Vote Hamilton > Vision

A Vision for Our Community

The common question is why am I running?

I enjoy being an entrepreneur - developing a concept, building it into a working enterprise and inspiring others to become a part of it.

I have been blessed with a wonderful family, good friends, and success in business. Throughout my years I have always been actively involved in our community. Through my work with the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, the Regional Business Coalition, the Fast Forward 400 coalition, and through my support of great organizations like the American Heart Association, I have sought out ways to get involved, to serve others, to support our community.

Like many people in Forsyth and Cherokee counties, I'm a parent - and now a grandfather. And as anyone with children understands, that awesome responsibility forces us to focus on what is truly important in our lives. It makes us pause and think about how best we can make the future brighter for them.

We have roots here and I want to run for office for the right reasons. Over the last few years, I have been seeking out a way to serve our community more. I want to utilize my experiences and my skills to have a more direct impact on making our community better and creating a better future for my children and yours. I want to be a leader who provides solutions and inspires others to be a part of making those solutions a reality.

One of the problems I have seen in our political system is that ambition and pettiness get in the way of getting the job done. Our new Republican majority in the State House must move beyond traditional partisan politics and get on with the business of leading.

As our next State Representative I will lead with a vision for what our community can be. I will find solutions that work, and I will provide the kind of bold and effective leadership we need to make those solutions and that vision a reality.

Part of leadership is defining the issues that must be addressed and casting a vision for how we overcome our challenges. As our next State Representative I will get to work on day one addressing these challenges:

Reducing Traffic Gridlock & Planning for the Future
Traffic is the single greatest threat to our quality of life. As our next State Representative, I will be a voice in Atlanta for some common sense on transportation. The reality is that our community is quickly becoming the economic engine of our state. When we invest money in roads and infrastructure here, Georgia will see a dramatic return on its investment. Road money should go to where the traffic gridlock is and where it can have the most impact on improving our economy.

We must also find innovative ways to empower local communities to accelerate infrastructure improvements. Many ideas have been floated like an "Infrastructure Bank" to provide low interest loans to counties to fund infrastructure improvements or expanding the options for SPLOST-type referendum based taxes.

Right now, we have a "catch up" mentality in our state government. We desperately need a vision for our future. We need to execute transportation plans now for our needs twenty years from now. We need bold leadership on the issue of water - keeping our state's and our community's supply plentiful and clean for the next several decades. We need leadership that plans for Lake Lanier's future - a future that utilizes its value as a resource for our entire region, but also maintains its quality and beauty.

The bottom line is that we need visionary leadership and state government that empowers communities like ours to get the job done. I will be a partner with our state agencies and our city and county governments to help create more tools to solve the problem of gridlock on our roads and plan effectively for our future.

Supporting Our Schools
Our schools are some of the best in the state and I want to keep it that way. There's the old saying that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yet, the mentality of bureaucrats in Atlanta is fix it till it don't work no more.

One of my top priorities as our next State Representative is to stop these unfunded mandates and empower our local schools to do what they do best - excel at teaching our children. I will also work to address the growing problem of unequal funding for our schools. Like our infrastructure needs, our state government must do more than just help us catch up. We must aggressively plan for the future. Our children deserve better than new school buildings that open with trailers out back because the state's funding formulas won't allow us to plan ahead of the curve.

I will be a partner with our parents, teachers, principals, school administrators, and school board members - when they speak, I will listen, and I will work in Atlanta to make sure they are heard.

Improving Economic Prosperity
In recent years, Georgia's economy has struggled in large part because we are so dependant on a few key industries that have been hammered in this post-September 11th world. I believe the key to our long term economic prosperity comes in diversifying our state's economy and empowering small businesses. That requires vision and aggressive leadership. And that's why it is one of my top issues.

As a small business owner, the issue of improving our economy and supporting small businesses is near to my heart. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, almost 50% of the jobs in Georgia come from employers with 500 or fewer employees. Small businesses are a vital component of our state's economy.

We must continue the efforts of Governor Sonny Perdue to streamline government and reduce burdensome regulations on our small businesses. We must create a vision of where we want Georgia's economy to be 20 years from now and begin the work of building that future.

I want a strong vibrant economy so that our families can prosper, and also a state that is full of economic opportunity for our children and our children's children.

Investing in strong economic opportunity efforts also has a great benefit for homeowners in our communities. With the right leadership and a vision of smarter growth for our community, we can recruit the new high-wage, high quality businesses that will preserve the great quality of life that makes our counties such a wonderful place to live. We can find the smart balance and have the economic growth that has the added benefit of reducing the property tax burden on our families.

Protecting Our Freedom and Our Values
As Georgia grows, we must find ways to embrace our diversity and emphasize what brings us together. This comes from respecting the individual and protecting our traditional and commonly held values.

As our next State Representative, I will always fight to preserve and expand the freedoms that have made our country strong and protect the values that have made her great.

I will always support legislation that empowers the family, defends our 2nd Amendment rights, promotes the sanctity of human life, and protects our children from all who seek to harm them.