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Bill Lee
Age: 72
Key issues: Economy, education and environment
Lee is a former Superior Court judge, a former prosecutor and two-time Sussex County Republican Committee chairman. He is a mediator for Lewes civil law firm Bifferato & Gentilotti.
Total campaign funds raised: $300,000
Mike Protack
Age: 50
Key issues: Healthcare, education,and economy
Protack is a former U.S. Marine from 1979-89. He is also a Rotary Club member and former Boy Scouts of America leader from 1991-2003.
Total campaign funds raised: $ 44,000
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1. What is the single most important step you would take to improve education in Delaware?
Bill Lee: The most important step is making a commitment to taking on the special interests in order to deliver real reform for students and parents. My opponents have been in a position to do something about it for the last decade and only now are talking about reform. I intend to take action. I’ll increase spending in the classroom from 48 percent to 60 percent, abolish the DSTP and give control of classrooms back to teachers. I’ll protect our charter schools and home schooling. I will pursue adoption of Vision 2015, which will change our education culture and set world-class goals.
Mike Protack: I would fully implement the Vision 2015 educational program for the state, and increase educational choices and options for parents and students as we implement a new workable accountability/testing system. Then we must update our archaic system of how we raise and spend our school dollars so we make school principals the true leaders of their schools.
2. Many Delaware residents work for small companies struggling to pay for health insurance. How does your health insurance plan help small businesses or the people they employ?
Bill Lee: The innovative solution Sen. Copeland and I support is the ability for individuals and businesses to buy healthcare across state lines. This would create a huge market, allow greater savings and allow for more people on the rolls of the insured, since other states are not bound by the legislative mandates which make insurance in Delaware more expensive. Additionally, we support a tax deduction for self-employed Delawareans who buy their own insurance.
Mike Protack: Our plan Delacare helps all businesses and employees by putting all legal residents in a single pool to get the best competitive rate and by taking the negotiation and administrative burden off business owners so they can concentrate on keeping and attracting customers. Essentially, healthcare will not be tied to your employer and the complicated and burdensome Workman’s Compensation program would not be needed. There would be no in-network or out-of-network plans and no more HMOs, but a basic plan modeled (with choice options) after the excellent Blue Cross-Blue Shield Plan state employees have now. We would also implement electronic healthcare records to reduce errors and save money, followed by Health Care Courts to professionalize the medical malpractice process.
3. Many people feel government in Delaware is broken. After 10 years, pollution control strategies for the Inland Bays have not been adopted, problems with Indian River bridge project have cost more than $1.6 million and health officials have collected information on cancer clusters but it was not released to the public. What is at the heart of these problems and how would you make government more accountable to the public?
Bill Lee: The heart of these problems is failed leadership across the board. Our government is too big, expensive, unresponsive and secretive. Both of my Democratic opponents are guilty of allowing the travesties of the last eight years to occur. They became accomplices by virtue of their silence. They have had the opportunity to make change and haven’t done so. Now they claim to be agents of change. They are part of the problem, and have been for 10 years.
The first step in making government more accountable is to elect a governor who doesn’t run and hide when mistakes are made. I vow to be accessible and accountable.
When something goes wrong, I will stand before a microphone and address the situation.
Second, we need to level with people, starting with putting state spending online and increasing accessibility to documents. When you have that kind of direct accountability at the citizen level, the government will improve. The most important step, however, is for voters to look beyond the election-year words of the Dover Democrats, who have caused the problems. Instead we must remember their silence over the past eight years, and to choose the new direction and positive change I offer.
Mike Protack: Delaware’s government does not serve citizens very well, that is true and we look to have a top-down review of all of state government for value and efficiency. We believe an independent analysis of state government by an outside firm could yield $200 million a year in savings, while still delivering essential government services. Specifically, we have been very aggressive in supporting the Inland Bays, splitting up Delaware Department of Transportation to make it work better for Delaware, and also requiring health information and hazards be known to the public.
I am the only candidate for governor who supports an inspector general who would be the “watchdog” of taxpayer monies and government corruption and waste. This new office would have subpoena power and the power to investigate, yet would cost nothing to taxpayers by combining persons from existing agencies and producing savings. In the end, Delaware needs a governor who isn’t going to run the state, but instead ‘lead’ the state. I am ready to lead on day one and I am optimistic about our future as a state.
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