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In HD-45 race, Mitchell says "God Given Talent"

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Contributed by: Michael Robinson on 10/12/2006

The Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce hosted Douglas County's House District 45 debate along with the Douglas County races for Commissioner and Sheriff and the HD-45 Candidates did not disappoint. HD-45 encompasses most of central Douglas County, including Castle Rock.

The HD-45 Republican Candidate, Victor Mitchell, came out swinging with the claim, "I have a God Given Talent" Mitchell exclaimed. Fortunately for Mitchell and the innocents sitting in the audience, a bolt of lightning did not strike and snuff out the candidates forum just as it began. Democrat Linda Constantine claimed the more modest achievement of being born in the State of Minnesota.

Education

The prinicipal issue as asked by the audience and enumerated by the candidates, concerned Education. Mitchell critized Colorado's entire K-12 system. "I know how to cut through what is critical and what is not." he exclaimed. " . . I don't know of any greater challenge in our state than reforming our public schools." Mitchell has apparently already 'voted with his feet' having placed his own children in private christian schools insulating them from any decisions the state legislature may make in the next session, should he win this race. "...do we want to pump more money into the Public Schools and I would argue we should not." Mitchell did concede that the Douglas County School District RE-1 where he was speaking was the top school district in the state.

Amendment 39 Mandates

Each Candidate took opposing views concerning Amendment 39, the ballot initiative concerning a state-wide mandate on the amount each local school district should be allocated for classroom instruction. Mitchell supports a mandated system that micro-manages local school districts and instructs them to keep a mathematical formula without regard for local conditions. Constantine was in sharp disagreement, citing the many differences between districts, both rural and urban. In particular, Constantine noted that rural districts have a much higher percentage of their budget going to transportation costs, i.e. busses. Constantine felt that how to spend their money should be left to the locally elected school boards.

Children's Healthcare

A general question from the audience about healthcare insurance quickly grew into a debate about whether employers should provide healthcare. Recalling the Walmart situation where Walmart advised its employees to go on welfare, Mitchell said families with children could qualify for Medicaid, CHIPS or local county welfare programs. He is a "strong opponent of employer-mandated health care" even if it affected children. Constantine answered by stating that there are "stringent cutoff points as far as what they can qualify for so many children do not qualify for those programs."

You can watch each of these candidates candidly answer the debate questions by clicking here.
colovideonews.com

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

Submitted By: Michael Robinson

posted on 10/18/2006 @ 10:04:15 AM

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Ms. Valentine and Mr. Alexander should know that the author of this story is not an employee of yourhub or the Gazette. The Help section of the yourhub site gives the guidelines for submitting stories. "Members of YourHub.com staff will write some stories and gather links to stories from different places, but mostly community members like you write the stories and take the photos." Anyone can put up a story on Yourhub. If you want a soapbox, yourhub is the modern equivalent. I think this is a healthy thing. While Hugh Hewitt was in Denver campaigning for Rick O'Donnell he said the difference between us and the Iraqis is that we argue, they blow people up. Go to www.colovideonews.com to see Mr. Hewitt's talk to the O'Donnell supporters.

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Submitted By: Renee Valentine

posted on 10/16/2006 @ 8:58:05 AM

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I attended this debate and I walked away with the perception that Mr. Mitchell is by far the best candidate for HD 45. He is very articulate and he demonstrated that he has done his homework in areas that are important to this community. I would suggest when you have reporters cover a story, that they attempt impartiality in their articles.

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Submitted By: Kelsey Alexander

posted on 10/16/2006 @ 12:17:15 AM

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I observed the presentation reported herein and I find your report very biased in favor of Constantine. You have printed the best of what she said and the worst of what Mitchell said. I particular you left out that Constatine stated the average cost of private education in the US is some sixteen thousand dollars. This is absurd. She quoted her source as a Wall Street Journal which upon reseraching this has turned up to say the average price is some sixteen thousand dollars for a small group of private schools that belong to a certain organization. This is totally different that saying that is the average price of private school tuition -- by a factor of probably five! This candidate (Constantine) is way out of touch with the costs of education.

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Michael Robinson

Castle Rock , CO

Michael Robinson has posted 20 stories and 1 comment since joining on 10/12/2006. Michael Robinson 's average story rating is 2.6.

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