Smoky Hills Public TV October Debate offered side by side comparison

Watch the SHPTV debateSmoky Hills Public Television aired debates between David Norlin and House District 71's incumbent last October 9 at 9pm and October 12 at 5pm. The moderators were Todd Pettinger of Salina Media Group and KSAL Radio as well as Chapman Rackaway, PhD in Political Science at Fort Hays State and Director of the Docking Institute of Public Affairs. While the candidates agreed on such topics as the difficulty of imposing age restrictions on driver's licenses and the need for some form of state-wide smoking ban, there were widespread areas of disagreement. Norlin opposes any further coal-fired generating plants. The incumbent voted for them.

The incumbent voted against 2 provisions to improve the state minimum wage, while Norlin would not. The incumbent voted for 2 tax breaks for oil companies, while Norlin would not. The incumbent voted to kill a provision to provide health insurance premium assistance to folks making from $7,844 to $10,600 a year, a provision worked out at a cost of over a million dollars to the state. Norlin would work to make sure that there is some relief for the over 12% of Kansans (nearly 340,000), who have no insurance and are therefore 25% more likely to die as a result.

The incumbent voted against a provision to allow small businesses to form associations to negotiate lower health cost plans. Norlin would not.   The incumbent voted against the “Trimmer Amendment" for all-day kindergarten in all school districts. Norlin would not.

“To understand my market philosophy, read my editorial, ‘False Gods Leave us Defenseless’ on this website,” said Norlin. “The key difference between us is the incumbent's late 20th-century world-view worked out in the 1980's and 90's, which tried to address many problems only through the lens of the ‘free market’. We need a 21st-century approach to all problems that does not identify solutions so narrowly.  We have vivid evidence of the failure of that philosophy in this country’s and the world’s great financial crisis. It is time for new approaches. I'm here to work out that approach beginning with local dialogue to achieve state solutions.”