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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Joe Copeland |
| Address |
Cullman, Alabama , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | User 490 |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Aug 05, 2017 03:59am |
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| Info | My name is Joe Copeland and I am a candidate in the Democratic Party’s Primary Election for the office of Governor to be held on June 6th, 2006. I am a sixty-four year old single male and I reside in Cullman County, near Bremen. I am originally from Cleveland, Alabama in Blount County, and I am a graduate of Cleveland High School and was educated at Jacksonville State University.
WORK HISTORY
I have been a teacher in the Blount County School System and co-owner of a farm equipment business. I retired from Stockham Valves in Birmingham, Alabama after 32 years of service as a tooling engineer. I am a volunteer and a contributor to several nonprofit organizations, and an avid outdoorsman. I am a student of the Alabama political system and after years of observing the operation of this system, I decided to become a gubernatorial candidate.
TOP ADMINISTRATIVE CONCERN
I believe our state government’s greatest flaw is the influence that paid lobbyists for special interest groups have in determining the political agenda. A resent article in the Birmingham News noted that there are four paid lobbyists for every office holder in the State Legislature. Paid lobbyists write most of the bills that reach both floors of our legislature. In other cases they lobby for changes to benefit their employers or to kill bills. The power these lobbyist wield is derived from the huge sums of money they have at their disposal to support candidates. As a political outsider I am not obligated to any special interest group due to their past support. As a candidate I will not accept any funds from any special interest group and will limit the contribution I accept from any individual to $500.00. As your Governor, my staff and I will gladly give audience to the concerns of both citizens and organizations regarding any bill that either reaches my desk or that we support. However, our actions will be that which we consider to be the most beneficial to the citizens of our state.
TOP SOCIAL CONCERN
What I feel should be the most immediate concern for state government, and what underlies all the problems of our state government, is our exponential population growth. According to the Census Bureau, our population will increase from 4,445,000 to 5,224,000, an increase of 773,000, from 2000 to 2025. This will be equal to adding the number of individuals who presently reside in Jefferson and Calhoun counties combined. These numbers do not include the increase in the number of illegal aliens who will settle in our state during that period. This huge increase in our population will affect our quality of life and create an increased tax burden for current citizens. Our children and grandchildren will experience even greater degradation of their life quality and increased taxation. Each child born today is a burden on the taxpayers of our state for the next 20 or so years, until that child is employed and becomes a taxpayer. All the funds for a child’s education as well as the need for increased infrastructure such as water, sewer, and roads must be paid by existing tax payers. Given our state’s voters disdain for increased taxes, our Governor and Legislature are given the impossible chore of having to fund the needs of our increasing numbers without a corresponding increase in revenues. The obvious answer to this dilemma is to work on the demand side of the equation. I feel that our increasing numbers is not only a social and taxation problem, it really is a moral problem. If it is immoral to contribute to the hardship of our fellow man as well as our fellow creatures that share Earth with us, then to contribute to overpopulation is truly immoral. The best thing we can do to enhance the quality of life of our children and grandchildren is to have fewer of them. As your Governor, I will enact policies that will reward responsible parenting. Statistics gathered by the Alan Guttenmacher Institute show that 49% of the pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Many of these unintended pregnancies result in the horrible cases of child abuse we hear of daily, or end in abortion. Statistics also show that children born as a result of unintended pregnancies are an even greater burden on the taxpayer than those that are planned.
MY PROPOSED SOLUTION
As your governor, one of my first priorities will be to curb the number of unintended pregnancies and the number of abortions performed, and unwanted children born as a result. To achieve this goal, I will call on the people of our state to support a state- funded program to assure that all persons, male and female, receive free contraceptives. This program would include free vasectomy, tubal ligation, intrauterine (IUD) devices, and free birth control medication. I call on those individuals who are opposed to abortion and to everyone who, like myself, is appalled at the number of incidents of child abuse in our state to support this program as a practical way to reduce both.
ANOTHER CONCERN
Illegal immigration is also a difficult problem for our state government and our citizens. The federal government’s reluctance to enforce our immigration laws leaves state and local officials with few options to address the problem. Lack of enforcement of our laws is blatantly unfair to our legal immigrants as well as those in our work force who are replaced by illegal immigrants. I recently spoke with an individual whose brother-in-law, a highly skilled person, waited nine years to migrate to this country Federal law states that hefty fines will be levied on those companies and individuals who employ illegal immigrants. As your Governor, I will ask our state’s Legislature to introduce legislation that will fund an enforcement program to actually levy those fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants. This paper does not, and was not intended to include my position on all issues that involve the Governor’s Office and state government. As my campaign progresses, I will elaborate on my position concerning other issues. My promise to the voters is my administration will be honest, and I will strive to be the best Governor Alabama has ever had. I will seek those individuals who share this philosophy to become staff members of my administration.
Joe Copeland
671 County Road 244
Cullman, Al 35057-4356
Ph. 256-287-1652
Email joec@powernet.org:
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