Democratic Candidates Seek 9th District Seat
– The above first appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper on March 17, 2016.
Three Democratic candidates running against Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith in the Ninth District spoke at a Floyd County Democrats Meet and Greet Monday evening. Addressing a group of about 30 people at the Bank of Floyd Community Room were Bill Bunch, a retired postal carrier from Tazewell; D. Clay Pugh, a clergyman from Sugar Grove and Derek Kitts, a recently retired and decorated combat veteran.
Deborah Baum, Floyd Democrats chair, explained during the introductions that Floyd citizens can run for delegates, representing the candidate of their choice. The deadline to file is April 9th at 5 p.m. and winning delegates (three and one alternate) will be voted for at an April 16th caucus from noon to three at the Bank of Floyd. The Floyd Democrats’ next meeting is March 28, 7:00, at the Floyd library, where the delegate process will be discussed and applications will be available. Delegates will attend the Congressional District Convention in May and the winning candidate will be the Democratic nominee on the ballot in November.
Candidate Bill Bunch spoke first and declared that he was a strong Bernie Sanders supporter. He listed Climate Change as a number one issue for him, along with overturning Citizens United and getting big money out of politics.
Bunch – who farms vegetables and hay, has a degree in history and is active in the community – spoke about legislators who want to cripple the EPA, have no prospects for alternative energy and pour money into propping up the coal industry. He stressed the importance of producing our own energy from wind, solar and water. “If we’re not so dependent on foreign oil what happens overseas is not so important to us, and we won’t have to have so many veterans coming home dead, maimed or poisoned from going overseas to protect our oil supply,” he said.
Bunch also voiced his support for a single-payer health care system that can be cost-negotiated and regulated like Social Security, which he wants to strengthen. Concerning the free college tuitions that Sanders has proposed, Bunch said he thought it was doable and not a big give-away, but an investment. “Every dollar we invested in the vet coming home from WWII with the GI Bill was returned to the treasury seven times over by their increased earnings,” he said.
Derek Kitts identified himself as a moderate Democrat. Raised in Roanoke and Lynchburg and currently living with his family in Christiansburg, Kitts most recently taught ROTC leadership classes at Radford University and Virginian Tech. He recently retired from 25 years of service in the military but started doing research on the district about three years ago. “The more research I did, the madder I got.”
“I’m all about quantified information, pounds, percentages and numbers that you can prove, things that are happening, rather than wishful thinking or promises,” Kitts said. He described how he looked back over Rick Boucher’s 28 year career as the 9th District’s Representative and saw that in 2010, when Morgan Griffith took office, everything stopped. “The high speed internet being pushed to Southwest Virginia stopped. The Industrial Park work stopped. The Telecom Bill stopped.”
Kitts believes that when telecommunications stopped moving past Pulaski, it kept the workforce dependent on coal jobs. “I recommend the Appalachian Telecom Advancement Bill that would allow us to give tax incentives to offer electronics and communications, and push cell phones and high speed internet to the Southwest part of the state. Business isn’t going to go there unless we motivate them to do it,” he said.
Kitts stated that Griffith ran as an anti-Obama candidate and has been a “do-nothing” for the district. He stressed the need to push infrastructure, computers in every classroom, education and hope, which is a lot more constructive than taking federal grants to combat meth and heroin epidemics, which has been the case in at least one regional county that he cited.
Speaking further about the coal industry, Kitts said, “An independent study says that by 2035 coal in Southwest Virginia will be completely depleted. We’ve got to be honest, and we have to give the workforce options and hope.” Kitts stated that he wants to represent all 9th district citizens, not just Democrats, and that he has a lot of pride in this region, which is the main motivation behind his campaign.
Clay Pugh is Chancellor of the Worldwide Communion of Catholic and Apostolic Churches and Abbot of the Order of the Mystical Rose. He stated that he wants to go from helping people with their spiritual needs to their basic physical ones, which government can do. He believes in the separation of church and state and remarked that religious administration work has given him a strong background for politics.
Pugh, who said he had connections to develop technology investments internationally, stated that we must rebuild what we have lost and continue to build on the framework Rick Boucher put in place. “Government does not trickle down. Government bubbles up from the citizens,” he said.
Each candidate touched on how much time Boucher spent in district localities when he wasn’t in Washington, and each said they want to follow in that tradition. The candidates agreed that they are committed to supporting whichever of them gets the nomination. “At the end of the day we may differ in how we approach issues, but the core values are the same,” said Kitts. – Colleen Redman
