The ever engaging, enthusiastic, and enlightening Rep. Paula Hawks spent Friday at the Brown County Fair asking voters to send her to Washington. The Democrat also took five minutes to talk to all of South Dakota via Dakota Free Press:
Rep. Hawks says we have lost country-of-origin labeling and Conservation Reserve Program contracts due to our incumbent Congresswoman Kristi Noem’s neglect of agricultural issues and the obstructionism of Rep. Noem’s party in Washington. The Democrat says she hears from Republicans who are ready to change gears from obstruction to progress, while independents are “very receptive” and excited to have a House candidate who can “speak to the issues and answer… questions.”
Rep. Hawks doesn’t shy away from answering a question about immigration, an issue an anonymous political agitation group is pushing toward controversy in Aberdeen. Echoing the concerns of dairy operator and former Daugaard Agriculture Secretary Walt Bones, Rep. Hawks says we need a year-round work visa program that will provide the stable workforce South Dakota dairies need. Rep. Hawks reminds us that immigration is “what this country is based on” and says we need to provide a clearer yet secure path for immigrants who are already here to become citizens.
Finally, I asked science teacher Hawks whether she’d support sending astronauts to Mars. NASA isn’t part of Rep. Hawks’s main campaign issues, but the scientist in her would love to get the data, and the Congresswoman in her wouldn’t mind seeing a Mars mission create some jobs on Earth. Ah! Build a Mars module factory in Sioux Falls? Convert Ellsworth Air Force Base into the South Dakota Spaceport? Rep. Hawks hasn’t added those space-stimulus plans to her website, but I’m all for them!
The more Ms. Hawks talks the more I like what I hear. She sure would be a refreshing change from what we have now.
Cory, I think you would be interested in visiting Huntsville, Alabama. There is a lot of synergy between NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the nearby hi-tech and aerospace companies there.
The NASA site is essentially located on a military base, but there is work done off-site as well.
And yes, you can get all the NASA swag you want there.
I just got another fundraising appeal for Hawks with Tim Johnson’s signature on it. It is at least better than the too wordy briar patches of passive sentences in the previous begging letters.
I might even be inclined to put a few dollars into her campaign if we would get any indication she will ever do any serious campaigning in West River or respond to e-mail.
Robert—Space Camp! We could build Space Camp II! We could actually launch kids in mini-rockets from Ellsworth, land them at the airport in Sioux Falls!
Douglas, send her four bucks, tell her to come pick up the other 46 in Winner!