In the AIKEN STANDARD
By ROB NOVIT, 7/16/10
In her second attempt for the 3rd Congressional District seat, Easley Democrat Jane Dyer said her goal is to fight for working people.
“We hear a lot from Wall Street, a lot from big oil,” she said during a campaign stop in Aiken. “But nobody seems to understand that we’ve got people at their kitchen tables who have big challenges on how to make ends meet.”
In 2008, she lost to incumbent Gresham Barrett in the Third Congressional District race. Barrett didn’t run for re-election in order to mount a bid for governor which proved to be unsuccessful. Dyer is trying again in the general election Nov. 2 against Republican primary winner Jeff Duncan, a S.C. House member from Laurens.
As a late entry in the 2008 contest, Dyer said she learned a lot about the process, such as getting thousands of volunteers to work in the campaign. Now she’s trying to meet people one on one.
What separates her from Duncan, Dyer said, is she wants to find solutions to problems. Part of the reason that doesn’t happen, she said, is the mantra that government should do nothing.
“That’s part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in,” Dyer said. “It is time for people to be elected who want to work to get the job done, to put people to work, to educate our children and as a veteran, to take care of our veterans.”
Congress recently approved financial reform, mostly along party lines, and Dyer maintains the legislation is essential. The financial disaster of recent years has hurt people badly, leaving them without jobs or lesser-paying employment. Many families are dealing with one income instead of two, she said.
“The results are devastating, and we can’t afford to have that,” Dyer said. “I want to make sure that Wall Street doesn’t do this again. But we have politicians funded by Wall Street. They don’t want reform, and that affects how they approach it.”
The BP oil rig disaster points to the need for continued study of alternative sources of energy. The Third Congressional District, Dyer said, is poised to have a leadership role through the Savannah River Site and the power plant in Oconee County. The district has tremendous potential to help bring new energy solutions – not just in nuclear power, but in solar, wind, biomass and other sources, she said.
Immigration has become an ever larger campaign issues throughout the nation with the recent stringent legislation approved in Arizona. Dyer said she understands the frustration of that state and others, given Washington’s unwillingness to deal with the issue.
The situation “has become so political that people don’t want to solve the problem,” Dyer said. “They just want to excite people. We have to sit down, secure the borders and enforce the law.”
But people need to look at the facts too. Sending illegal immigrants back to their home countries would be prohibitively expensive, said Dyer. If they’re going to be in this country, “they should be paying taxes,” she said. “We have to allow solutions to move forward.”
http://www.aikenstandard.com/Local/0717-jane-dyer
