By Nathan Thompson
nthompson@examiner-enterprise.com
Julie Daniels and Jean Oliver, both Republican candidates for state Senate District 29, answered questions Monday night during a forum sponsored by the Green Country Republican Women’s Club, held in the Bartlesville City Council chambers.
The event was moderated by Charlie Taraboletti of Bartlesville Radio, and was standing room only. The candidates answered questions ranging from the struggling state budget, education and criminal justice reform.
Green Country Republican Women’s Club president Deb Cook, center, introduces state senate district 29 candidates Jean Oliver, left, and Julie Daniels, right, Monday night during a forum in the Bartlesville City Council chambers. Photo credit: Nathan Thompson/Examiner-Enterprise
Oliver said she was very frustrated with the current legislative session. As a former teacher and wife of a physician, she was troubled with the budget cuts to public schools and health care.
“I’m not a politician, but I decided to run for office when I read about all the problems that Oklahoma was having with its finances,” Oliver said. “I’m especially concerned about the situation with education. I was approached by several educators because they want this issue addressed. We cannot continue to cut and cut and cut educational funding. Oklahoma has cut more funding in education, more than 23 percent, than any other state in the nation.”
Daniels said she wanted to run for office to restore the conservative platform of liberty and to stop federal mandates that have been brought onto state government.
“I very much believe in the strength of our representative form of government,” Daniels said. “I believe in individual freedom and opportunity. I believe in the strength of the family as the basis of the entire network. I am dismayed, disheartened and sometimes discouraged like so many of my conservative brethren in how much we have lost of these freedoms, mainly from the encroachment of the federal government upon states.”
– See more at: Examiner Enterprise Article on Senate District 29
Finding Gems and Sharing Them 