{"id":10912,"date":"2012-04-17T10:25:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T14:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=10912"},"modified":"2012-04-17T10:25:56","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T14:25:56","slug":"u-s-house-district-2-steve-wilkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/2012-primary-election-voter-guide\/2012\/04\/17\/u-s-house-district-2-steve-wilkins\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. House District 2: Steve Wilkins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nName:<\/strong> Steve Wilkins
\nParty:<\/strong> Democrat
\nOccupation:<\/strong> Contracts for Boeing, retired military
\nTime in district:<\/strong>16 years total
\nEndorsements: <\/strong>None
\nAmendment 1:<\/strong> \u201cI am opposed to amendment one. For a lot of reasons I think it is unnecessary, and I\u2019m afraid it will have unintended consequences.\u201d\n<\/div>\n

What do you think is the central issue for this election?<\/strong>
\nI can think of a whole lot of issues. I think the economy is one. I think the other is … the three things that I am running on are service, accountability and courage. The U.S. Congress deal with a lot of different issues and they change throughout one\u2019s term, but I think it\u2019s important, what\u2019s really important, is what kind of people we send to Congress. <\/p>\n

My first issue, service, what I\u2019m talking about is something I learned in the military, called selfless service. That is, you serve the people that you work for, you serve the nation first. And I think that we have too many people in Congress that haven\u2019t been doing that. We hear that every election cycle. Everybody likes to get up and complain about the Congress. But I think we\u2019ve kind of reached the height of that in this day and age. And I know the lady that has the Second District right now, Ms. Ellmers, she said, and it\u2019s still on her website, she went to Washington because she heard a briefing on the health care act and didn\u2019t like it. She\u2019s in the health care business; they own the health care business so I don\u2019t think that\u2019s selfless service. As far as I\u2019m concerned, she went to defend her own personal interests and I think we need people in Congress with more diverse backgrounds that are really willing to serve us.<\/p>\n

Accountability is another thing that I think is lacking very much that I think is important across all issues. By that I mean, saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Just in the past few months we\u2019ve seen so many examples of bills that Congress puts together so people can come back to their district and say, \u2018Well you know I didn\u2019t vote for that\u2019 or \u2018I did vote for this.\u2019 Whatever, they really didn\u2019t. I think the sequestration act, or the automatic budget cuts as people refer to it, that we\u2019ve seen is a good example of that. Congress appointed a very small group of individuals to go try to solve the budget crisis and set up this big tripwire of the trillion dollar cuts, not a lot of specifics, and said, \u2018Well if they can\u2019t decide what to do, that\u2019s going to automatically get cut.\u2019 Well that didn\u2019t decide what to do and so now we have these huge automatic cuts that are going to kick in. They\u2019re going to hurt defense, they\u2019re going to hurt disadvantaged people. The elderly and disadvantaged: that\u2019s where it\u2019s going to hit the hardest. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an appropriate way for members of Congress to act. They, including our representative, then came home and said, \u2018Well I didn\u2019t vote for that.\u2019 Well they did, by voting for the process, they voted for the result but then come home and tell us they did not. So I think accountability is lacking quite a bit also.<\/p>\n

And I think the third thing is courage. Courage to tell people the truth, you know, about what\u2019s going on and what we need to do is sorely lacking. We can\u2019t continue to just … we can\u2019t put forth the platform that we\u2019re just going to cut the budget, slash the budget, cut the deficit all in one year and solve our economic problems. We can\u2019t keep borrowing 40 cents on the dollar and continue just printing more money and have a sustainable economy and a sustainable budget. We can\u2019t continue in this perpetual state of war we\u2019re in. I\u2019m retired military; I\u2019m all for a strong defense. And I think the president has to have the ability to react to emergencies when Americans abroad are in danger. The sea lanes, the air lanes, our allies are in imminent danger \u2013 the president has to be able to respond. But I think Congress has abdicated their responsibility for national defense, per the Constitution, in warmaking. And too often going to war has become the solution, the first choice rather than what has been a traditional American value in using our other three elements of national power: diplomatic, economic and informational. And if I go to congress I\u2019m not going to vote for open-ended multi-year conflicts where we send large numbers of soldiers including myself. I went to three conflicts: the invasion of Grenada, Desert Storm and in 2003, the invasion of Iraq. But I believe these open-ended engagements violate the intent of the Constitution and people in Congress are abdicating their responsibility to question these activities. And they either stand up and re-authorize them, or they don\u2019t authorize them instead of leaving them open-ended. So that kind of courage is lacking as well. <\/p>\n

So I focus more, rather than on any single issue or specific issue because there are so many, on more the attributes that we need for people in Congress. <\/p>\n

What are the specific issues facing your district?<\/strong>
\nThe economic issues are terrible in our district. Now some of this gets into state issues with the federal. Our federal representatives have to team and work with our state officials to solve these problems. The gap between people in rural North Carolina and people in urban areas is significant, and it\u2019s growing even more. We see it in schools, we see it in training, we see it out in the economy, we see it in the workforce. <\/p>\n

When you get down into a lot of the second district areas outside of Wake County, in the more southern counties, the differences are stark between what we\u2019ve done for rural people and what we\u2019ve done for urban areas. High-speed Internet access is sorely lacking. I talked with an economic developer in one of our counties the other day. And I asked her, \u2018What\u2019s the No. 1 economic issue in your county you think is affecting you as an economic developer?\u2019 Without hesitating, she said, \u2018It\u2019s high-speed broadband Internet access. We have people in the rural areas that want to be entrepreneurs, and they have to come to town to have good Internet access.\u2019 And you just can\u2019t do anything that way. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got to work on entrepreneurship. I think we have to work on preserving agriculture in this state and this district as well. The counties in our district used to be agricultural powerhouses in North Carolina and to some degree they still are. But it\u2019s becoming harder and harder to make a living doing that. But at the same time, more Americans want to know where their food comes from. Just in the county I live in, Moore County, and the surrounding ones, more and more people are trying to get into small farming and do those kinds of things. It\u2019s very difficult for them to do that. So I think we need some assistance in that area, and I\u2019m not just talking about federal handouts. I\u2019m talking about looking at tax breaks, looking at laws. Yes in some cases, looking for grants. <\/p>\n

Another economic developer in another one of our counties told me the other day \u2014 I asked her also, \u2018What\u2019s the No. 1 issue.\u2019 And she said, \u2018When Bob Etheridge was our Congressman I had no problem getting small federal grants that his office would help us on. And you wouldn\u2019t believe sometimes how such a small grant can multiply itself many times over in our community.\u2019 And she used agriculture as examples of that, where they had started a farmer\u2019s co-op, started a farmer\u2019s market. And she said that had paid for itself many times over even though it was very small. And she misses that kind of support from our Congress. <\/p>\n

Why should your constituents elect you?<\/strong>
\nFirst of all I\u2019ll talk about what I think some of my personal attributes are and then of course they\u2019ll have to decide. I served 24 years in the military, two in the National Guard. After I graduated from college with a degree in political science, I was commissioned and went on active duty in the army, completed the army special forces training, served in that, served all around the world, and I think I gained a very good understanding of our defense establishment in doing that. In fact I served with a lot of people who are senior leaders in the military today and I understand how that works not only in the trenches, at a senior level as well. And defense is an important part of what we do at the federal level. It\u2019s one of the largest pieces of the budget. <\/p>\n

In my district we have Fort Bragg, that\u2019s the largest army base that we have in the United States. Camp Lejeune down the road is the largest Marine Corps installation. Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is to the north. We have over 100,000 active duty soldiers, sailors, airman and marine in North Carolina. The overwhelming majority live on our local economy. They don\u2019t live on base. Only a small percentage live on base. We have a lot of military retirees. Those issues are important. Our state is a very military friendly state. But in addition to that, as I talked earlier about war, and how we solve problems and how we interact with the rest of the world, military affairs and security affairs are very important and people in Congress need to understand Congress\u2019 role and I understand that. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never served in Congress, which I think is an attribute these days. But when I was in the military, I was a legislative affairs officer. I was a legislative liaison. My primary responsibilities were to write Congressional testimony for our senior leaders, help them prepare, go with them before subcommittees to testify, set up their appointments. I did tours for members of Congress and their staffers. I\u2019ve been in and out of there quite a bit. I know how the institution works some. And I think that\u2019s important, too, because a Congressman or woman\u2019s tour is only two years. And we can see right now, 18 months into it, you start running for re-election. So the people need representatives who can go there and be effective early on. You have to hit the ground running and I know a little bit about that.<\/p>\n

Education. I think education is very important. I was fortunate enough to where I earned an undergraduate degree and the army gave me a year to earn a master\u2019s degree. My mother was a career schoolteacher. My wife is a teacher\u2019s assistant for a county school. I served as an elected member of a school board in Kentucky when I was stationed there in the army. So education is very important to me and I think I have some experience. I\u2019ve also put two children through school, 12 years, moving around the different school districts. One just graduated from college, another is in college. So I understand what parents are going through these days with trying to help their children decide what do you do next and how do you pay for it? That\u2019s a struggle that most people have to deal with, lots of decisions that have to be made. So I understand that.<\/p>\n

I understand quite a bit about economic development in our area as well. I served on the 11-county BRAC regional task force headquartered in Fayetteville a few years ago. It included all but two of the counties in our district right now. In that capacity, I was our director of workforce and economic development. I administered our Department of Labor grant in that position. And I worked with our county economic developers. I worked with the community colleges, worked with the universities in the areas, worked with the workforce development boards. Some of those organizations, most people don\u2019t even realize they\u2019re out there every day doing things for them. Those are the people trying to make a difference in our local economy. And I not only know a lot of those people personally, but I know who to go talk to about \u2014 because solutions have got to come from a local level. You can\u2019t sit in Washington and decide here\u2019s what you do. It\u2019s got to be a two-way street. So I know where to go find these people that are in our local areas trying to make a difference every day. <\/p>\n

I think the qualifications are important and I told you earlier about the attributes that are important.<\/p>\n

What are the biggest accomplishments and failures of U.S. House over the last two years?<\/strong>
\nI think passing the universal health care, the affordable health care act was a monumental accomplishment. It\u2019s historic in nature. There will probably be some problems with it as we go down the road. Any sweeping legislation is going to have some problems with it. And you know we\u2019ve already seen some of that. Late last year there was an aspect of the affordable health care act it was discovered that had an unintended negative impact on small business and people that work at small businesses. So we saw a bi-partisan effort, Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly took that out of the bill. But unfortunately we haven\u2019t seen bi-partisan efforts on it since then. <\/p>\n

I think the greatest failure has been to deal with the federal deficit. Again the earlier example I gave about frustration where rather than getting down to the nitty grittys and looking at the major line items in the budget and making decisions it was just simply \u2018all right if this small group we appointed can\u2019t decide we\u2019re just going to hack a trillion dollars off and tell the federal departments, figure it out yourself.\u2019 <\/p>\n

What’s your guilty pleasure?<\/strong>
\nMy guilty pleasure. Wow, that\u2019s a good question. Well although I\u2019m doing much better about it these days, I love to eat. And I\u2019ve never had a weight problem. I\u2019ve been very fortunate. A lot of that has been the physical fitness routine that I had in the military I carried on. But I really love to eat. And I love to eat snacks. I gained a little bit of weight when I got out of the military and then had to discipline myself to cut back and learn to eat better. My cholesterol was a little high as a result but not high enough to take medication, so I think looking after my diet is probably the part I have to focus on the most. I get that from my mother. She loves to eat any and everything she decides to. So that\u2019s probably the one I can think of the most.
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