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Ken Kerr |
George Wenschhof
Although a familiar cliché
in politics, Democratic candidate Ken Kerr was sincere when he told me his
running for Maryland
state delegate in district 3-b was motivated by his desire to serve and make
the community a better place. He added
“I look at it as almost a duty to serve”.
Two years ago Dr. Kerr, who
teaches at Frederick Community College, won a nonpartisan Frederick county-wide election to the school
board. He informed me he would resign from that position if he won the state
delegate race. Otherwise, he would
continue to serve on the school board for the remainder of the four year term.
Ken told me four years ago
redistricting resulted in making voter registration between Republicans and
Democrats in district 3-b almost even, with approximately 4,000 undeclared or
independent voters who will likely have an important impact on the outcome.
In spite of the effort to
turn the district blue, Republican William “Bill” Folden would win four years
ago, beating Democratic candidate Stephen Slater. In this election, neither Folden nor Kerr
have a primary opponent so they will cruise to the general election held on
November 6, 2018.
I asked Ken if he had been
“recruited” to run for the seat by the state Democratic Party and he informed
me that he had been contacted by a staff member in speaker Michael E. Busch’s (D) office
last year. He added it took about six
months to make his decision. Obviously, Democrats
would like to capture this seat and they indicated they would offer support to
Dr. Kerr’s campaign.
I would follow up with Ken
and ask, “Do you support a nonpartisan redistricting manner to be used by the
state of Maryland”? He responded with “Yes, I support a
national or regional approach to nonpartisan redistricting”.
Dr. Kerr’s education
experience surely led to him sharing with me his desire to create
apprenticeship programs with businesses for high school students, including
dual enrollments with community colleges.
He supports the recently
approved state funded two years of additional education and would like to
expand this to a full four years. Ken
would also like to expand the career technology center, by adding another
facility in southern Frederick
County.
He told me “I strongly support
funding for universal Pre-K for 4 year olds - it is understood the early years
are very important in a child’s development”.
Kerr also wants to establish
an earned income tax credit at the state level that mirrors the federal earned
income tax credit that will help working families.
In light of the recent
Supreme Court decision to allow states to determine whether to allow sports
betting, I asked him his position on this issue. Dr. Kerr told me “I would support legalizing
sports betting and want money to go to education”. He added “the state is not capturing any
money from the underground betting that happens now”. In addition, Ken felt fraternal organizations
should be allowed slot machines.
In regards to medical
marijuana, Ken said he supported this along with full decriminalization. He told me “the state should also keep an eye
on states with legalized recreation marijuana to see how effective these
policies are before Maryland
moves to legalize”.
I asked him if he supported
the $16 million in state funding for the proposed downtown Frederick hotel and conference center and Dr.
Kerr said “Yes, a conference center is needed downtown and the hotel will
provide a place for tourists to stay after shopping and eating”.
In an email following my
interview, I asked Ken, “Do you support the state ban of the sale of assault
style weapons and high capacity ammunition clips”?
He responded with “I am not
in favor of confiscating anyone's guns. What I propose is--if you have an AR15
or similar, you can keep it. It's yours. But it's ONLY yours. You can't sell
it, you can't transfer it. Enjoy it while you live, because it dies with you.
Beyond that, we ban future sales and limit clip sizes. Civilians do not need
weapons of war.”
Editor’s Note: The Maryland primary election will be held on
June 26, 2018 and the general election will take place on November 6, 2018.