Huntington Times - "Candidates pitch ideas at forum"

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Huntington Times - "Candidates pitch ideas at forum"

District 5 hopefulstalk immigration,'clean fiscal house'

Republican congressional hopeful Angelo Mancuso was too late for Thursday's candidate luncheon forum with the Pachyderm Club.

He'd already attended two other lunchtime events and, by the time he got to the Heritage Club for his third gathering, everyone was leaving the room.

"We're all running around as fast as we can, trying to meet as many people as we can, in as little time as we can," said Mancuso, who was a state representative for Morgan County from 1998 through 2002 before he unsuccessfully ran for state senate.

"But I'm thriving on it. There's nothing like meeting new people and exchanging ideas. How could you not love that?"

The fast pace of campaigning got racheted up when longtime 5th District U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, a Democrat from Huntsville, announced in mid-March he wouldn't be seeking office again. A primary campaign season that would normally last for months is being condensed into just a few weeks.

And the six Republican and two Democrats seeking to follow Cramer's path are working overtime to win over voters.

The only one who had planned to run was Ray McKee, a Republican real estate attorney/retired engineer who decided he needed to be in Congress after he visited Washington, D.C., to watch the House of Representatives at work.

"It was Band-Aid after Band-Aid after Band-Aid," he said of watching Congress' maneuvering.

But nobody was fixing anything.

He told the Pachyderm Club that he then felt the call to run, but not so that he would be in a position of power.

"I want to take away the power of Congress," he said.

He believes that can be largely accomplished by approving a fair tax and term limits.

McKee said he doesn't want to build a wall at the Mexican border as do some of his fellow Republicans, because all that would do is create amnesty for the 15 million illegal immigrants already here. Instead, he said it's necessary to make life here worse than where the immigrants came from.

Wayne Parker, the vice president of an insurance company and a candidate who came within less than 2,000 votes of defeating Cramer in 1994, said one of the top issues in Washington is to "clean fiscal house," pointing to an unprecedented $5.3 trillion debt.

"Much of that is owed to China," he said. "We have continued to spend money we do not have."

Parker said America's borders can be secured by "verification and enforcement," and that it must be done immediately.

"We're falling apart," he said. "... everyone knows it, but no one is doing anything about it."

Parker also ran unsuccessfully against Cramer in 1996. He told the few dozen people at the luncheon, "Some people say the third time is the charm."

Huntsville attorney Cheryl Baswell-Guthrie told the group that as a military wife - her husband was in the Coast Guard for 20 years - she understands the sacrifices being made by military families. And, as an attorney, she said she understands immigration and "walls need to go up" to protect the country from potential terrorists and freeloaders.

To the amusement of the crowd, independent salesman George Barry said what he'd like to do as congressman was "re-implement tar and feathering," and the first government official he'd use it on is State Rep. Randy Hinshaw, D-Meridianville, who voted on an absent Republican's voting machine Wednesday to help pass a bill to remove the sales tax on groceries.

"We'll file ethics charges against him," Barry said, adding that he has a call into Alabama Attorney General Troy King about how to pursue that.

Mark Huff, a musician with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra who also supports the fair tax and term limits, said he agrees illegal immigrants are a problem in the United States, but he doesn't see an overhaul of the system as being necessary.

His wife is an immigrant from Turkey, and he said he's quite familiar with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It's not that the laws are bad, he said, "they just aren't enforced."

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