice at Columbus State University, public administration at the Georgia law enforcement command college, and critical infrastructure protection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glencoe, Ga.; graduated 2010 from the FBI academy in Quantico, Va.
Experience: Worked 30 years in law enforcement, retiring as a Muscogee County Sheriff’s major in 2015; served as Columbus Director of Homeland Security under the administration of Mayor Jim Wetherington.
Name: Valerie Haskins
Age: 65
Occupation: Educator.
Education: A master’s degree in education from the University of Southern Mississippi; a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of South Florida, with a minor in international studies; a year of course work in Arabic and other special instruction.
Experience: Teaching middle and high school students social studies and science, serving in public schools in Florida and Georgia, and in Germany for the Department of Defense. She frequently writes for the Manchester Star Mercury and written a children’s book in Arabic with English subtitles.