Rand Knight Announces for Georgia Senate Race

Rand Knight is running for the Senate in Georgia, and he is a Democrat:

I am running for U.S. Senate because I am sick and tired of our great country being misrepresented to the rest of the world, and misled into poor decisions that are costing irreplaceable lives, an indebted future, an unhealthy food supply, and failure in our healthcare and educational systems.

Our current Republican Senatorial leadership has completely forgotten that our number one job is to take care of business at home. When we have poverty in every city, homelessness on the streets, failing urban infrastructures, air and water so polluted that you cannot go outside or swim in many places, and almost $9 trillion in National debt, we must do better to solve our nation’s problems.(emphasis mine)

Follow me below the fold for a look at a couple of key issue statements.

Here are a few snippets:

Iraq:

Our involvement in the Iraq war needs to come to a close. We need a specific timeline and benchmarks for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, and the process needs to be honorable and secure.

Good answer.

Immigration:

Securing our borders immediately is the perfect place to start, and both borders and both coasts need to be secured for both domestic security and immigration reasons. In addition, we must find ways to deal with the current immigration population that are fair, honest and humane. It is very possible that the immigration problem and ensuing legislation can actually be used as an opportunity to heal some of the open wounds around this issue so that we do not move forward with hate-filled anger.

He is profoundly non-Cardwell on this issue.  This is essentially a wash with Saxby.  The issue will be off the table.

Environment:

Is this really even necessary with a dude with a PhD in ecology?  The dude knows his stuff here.

His site is loaded and it will take some time to just weed through it all.  Impressive for a first day launch of a campaign.  There will be much to learn as the campaign begins, but we can at least breath a sigh of relief that he appears to be a Democrat smack dab in the mainstream of the party.

•  Yes - Chambliss has to go!

  by annefrank on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 04:50:50 PM PDT

•  He's also pro-choice.

  From his Issuespage:

  We need to keep politicians and government out of women’s personal decisions about whether or not to have an abortion, which should be made by a woman, her doctor, her family, and her God.

  We also need to be more actively involved in preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing the need for abortions by increasing access to family planning and comprehensive age appropriate sex education.

  I believe in a woman’s right to choose, plain and simple. It’s not my body and it’s not my business. A woman knows what is best for her and what she can handle bringing into this world. ...

  by pat208 on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 05:06:04 PM PDT

•  His environment page is ...

  ... extensive, but of course he's quite an ecology geek!

  One excerpt:

  Environment
  [snip]
  I have spent a good part of my life in the pursuit of environmental research, solutions and consensus that allows us to improve our quality of life while remaining within the carrying capacity of our supporting ecosystems. I know that we have the technology, resources and willpower for Georgia and the United States as a whole to simultaneously restore ecosystems and find ways to make conservation a part of our everyday economy. In addition, I know that poverty, ignorance, oppression and war are significant causes of environmental degradation, and I will work harder than any other U.S. Senator to integrate these issues as core components of all environmental solutions, particularly in our own backyard.
  [snip]

  by pat208 on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 05:09:49 PM PDT

  •  ok. I'm in!

    need this one!

    by dotcommodity on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 05:31:20 PM PDT

•  Sounds good to me-

  Unfortunately it's the last item on the issue page, but it's still pretty good.  "Working Families":

  It is horrendous that parents in Georgia and all around this country are forced to work long hours, or two jobs, and commute for several hours just to send their kids to daycare, pay for their medicine, gas and food – only to be unsure whether they will have any retirement from the government or their employer. No wonder folks have low morale when they are paying into a social security system that might not pay them back, and when they are enriching an employer that might close shop and take their pensions with them while their executives retire on the golf courses and beaches. People everywhere work to take care of themselves and their children, unable to save for their own retirement, and then find that their own parents cannot afford to pay for the medical care or basic necessities and that the elder parents must then move in with their aging children.

  It is reprehensible that our current leadership has allowed our jobs to be shipped overseas without having the kinds of open and sensible trade agreements in place that would require other countries to have fair, clean and safe working environments and employee rights. We have allowed this job exportation to take place and have not demanded that the countries importing our jobs meet basic standards for human rights; or that they have employee workplace protections in place; or extend the same basic employee benefits that we do; or that they not destroy the environment in order to produce their goods and services more cheaply. As a U.S. Senator I will protect and restore U.S. jobs by demanding that trade agreements require a fair playing field for all countries so that worker’s rights and local natural capital are accounted for when the costs of doing business with a trade partner is considered.

  Living on $3 per day in food is a pretty tough thing to do these days, but millions of Americans do just that on food stamps. To make matters worse, some of the most expensive items that struggling families need are diapers and baby wipes – neither of which can be bought with food stamps. How can we allow this pain and suffering to occur across this great nation when our executives and CEO’s are making 5,000 times minimum wage while having their taxes reduced? As a U.S. Senator I will labor tirelessly to ensure that we revoke Bush Administration’s tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year, and that we begin to channel this money into reducing the deficit, strengthening Social Security, and support for working-class families and tax-paying citizens that are in the greatest need. I will also put forth trade agreement legislation that protects America’s jobs by our requiring equal protections from our trade partners for employee rights, safe working conditions and basic benefits.

  by cjallen on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 05:24:31 PM PDT

•  Presidential candidate in 2016...

  if this rock is still around.

  by rgilly on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 07:23:51 PM PDT

•  He sounds great!!

  At this point, I will support him over any other contenders in the race now or that have rumored to be in.

  by katiebug on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 07:49:18 PM PDT

•  Does this mean

  that you are all from GA? Well, hallelujah! I finally found someone else from GA.

  I would vote for my 13-year-old grandson over Saxby Chambliss. J. is much more intelligent and has quite a grasp of the political scene, IMHO.

  I have written Chambliss on so many issues and I always get back the standard reply--whatever is Rove's talking points of the day that he has spread to his sycophants. I finally wrote and told him not to bother answering that particular request, that I could write it for him--just the same old pablum.

  by RagingDem on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 10:36:36 PM PDT