RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — Nearly a month away from election day, the two candidates for House District 75, which is in Richland County, spoke to News 19 today on a number of issues and what they think voters should know about them.
Republican Kirkman Finlay represented Richland County District 75 from 2013 to 2022. Democrat Heather Bauer has held the seat since then.
Both candidates were asked the same questions on a predetermined list of issues. Both candidates were also allowed the opportunity to contribute topics they think are important.
Education
In South Carolina, a debate has erupted over what content should be allowed in schools and who should be responsible for deciding that after the Department of Education cancelled a pilot program for an AP African American studies class, and more recently partnered with a self-described "conservative" media group PragerU to bring their Civics videos to schools. Lawmakers have the opportunity to alter these discussions as well. A bill that failed to pass this year would have set guidelines for the way teachers talk about a number of topics, including race and history.
"I trust parents and I trust teachers. I trust librarians, guidance counselors to do their job and know what's appropriate for their kids," said Bauer.
"The person who should be in charge of a child's education is the parents... So if given a choice of parents, politicians or bureaucrats, I'm going with parents" said Finlay.
Finlay says he thinks a key piece of that is pushing for a wide array of school of choice options.
"As a parent of three, we've seen our children go to different schools at different points. We seen them go to different colleges, get different degrees. You've got to let parents make choices on their children. Because what you're basically saying is the problem is that children can only go to one school that has to have one way of teaching, and you're not going to make everybody happy. Why don't we give everybody a choice and let them choose what they'd like?"
Bauer says she's concerned about local districts-- and wants to hold them accountable.
"I'm concerned about it because we have a huge amount of kids that are not college career or military ready, that's concerning to me. That's why I asked the superintendent and the inspector general to do an investigation into the spending, illegal spending of $31 million when we have schools and infrastructure falling apart in our own very district. So I want us to take control of what we can to fix our schools," added Bauer.
Infrastructure
Finlay says he's passionate about local projects, and has helped bring $12.5 million state dollars into the project relocating the railroads by Williams Brice Stadium.
"[I] worked in a previous life with Daniel [Rickenmann], the mayor, getting $250 million project started moving the railroad tracks over by Williams Brice. Think the state, at my behest, and bidding and begging, has invested probably 12 and a half million dollars now. We need, I think, probably another $15, $20 so it's a federal program. Got to have a match," said Finlay.
He also emphasized that he can help his county with roads.
The state owns two thirds of our roads in Columbia, so we always are going to be working with the state," added Finlay.
Bauer also emphasized roads as one of her priorities.
"I would say that what I've learned the most my first two years in office is that we can work on making infrastructure better in our district and in our state if we show up," said Bauer. "What I've been doing is having Department of Transportation go with me into different areas of the district to have these forums, and we show up and we listen, and we listen to what constituents are concerned about in their communities.... by doing that, we've been able to install new sidewalks. We've been able to put in new stop signs, fix potholes, all of those things to make our communities safer."
Bauer also worked to get money to renovating Richland Mall.
"It will soon have mixed retail, residential, there'll be a park, there'll be outdoor events for families. So soon, it will be a really great local hub, and we'll be providing a lot of jobs in our district," said Bauer.
Jobs and growth
Another way Bauer says she has worked to get more jobs to the state-- by helping to pass an International Trade Commission with the Republic of Ireland, which she says is the first of its kind.
"This will just open up that trade with the Republic of Ireland and to sell our to sell our stuff to Ireland, and that'll create jobs across the state," said Bauer.
Finlay says he believes the key to creating jobs is workforce development, starting with improving education and reducing taxes.
"Property taxes, especially, are pretty onerous. That's an issue that's somewhat controlled by counties and school boards, but going to have to be addressed at the state level. In addition, personal income taxes, we are much higher than some of the other southeastern states, and it's beginning to show when people talk about relocating," said Finlay.
Immigration
Finlay says he supports legal immigration, but that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed, and South Carolina has a role to play in that.
"What did we do when I was in the General Assembly? We voted to ban sanctuary cities, and if I were in the General Assembly now, I would vote to allow more stringent enforcement of immigration laws, My opponent doesn't. Makes me wonder why we have all these laws if we're not going to enforce them," said Finlay.
While Bauer says that's not an issue she believes need to be focused on at the state level.
"When I'm elected to Congress, I will work on immigration policy. I will co sponsor a bill. I will help pass it into law. But I am running for the South Carolina House of Representatives, and I think my opponent, maybe needs a reminder of that. But instead of focusing on the issues at hand in our district, he's going around stoking fear into people," said Bauer.
Government spending
On the topic of government spending, both candidates emphasized this as one of their top priority issues.
"I'm all for investing in things like infrastructure, desperately needed, public schools. Absolutely, 100% support that as well. But my main concern has been how we've been spending our money, or how we've been tracking our money as a state," said Bauer.
Bauer co-sponsored an amendment lowering the salary of a former Comptroller General after a 3.5 billion accounting error. A task force also is investigating where an unaccounted for $1.8 billion came from and who the money belongs to.
"Now we have a treasurer who lost $1.8 billion keep in mind, we don't know if that's actual money, yet. We have an external audit doing that, doing an audit in the Senate to see if that actually is real, real money. He needs to go, and that is something I will work on," said Bauer
For Finlay, he believes the government needs to continue to spend on roads and infrastructure. He says it's time to look at unnecessary spending on some state agencies.
"You look at agencies that have missions that have become redundant, perhaps even pointless, programs that are outdated, we've just got to change, continue to move forward," said Finlay.
He also emphasized that the $1.8 billion mystery needs to be solved, and that
"State government does not employ technology. It's just-- it's not what we did. When any state that says it lost $1.8 trillion clearly has a technology issue, an accountability issue," said Finlay.
Abortion and birth control
Both candidates oppose a total ban on abortion in South Carolina, but disagree on abortion restrictions beyond that.
Finlay supports the Fetal Heartbeat Bill, which banned abortion after 6 weeks.
"The law now has exceptions, all of which I'm comfortable with. Fetal anomaly probably needs a little more definition," said Finlay. "I don't think the law is going to change, and I'm not going to vote for a total ban. We need to put our effort totally on birth control, which is something I did a lot of. For example, when I was there, we were unable to birth control is only dispensed in a one month interval. Needs to be in three months, needs to explore many options."
While Bauer opposes the 6 week ban.
"I believe in Roe, I think we had reasonable terms we had exceptions for rape and incest, access to contraception," said Bauer. "I will not stop fighting to restore our rights as South Carolinians, but one thing I have been able to do is change the law so that women cannot be prosecuted for having an alleged at home abortion. So I will not give up the fight in this we deserve our freedom. I believe that politicians should be not in our bedroom, and I will work to restore those rights."
Medicaid expansion
South Carolina remains one of 10 states without access to Medicaid expansion. Bauer says she supports it.
"I went through a health seminar this the past legislative session, and what we learned is that our health outcomes would be greatly improved if we did expand Medicaid. So this would only help mothers and children in our state, and we're just leaving money on the table as well. So it's a win, win," said Bauer.
But Finlay says he hasn't supported expansion in the past. He says he thinks to improve health in the state, we should work on increasing penalties for harmful drugs, like fentanyl.
"One of the biggest things we can do is there are so many illicit drugs that are killing your generation, thousands, if not tens of thousands," said Finlay. "And I think that that's something we've got to take a very hard line on. I would be willing to increase the penalties for that dramatically."