Local candidates spoke to a crowd of about 100 people Saturday morning during the grand opening of the Daviess County Democratic Party headquarters. The candidates addressed issues including health care, the workforce, and education — as well as the central theme of why changing the representation for Owensboro-Daviess County is important.
Michael Johnson
(Running for State Representative for District 13. Read more about Johnson here.)
Johnson stressed that there are several issues facing Owensboro-Daviess County, saying many of them won’t be fixed unless there is a change in representation.
“A representative has to be on the ground talking to folks, understanding the needs of the people,” he said. “I know exactly what we need because the people have told me. … The status quo has got to go. If you do the same old things you’ve always done, you get the same old results you’ve always got. Today is not a better day until you change the representation, then it becomes a better day, then it becomes a new day. It’s time for a new day.”
One of Johnson’s main priorities is addressing the education system.
“Our educational system has to be strengthened, and not torn down and broken apart,” he said. “My opponent has done it a couple of times with reforming teachers’ retirements and taking money away. We can’t afford to take any more money away from our educators. Our teachers need to be paid what they deserve. I’ll be laser focused on that. They are on the frontlines every day and we have to take care of them.”
Among other issues Johnson wants to address are raising the minimum wage because “we can’t survive off of starvation wages anymore,” making health care more affordable, and adding better paying jobs as well as union jobs.
Through his work in the community, Johnson said he also knows the juvenile justice system needs to be reformed.
“We have young people that are great people, they just don’t have an opportunity,” he said. “An early work program for youth, they need to have that to bring back the mentality of a hard day’s work and an honest day’s pay. The youth need to understand that, and (then we can) watch the crime rates go down.”
Bruce Kunze
(Running for Daviess County Judge-Executive. Read more about Kunze here.)
Kunze said he hopes to help make Daviess County a better place, saying many people in the community may not have stable or decent incomes or may have other hardships they are facing. He said public service needs to be about “helping the folks that need help.”
Kunze focused on two main priorities, the first of which is public safety.
“We’ve got to have more cooperation between the sheriff’s department in the police department. We need (those two agencies) to be working together the best that they can to provide the best safety we can for our community,” Kunze said.
His other main focus is to work on economic development. Kunze said he’s met with the economic development corporation and is in the process of meeting with various business leaders in the community.
“(That board) needs to be more diverse. If I’m elected, I’m hoping that we can … get the economic development corporation where it needs to be representing all the businesses in the community that can work with all the people who provide jobs,” he said.
Kunze also quickly noted other things he would address if elected: drainage on the Panther Creek watershed; providing financial assistance to Whitesville to help retire debt incurred from a big sewer project; starting a pilot project in the county to use electric semi tractors to haul waste from the solid waste station to the landfill; and beginning a comprehensive recycling program.
Kunze also promised to hire and appoint a more diverse staff, saying that was necessary to attract more people to live in the county.
“I’m committing to you today that the Fiscal Court will make at least 50% of our appointments to boards to women, to persons under 45, and to persons of color,” he said. “It can be done and it should be done. Don’t tell me there are not folks that are qualified to do those jobs, because there are.
Bob Glenn
(Running for City Commission. Read more about Glenn here.)
Glenn said his experience as an educator over the last three decades has given him insight on what the priorities should be for City Commissioners, adding that his time as an elected official has been fruitful but there’s plenty more work to be done.
Glenn emphasized what he said were two big issues: rebuilding the Neighborhood Alliance programs and building a new senior center.
He said the Alliance meetings allow people to meet with police officers, elected officials, and other members of the community to address all manner of issues and topics facing the community, from street beautification to the rise in violence.
“If you live in Owensboro and you don’t go to a Neighborhood Alliance meeting, shame on you,” Glenn said. “… You can have so much power, you can tell people what is going on in your neighborhood and what the problems are. In addition to that, the Neighborhood Alliances break down the division, the polarization, because when people come together to make their neighborhoods better, they don’t care if they’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. They only care about making that neighborhood, and by association the City of Owensboro, a better place to live.”
Glenn said a new senior center has long been at the top of his list to get accomplished, noting his mother utilized the center prior to her death.
“The great note right now is (multiple officials and entities) are speaking,” he said. “We’re dialoguing about this. We’re not just dreaming about it. It’s going to happen.”
Debbie Fillman
(Running for City Commission. Read more about Johnson here.)
Fillman said she thinks she’s one of the best City Commission candidates, largely due to her 9 years as the Public Health Director at the Green River District Health Department. Fillman said she spent 35 years total serving the community from the health department, but is also well-connected in the community due to serving on many boards of nonprofit organizations.
Regarding her priorities, Fillman said: “I want us to have a safe community where all of our citizens feel safe, secure and valued. I want a healthy community; health is very important to me, and access to health care — and not just physical health, but mental health and spiritual health as well. I want a progressive community; we need strong leadership representing you. And we need a fiscal soundness for our city so that we can do for our citizens what needs to be done.”
Tyler Sagardoy
(Running for Daviess County Central Commissioner. Read more about Sagardoy here.)
Sagardoy said he’d like to see affordable health care in the county, including mental health care access. He added that he’d like to see an increase in affordable child care, which is “something that is not only achievable, but it’s necessary.”
Sagardoy said the labor market is directly affected by access to child care because some parents have to take time off work to stay home with a child.
“We need to make sure that people can show up for work when their child is sick, or make sure that when school is off that they don’t have to take a day off to stay at home with their child and lose their income,” he said.
Sagardoy said he also wants to see “better jobs and better pay and stronger unions” in Daviess County, saying Kentucky is 46th out of 50 states in union participation.
Hank Linderman
(Running for U.S. Representative — 2nd District.)
Linderman spent much of his time talking about his opponent Brett Guthrie, as well as generally what he thinks Democrats need to do to increase voter turnout and support one another. Little time was spent discussing his specific platform or priorities, though he did say “neither party is doing a great job taking care of the people. … I think neither of these parties are connected to the people.”
Linderman also said politicians need to focus on helping working people, which he said makes up 90% of the country and all have some things in common.
“They need safe places to work,” he said. “They need higher wages. They need a health care system that won’t bankrupt you because someone you love is getting sick. We need rural broadband. We need to invest in our working people.”
