Three candidates seeking North Carolina's Fourth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and three Democratic contenders for a spot on the Durham County Board of Commissioners addressed issues of concern to the Duke community in the Bryan Center Sunday night.
Several dozen students and employees attended the forum, which was sponsored by the Duke chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Student-Employee Relations Committee and Latino Life. Each candidate was given the opportunity to express ideas that were most important to them, and the issues they felt were most important to Duke and Durham.
Republican Congressional candidate and flight instructor Tuan Nguyen said he is running because he believes many politicians in Washington have lost touch with average Americans and the issues they care about.
"What we need in America today is for ordinary citizens to go up to Washington," Nguyen said.
Libertarian candidate Ken Nelson said he was running because the federal government had overstepped its constitutional bounds. His platform includes legalizing drugs, lowering taxes and allowing taxpayers to opt out of the Social Security system if they so desire.
"The way things are going now, we're going to have a situation where people who have paid into the system will not be able to take out [of Social Security]," he said.
Representative David Price, the incumbent and a professor of political science on leave from Duke, said that improving education at all levels was one of his top priorities, including educating and paying the 2.5 million teachers who will be needed in the public school system over the next 10 years.
He also said he wanted to help create an environment conducive to private investment throughout the Research Triangle Park area.
"We need to make certain that research is funded, and that ideological issues do not interfere with the research," he said, referring in part to recent debates about cloning.
County Commissioner Philip Cousin, who is seeking reelection along with three other members of the board Nov. 5, said that providing for the mentally ill of Durham was his top priority.
"I feel a strong moral obligation to provide services to those who need them," Cousin said.
He said the state government is withholding funds due to the state budget crisis and may force the county to spend up to $4 million more annually on mental health care. Though he did not outline specific remedies to this problem, he encouraged anyone interested to attend the board's Monday meeting, when the issue will be discussed in detail.
Commissioner Becky Heron said that dealing with the budget crisis was also her top priority.
"We're going to have to find additional sources of revenue so we don't have to cut services," Heron said.
Former City Council member Mary Jacobs, who is seeking her first term on the board, stressed economic development as the key to success for Durham.
"There needs to be an improvement of the tax base," said Jacobs, who added that more tax revenue meant more funds for education and other services. She cited her support for The Streets at SouthPoint mall as an example of what the board should be doing to improve the quality of life in Durham.
However, Heron said she believed many of the jobs and tax revenues created by SouthPoint were present at the old South Square mall, which closed around the time SouthPoint opened. She said that SouthPoint did not really represent economic growth, but instead the movement of jobs and income from one place to another, at the cost of the environment.
Jacobs countered that SouthPoint is a much higher quality mall than South Square, which was declining in popularity, and that SouthPoint improves the quality of life of its customers and Durham as a whole.
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