Name: Chris Malone
Party: Republican
Occupation: G4S Manager
Years in District:21 years
Endorsements: All Wake Forest and Rolesville Republican commissioners, Kieran Shanahan. U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, State Rep. Tom Murry, Former State Rep. and candidate Russell Capps, Phil Kirk former Chairman of NC Chamber of Commerce, Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears, Hockey great Rod Brind’Amour, and attorney Susan Anthony.
Amendment 1: “Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period. It has been that way since the dawn of mankind. With left-wing activists always on the prowl to undercut and destroy traditional values, the idea that they won’t try to legalize gay marriage either at the general assembly or through the courts is absurd. Whereas it may be unfortunate that we didn’t add a caveat supporting civil unions, and the timing not the best, we cannot stand idly by and let them turn us into Massachusetts.”
What do you think is the central issue for this election?
I think it’s the economy and jobs. It’s a dual thing. The economy is the umbrella, the jobs are more specific. People want the economy to flourish, they want to be able to get jobs and, of course, that will benefit the state with more revenue and then we’ll have more education funding and things along those lines. It really comes down to getting the economy going.
What are the specific issues facing your district?
District 35 is a microcosm of the state. You have working poor, people that are out of their jobs and what we need to do is lower taxes. We need less regulation; we need more education spending – you can see that in some of the scores from some of the schools in Eastern Wake County. So, we need to do a lot in a lot of different areas. Education is key to having well-schooled, for lack of a better term, employees. All of this goes to benefitting the economy in the long run.
Why should your constituents elect you?
I am the proven choice. I am not just the one with experience because experience goes a long way, but it’s not enough. You can have people that are experienced that don’t do the job, or whatever. I have been elected before. I am the only one, of the two of us, that has been elected before. I’ve been elected twice. I made my promises, I kept my commitments and I succeeded in implementing them to the betterment of the people in the district. I have faced the wrath of people who don’t like us, the pressure of the media and other people that change votes and things like this and, under the gun, I have always voted the right way. I’ve made mistakes but, by and large, I have a very good record and one of proven success.
What are the biggest accomplishments and failures of the State House over the last two years?
Our biggest failure would probably have to do with not reforming election laws. We’ve got a whole hodgepodge of different laws and things like that, that make it very difficult for a candidate such as myself to keep things straight and can get you in trouble when you don’t need to be getting into trouble, and sometimes helps one side over the other and benefitting them in certain ways. So, that needs to get done.
The greatest success would probably be getting rid of the sales tax, the temporary sales tax which, when Republicans are not in charge, usually means it’s a forever tax. We got rid of that, and I think that was a big thing.
In [District] 35, I think the thing that we need to do is just create more jobs and get the spending under control and serving people as I have, as just another neighbor, a fellow citizen, friend, family member. That’s where we need to take it. It has to be less about party, it has to be more about people.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Pizza, Key Lime Pie and poetry.
