The incumbents and their challengers for four seats in the state House of Representatives seemed to find a lot of common ground instead of major differences during their only joint debate, held Oct. 15 in Dover.

    The forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kent County and the American Association of University Women, pitted Republicans Pamela Thornburg of the 29th District against Democrat W. Charles “Trey” Paradee, Nancy H. Wagner of the 31st District against Darryl M. Scott, and Donna Stone of the 32nd District against E. Bradford Bennett. The panel’s lone Democratic incumbent, Robert E. Walls of the 33rd District, faced Republican Harold J. Peterman.

    The forum also presented the two first-time candidates for Kent County comptroller, Republican Steve Artz and Democrat Georgette F. Williams.

Candidates lay out their positions

    Questions in the debate, submitted by an audience that numbered about 100 people, overall dealt with health care, energy, and open government.

    In general, the challengers argued change is needed to make state government more efficient and responsive, with Paradee in particular noting that goal could be met by electing the Democratic candidates.

    The Republican incumbents stressed their own records of service and attempts at reform. Countering Paradee, Wagner said many pieces of legislation, including open government bills, had been stymied by the Democratic majority in the Senate.

    All called attention to the condition of both the national and state economies, blaming a lack of money for hampering efforts to provide state services, including better health care for the uninsured and underinsured and for stifling attempts to better the education system.

    Paradee brought up his small business and financial consulting background, saying, “I understand the importance and immense responsibility of being cautious and conservative, especially when handling other people’s money.”

    Thornburg described herself as a consensus builder who has worked with Democrats to craft reforms with tax ditch, driver’s license and energy legislation.

    “You have to be able to work better across the aisle and across the chambers as well,” she said.

    Because of the current national situation, Wagner told the group crafting the next state budget would be “very difficult.” To save money, inefficient or ineffective programs should be dropped and government streamlined, and a pro-business tax structure should be adopted to bring in jobs, she said.

    New initiatives must come with a way to pay for them and there should be no tax increases until the state proves what money it already has is being spent efficiently, Wagner said.

    Scott said he was running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, restoring integrity to state government, better education and good health care.

    He called for the replacement of the Delaware Student Testing Program and pointed to his efforts to consolidate resources while on the Capitol School District Board of Education as a model for state government.

    Stone stressed her networking with her constituents, educators, businessmen and state and national leaders as past president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    “I know how the legislative process works, and I know how to get things done,” she said, pointing the her work rewriting the Delaware landlord/tenant code for manufactured housing and redistributing the real estate transfer tax to allow counties and towns to share in the revenue it generates.

    Bennett decried what he called recent “reckless spending” that has cut funds from education and senior programs. He called for eliminating the DSTP, for smaller class sizes and for incentives to attract qualified teachers. He claimed the General Assembly has continually blocked efforts to make health care more affordable, a problem he said he would remedy if elected.

    It was Bennett who brought up one of the few points of contention between the candidates. When discussing a failed bill that would have allowed people to find less expensive coverage through a health insurance pool, Bennett claimed the legislation had been tabled by the economic development committee Stone chairs.

    Stone quickly rebutted Bennett’s remark, saying the multi-million-dollar bill died only because there was no funding to pay for it.

    “I don’t know about you, but there’s no way you can put a $12.6 million program in place when there’s no money to fund it,” she said. The $1.6 million in cash already set aside for the proposal was returned to the general fund to help relieve the budget deficit, Stone added.

    As a counterpoint, Stone noted she had sponsored a tax credit to offset the cost of health care coverage bought by small businesses.

    At the end, forum audience member, retired USAF Col. Dr. Ronald G. Sarg, said the candidates had brought up a number of points, but added they tended to repeat themselves. They also had failed to mention items he felt were important, such as property reassessment, veterans issues and handicapped accessibility.

    “There were a lot of generalities, which is specifically what they wanted to do,” he said. “You get a litany of what they’ve done in the past, not what they plan to do in the future.”

No shows: Angel, Edmanson, Friedman, Hamilton and Sweeney

    The debate was to include aspirants for Levy Court and Kent County Register of Wills, however LWV rules require both candidates for an office be present to take part in the debate.

    Candidate’s night chairwoman Ellen Wasfi said register of wills Republican candidate John Friedman could not attend due to health problems, although his opponent, incumbent Thomas Weyant, was on hand to talk to individual audience members.

    Levy Court Third District Republican candidate David Anderson did the same when his opponent, incumbent Allan F. Angel did not attend.

    In an email, Angel said he had other commitments for the evening scheduled more than a month ago.

    “When they called me last week to come, I told them I could not on short notice,” he said. “I really could not change what had been on my schedule for close to four to six weeks.”

    Anderson claimed Angel’s no-show was tantamount to censorship, since it denied him the opportunity to address Angel in person.

    “Mr. Angel’s lack of willingness to face the citizens means that I will have to present his record, along with mine,” he said. “It will force me to include contrasts on the issues in the strategy. One way or another we will have a clear choice.”

    Fifth District Levy Court Republican incumbent W.G. Edmanson II did not attend, citing a scheduling conflict. Consequently, opponent George W. Sweeney also did not come to the forum, but said in an email he had looked forward to questioning Edmanson on several issues.

    “I wanted to ask him why, after 19 months … he has waited until three weeks before the election to bring the issue of construction in Brecknock Park to the Levy Court,” Sweeney wrote. “It was clearly a political move that was meant to gain political favor with a special interest group in Camden.”

    House 34th District Republican incumbent Donald A. Blakey was in the audience, as his Democratic challenger, G. Bruce Hamilton, also did not attend.

    Candidates for the state Senate will take part in a LWV forum, scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, in the auditorium of Boscov’s department store in the Dover Mall.

Email Jeff Brown at jeff.brown@doverpost.com