Posted: Sunday, July 18, 2010 5:48 am

Democratic Candidates
Name: Bill Shacklett
Occupation: Photographer
Education: Murfreesboro City Schools, Rutherford County Schools and MTSU ’73 B.S, Urban Planning/Political Science,
Commissioned USAR through ROTC, Military Intelligence
Website: BillShacklett.com or Facebook site: Bill Shacklett for State House

Why are you running?
My motivation to run for state representative is simple – I deeply love our county and I sincerely want to join with each of you in making it an even better place to live by supporting families, sustaining our quality educational system and insuring meaningful employment opportunities for all our citizens.

I am prepared to be the leader who will bring citizens, community leaders, government and business together to find innovative solutions to the challenges in our future. That is what hard-working and engaged public servants do. I will leverage my 30 years of knowledge, experience and relationships into effective service as your state representative.

Join me for the journey to better government through better representation and better representation through better relationships.

What is the most pressing issue facing the state and your possible solution?
The Economy • Jobs • Taxes

• Rutherford County is well-positioned to attract business and individual investment as the economy recovers.

• Small business is the engine that will create jobs and fuel our economy’s recovery.

• The keys to job creation are a well-educated workforce and excellent infrastructure.

I will make certain that all public educational systems and professionals have necessary resources they need to accomplish their mission.

I will work to keep taxes low and support legislation that promotes growth and job creation.

I will support the Department of Economic and Community Development, our Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Board and other stakeholders in attracting business and industry investment in the county.

I will support tax relief in the form of job-tax credits to small business that create full time jobs.

I will work to maintain and improve our roads and highway system in the district to provide effective and efficient conduct of commerce and the mobility of our citizens.

I am a fiscal conservative and will oppose an income tax or payroll tax. Hard-working citizens must be able to keep more of their income. Government must be responsible and accountable for every dollar spent. Like our citizens, government must live within its means.

Name: Mike Williams
Website: mikefortn.com

Why are you running?
At an early age my parents and my church taught me that serving people is the best way to serve God. I believe that political and community leadership is an effective way to serve people. That is why I am running for the 34th District seat in the State Legislature. I believe I can give all our residents good representation and serve them well by truly listening to them and addressing their concerns.

What is the most pressing issue facing the state and your possible solution?
Improving public education is our most pressing issue. We need to make Pre-K through 12 more effective so that we can graduate persons who are either job-ready or college-ready. We need to make education so efffective that students WANT to attend school, thus improving our attendance and woeful graduation rates.

We can do this by improving state funding for education, thereby allowing teachers to be freed from being required to “teach to a standardized test” so they can also teach creative thinking and our culture’s real-life values. The state needs to assist school districts in providing state-of-the-art facilities for teaching science, math, communication skills and social skills.

At the post-graduate level, we need to increase financial support to our community colleges and two-year colleges. We should also lower the grade point average for Hope Scholarships to 2.5, thus making continuing education more accessible. Apprenticeship programs should also be made eligible for Hope Scholarships.

By producing a better educated population in our state, we will have an improved workforce which will attract potential new jobs for our state and assist in business and industry.