Name: Charles Malone
Party: Democrat
Occupation: Equal Employment Officer for Department of Natural Resources
Years in District: In Raleigh for more than 30 years
Endorsements: None
Amendment 1: Against
What do you think is the central issue for this election?
I believe it’s going to be the economy and job creation. Certainly, healthcare protection. And I would say, civility and restoration of civility in campaigning and governing. The ability to work with the other side is at a low point. [In regards to the economy and job growth] we certainly try to reform the tax policy so we can have greater revenue from that. I believe we should invest in domestic manufacturing and a government policy that promotes small business and research and development so that they can grow jobs and make it not beneficial to expand jobs overseas for larger corporations. We should dovetail our training with where jobs are and that would include green energy, green jobs, along with domestic production.
What are the specific issues facing your district?
In the congressional district that we have now we must fuse our economic policy to help not only our urban areas, but our rural areas to have investments for jobs—permanent jobs so people don’t have to leave their areas, their towns. Again this would be finding ways to promote green energy, green jobs or assigning training for people who have been dislocated from the old traditional apparel or furniture jobs and certainly agricultural demise. We want to promote everything from agricultural development, local produce development and bringing in whatever we can to all the areas in terms of technology.
Why should your constituents elect you?
I think we’ve been well served by Brad Miller and David Price and Bob Etheridge. I would try to be a blending of all those individuals, in that my philosophy is traditional Democratic Party, going back to the philosophy of smart government, working with the free market. I believe I bring common sense, the ability to balance our values in terms of private industry and again smart government. I’ve managed a small business. I’m a Vietnam Veteran. I’ve worked in state government for the past 20 years. I believe my broad life experiences would help me to make common sense decisions. I’m not a prisoner to an ideology. I have principles, but I’m flexible on how to achieve good objectives.
What do you think are the biggest accomplishments and failures of the U.S. House of Representatives during the past two years?
The biggest accomplishments have been the Affordable Health Care Act and the Financial Reform Act. I believe in those areas congress has addressed inequities in terms of consumer protection. In fact, I think the creation of the consumer protection agency is a big step forward. In terms of economic, financial reform they’ve made good steps there and with the health care reforms, which I believe not only speak today, but they tick over to speak to future generations.
I think the weak side of what congress has done is that everything gets done on a partisan basis. We have very little meaningful legislation that is bipartisan or that is a blending of the best parties.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Probably reading too many mysteries. Downton Abbey comes to mind as far as television goes. I am also a Lincoln buff. Being a Democrat my favorite president is a Republican, but I’m not sure where he would stand today.
