Our Stand: House District 73 deserves a new vision

  Sometimes it’s true: Eight is enough.

  For the past eight years, Alabama House District 73 had been represented by David Grimes. After occupying the seat for nearly a decade, however, Representative Grimes’  tenure has been marked by little in the way of achievement.

  And change for the sake of change is pointless unless a challenger offers a forward-looking, ambitious, practical plan for moving a district, and the state as a whole, forward.

  Joe Hubbard - touting a three-part, feasible plan which address three of Alabama‘s most pressing issues - is offering more to District 73 than the incumbent.

  In terms of job creation, Hubbard plans to create a venture capital fund to help spur the creation of small businesses. Grimes’ voting record spanning eight years is underwhelming when it comes to showing initiative in the area of job growth.

  Grimes also touts his dedication to public education, but Hubbard is the one putting forth actual proposals to tackle challenges in this realm of public policy. Hubbard’s Teach For Alabama program would offer scholarships to prospective educators. In exchange for the scholarship to study education, these individuals would pay the state back by committing to remain in Alabama and give back to the system by teaching in our public schools. Hubbard also plans to push for the establishment of a statewide magnet program and a statewide pre-K system. Hubbard is also committed to accountability and promises to pursue a heightened effort to track student progress in order to pinpoint problem areas and better focus improvement efforts.

  In the wake of the indictments of several state lawmakers, ethics reform is receiving additional notice from candidates and the electorate. And though Grimes and Hubbard both profess their commitment to banning PAC-to-PAC transfers, Hubbard is going a step further by pledging to amend the state’s disclosure laws. Whereas only gifts and donations in the amount of $250 or more per day must currently be reported, Hubbard wants to erase that amount and make all such monetary transactions transparent by forcing public officials to report any such receipt of gifts or donations, regardless of the amount.

  Grimes has released multiple statements stressing how he supports public education. He specifically argues that more education dollars should be funneled to the classroom, but yet he offers no plan on how to achieve that goal. He also touts a simplistic view of resolving the countless difficulties facing the public education and seems to think these can all be resolved as such: “We need to teach them to read and make them behave,” he scolds on his campaign website. If only it were that easy….

  Grimes also touts via his campaign website his commitment to job creation and ethics reform and yet he doesn’t appear to have a plan to tackle either issue. Simply stressing how you feel amounts to little when you’re not armed with solutions.

  Voters in District 73 would be best served by electing Joe Hubbard to the Alabama House of Representatives Nov. 2.

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