My contact with Mike began on July 13th. I read about Mike’s Congressional candidacy (PA-03) and immediately went to his website.

I had explained to Mike in my e-mails that I had some questions about a couple of issues that were not mentioned on his website…those being the issues of reproductive freedom and gay marriage. While I pride myself in not being a one or two issue voter, there are certain issues that, for me, are hot button issues and, admittedly, I give them a bit more weight in the equation. Gay marriage and reproductive freedom are two of those issues.  Mike was kind enough to offer to meet with me to discuss his positions on these issues, as well as many other topics…and I jumped at the chance to speak with him in person.

I’ll be honest…after reading Mike’s bio, I was concerned about how he would feel about these issues. He’s a man of deep faith and it has been my experience that people who have strong faith tend to want to legislate based upon their faith, as opposed to based upon the the Constitution. And although I’ve met a few liberal progressive Christians in my life, they have been few and far between. I breathed a huge sigh of relief about 20 minutes into our conversation, when I realized that Mike is one of those rare Christians.

We arranged via e-mail to meet for lunch at Pufferbelly. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and we were able to sit outside and chat. I arrived a few minutes early and got a table on the patio so it would be easy to watch for Mike. I knew what he looked like from the pictures on his website…poor guy was clueless as to who he was meeting.

We talked about so many issues…many of them of national concern, such as the fact that he’s adamant that we need to get out of Iraq immediately; that global climate change is a real danger and we need to protect the environment and become energy independent; he believe we have a healthcare crisis in this country and the way to deal with that crisis is a single payer universal healthcare system (Mike’s a proponent of the Conyers Bill); he believes in investing in the middle class; he wants to see Medicare Part D reformed; he’s in favor of scrapping No Child Left Behind, aggressively funding schools, and creating a tax cut to allow people to write off their student loan payments.

As for those two “hot button” issues that concerned me – I was pleased with Mike’s answers to my questions. He’s in favor of reducing the number of abortion performed in this country by virtue of education, family planning, and the availability of birth control.

I’m similarly pleased with his stance on gay marriage. While we have the same opinion on the subject, we reached our conclusions in slightly different ways. Mike believes that this is an issue of religious freedom. In essence, the government is telling churches that don’t have a problem with marrying homosexual couples that they can’t do it…at least not legally, and that it is wrong for a particular relgious viewpoint to be imposed by the government.

We also spent a good deal of time talking about the 3rd District and, in particular, Erie. Both Mike and I were born and raised in Erie County. I left for a short time to attend college. He left for a longer time. We both returned/stayed because we genuinely love Erie, we see Erie’s potential, and we want to help it reach that potential.

As I told Mike at the end of our nearly two hour lunch, I try very hard to be openminded, but in order to throw my full support behind a candidate, I need to know where everyone stands on the issues that are important to me. Unfortunately, neither Tom Myers nor Kyle Foust have active websites yet, so I have no idea where they stand on any issues at this point. As such, as it stands right now, Mike Waltner is the front runner in my book. And it’s going to take quite a bit for either Mr. Foust or Attorney Myers to change that opinion. In addition to agreeing with Waltner’s stand on the issues, I also like him as a person. He’s intelligent, serious and passionate about this race, and seems to have all his ducks in a row with regard to his campaign.

I’m hesitant to declare my complete support for a candidate this early, but I anticipate crossing paths with Mike in the future.

July 27th, 2007 | Category: Erie, National, Pennsylvania, Politics | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL