US Representative candidate: David Boswell

David E.Boswell   Address: 5591 Panther Creek Park Road Owensboro KY 42301   Phone number: 270-929-6819   E-mail: boswellforcongress@fewpb.net   Campaign website: kentuckiansforboswell.com   Family information: Wife, Sandi; two sons, five grandchildren   Education: Coursework, WKU and Brescia University   Work history: Sales/Marketing Director, Executive Inn-Rivermont Hotel & Convention Center, 1996-2008 Energy Development, Addwest Mining Company, 1991-1996 Legislative Liaison, Office of Governor Wallace G. Wilkinson, 1989-1990 Legislative Agent, 1987-1988 Sales Executive, Energy Resources Development. Political Posts: Kentucky House of Representatives 1978 - 83, Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture 1983 - 88, Kentucky State Senate 1991 - Present (Majority Caucus Chair 1999, Minority caucus Chair 2000-2002). Current Committee Assignments: Interim and Session Committees Transportation; Agriculture and Natural Resources; Appropriations and Revenue; Budget Subcommittee on Economic Development and Tourism; Budget Subcommittee on natural Resources and Environmental Protection. Statutory Committees Capital Planning Advisory Board; Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee   Clubs and organizations:   Religion: Roman Catholic Board Member, Big Rivers Chapter, American         Red Cross, 1998-present Board Member, Leadership Owensboro, 1990-present Board Member, Big Rivers Chapter, March of Dimes, 1990-present Board Member, Kentucky Organ Donors, 1992-2000 Member, Jaycees, 1979-1980 Member, Kentucky Planning Association, 1972-1977 Member, Southtown Kiwanis, 1969-1978 Member, Ducks Unlimited Director, Green River Area Development Board Member, Knights of Columbus Member, National Conference of State Legislators Member, National Rifle Association Member, National Wild Turkey Federation Director, Owensboro National Bank Member, Quail Unlimited Member, Southern Governors Conference Advanced Clean Coal Technology Board Member, Southern Legislative Conference Member, Southern States Energy Board   1. Why are you seeking to represent Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives?   I have been blessed by the people of Kentucky to have been selected as both their Commissioner of Agriculture and as a citizen legislator in both the Kentucky House and Senate.  I have had the opportunity to be a part of some of Kentucky's most sterling moments.  Consequently, I would like to take the knowledge I have gained in Kentucky to our nation's Congress.   2. What are your qualifications for this position?   Experience!  My private sector experience, coupled with my tenure as a citizen legislator and my term as Kentucky's elected Commissioner of Agriculture, have provided the experience and the maturity needed to represent the people of the 2nd Congressional District in Washington.   The manner in which the boundaries of the district (and all of the Kentucky congressional districts) were deliberately gerrymandered in order to create an inherent advantage for Republican candidates created a district with a very diverse employment base. The district contains a portion of the population of Kentucky's largest merged county (Metro Louisville), three additional cities (Elizabethtown, Bowling Green and Owensboro) with populations placing them among our state's largest cities, and some of our state's most sparsely populated counties (Ohio, Hancock, Edmonson, etc.). I am the only candidate for this office who has a feel for the pulse and the intuition of Kentucky's entire 2nd Congressional District. I am the only candidate in an agricultural region who has true farming experience.   As such, I am the only candidate for this office to propose and understand a comprehensive bio-fuels program which, in tandem with offshore drilling and other methods of energy production, will help alleviate the nation's energy crisis and also make Kentucky a profitable player in the field of energy production.  The Dick Cheney perception of a national energy policy must be redirected; America's energy production must not continue to be based almost exclusively on petroleum, nor remain vested solely in the hands of multinational corporations and Middle East oil brokers.     My father was a blue collar, union millwright; and for 20 years owned and operated a small Harley-Davidson dealership.  There was no large family business for me to enter upon reaching maturity. My siblings and I inherited a fine family reputation, a good work ethic, and a strong faith from our parents; we did not inherit a job or a business. I am the only candidate for this office who knows the uncertainties and the realities of awaking one morning having lost my job due to a faulty finance plan and weak economy.  I have first-hand knowledge that the job market and the labor pool are challenges, not birthrights.    As a citizen legislator I have, on numerous occasions, experienced the challenge of crafting a multi-billion dollar state budget.  I have had to work with bare bones budgets and make the agonizing decisions that would fund one needed program while eliminating another, considered by some to be equally worthy, program.  While Kentucky's executive branch state government budget is but a microcosm of our federal budget, I know that frivolous earmarks rob our nation of both its wealth and its conscience. I will not support frivolous earmark appropriations. I am the only candidate seeking this office who will break with the seven and one-half years of Bush-Cheney indifference and demand that our active military personnel as well as military veterans receive the medical, financial and psychological benefits due them.  In 1968 I volunteered for active service but was not accepted for military service due to asthma.  Because of my deferment from active duty I feel an increased obligation to help provide excellent support benefits for those who are accepted for active duty. And these benefits must be extended to military family members as well.  For too long the Bush-Cheney administration and the GOP members of Congress have preached a litany of veteran proposals and improved assistance for military families but all the while denied these brave men and women their just due.  This hypocrisy toward the military must cease!     In conclusion, let me offer that the next Congress will be a Democratic Congress.  As a Democrat, I will be a member of the majority party in the House of Representatives. Fourteen years ago my Democratic Party fell asleep at the wheel.  Our party's legislative leadership lost sight of what the American people wanted and needed.  Among the first harbingers of that 1994 political revolution in Kentucky were the surprise victories by Congressmen Lewis and Whitfield.  Today, the political pendulum has swung back and it is the Republican Party that has lost track of reality.   As in 1994, it is time to replace worn-out ideas and self-serving policies.  As a member of the new Democratic coalition of liberals, conservatives, and centrists in Washington I shall be working with other conservative and centrist Democrats who will ensure America that compassion and progress are meshed with fiscal and personal responsibility.  My goal will be to ensure that merit, not partisanship, will guide the legislative flow and that the representation of the people of the 2nd District will be returned to a style akin to that of the late Congressman William H. Natcher.   3. Please explain your view of the current situation in Iraq and what do you believe the next steps should be?   The Bush - Cheney Administration ostensibly committed American troops to Iraq with the purpose of achieving regime change through the ouster of Saddam Hussein.  That goal has been achieved and it is time to withdraw American forces. In terms of military casualties and economic expenditures, the war in Iraq is our nation's most costly international venture since Viet Nam.  Its price tag is even greater than the current Wall Street bailout.  All domestic federal spending, be it law enforcement, infrastructure, health care or border security, will suffer so long as this war continues. Timelines for withdrawal are an executive decision.  However, if the next commander in chief does not present a workable, timely withdrawal, Congress must step in and use the power of the purse strings to end this war. This Iraq War, like the current Wall Street bailout, is a result of protracted misdirection by a bumbling administration in Washington.  While I wish that all American troops in Iraq could have been home yesterday, I realize that overnight solutions do not exist for the long term mistakes of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.   4a. Do you see military action in Iraq as going hand-in-hand with the efforts in Afghanistan or has our involvement in Iraq distracted from the military effort we started in Afghanistan?     See answer below question 5.   4b. What are the next steps that should be taken in Afghanistan, particularly regarding Osama bin Laden and Al-Queda?   The war in Afghanistan is a true war against terrorism; it is aimed at those who devastated this nation on 9/11.  It is a war apart from the war in Iraq and must be pursued so long as our enemies are a threat to America.   5. At the time this questionnaire was prepared, federal officials were considering a $700 billion proposal that has been described as a "Wall Street Bailout."  Do you believe this is an appropriate response by Congress.  Why or why not?  What, if any, alternative measures would you recommend?   Unlike my opponent who has offered several conflicting answers to this question, I would have voted "no" on the Wall Street bailout.  The so-call rescue plan passed by Congress last week will benefit some unscrupulous financial institutions while adding to our escalating national debt.  Additionally, the same Bush - Cheney ineptness that brought about the Wall Street debacle has placed a $45,000 debt on every living American today.   More attention should have been given to home owners than to mortgage bankers. Further, Congress was called upon to make a decision in one week that would resolve nearly eight years of Republican mismanagement.  Additionally, Congress should have demanded more accountability across the board.   6. Many Americans are concerned about the economy for a variety of reasons, including rising health care costs, high fuel prices. What can be done to improve the nation's economic outlook?   I shall address the energy facet of this question below. However, the nation's economy, as well as any new domestic government spending is out of reach until the war in Iraq is completed. Until we end this war, bring our military personnel home safely and provide all necessary transitional benefits for these troops, Congress will have no choice but to defer major new spending programs.   7. Because of environmental and economic concerns, there is a growing belief that the United States needs to find and develop alternative energy sources.  What alternative energy sources should we be developing, and how should that development be funded?   As I have stated repeatedly, America should continue its oil exploration and production activities.  However, it would be irresponsible and counterproductive not to include those myriad other forms of energy production in our nation's energy future. As a Kentuckian and as a member of Congress I shall do everything in my power to include Kentucky's farmers in the national energy agenda.  It is a tragedy that Congress has not demanded that cellulosic ethanol be an integral part of our energy future.   The Bush-Cheney Republican Party has openly and defiantly demanded that biofuels not be a part of America's energy plan.  This pandering to the multinational and Middle East oil producers is an act of economic treason that puts America at risk and takes money out of the pockets of Kentucky farmers.     8a. Politicians have been discussing immigration reform for several years. What should the United States do with regard to immigration? 8b.  Should we grant amnesty to immigrants who are working even though they may be in the country illegally? 8c.  Should we do more to secure our borders with Mexico and Canada?   As I stated several weeks ago, I will support an expanded program of special work visas for agriculture workers. I would not extend the right to enter our country for agricultural work to any kind of automatic grant of citizenship. Additionally, reducing H-2A visas from three to one year terms with renewable priority for reemployment by the same agri-business might improve the worker pool. Also, it is a given that we must continue to strengthen our nation's borders.  However, as I have mentioned, this is another domestic, albeit homeland security, that suffers as a result of the poor economic policies of the Bush-Cheney administration.  I do not, though, feel that a wall is the answer to this complex problem.   9. What other issues do you believe will be important during the next two years?   The economy! America today is in an economic freefall generated by lax federal oversight, uncontrolled increases in our national debt, the absence of a functional national energy policy, and the financing of two wars. While both wars are being bravely fought by the military they were poorly developed by Washington.  Our federal energy program exists solely as a Bush-Cheney share-the-wealth extravaganza for multi-national oil conglomerates and highway construction interests.  Adding to the development of a very precarious national (and international) economy created by these runaway fiscal policies was the unconscionable action by a Republican administration (and a then GOP-controlled Congress) to ram through a massive tax cut for wealthiest among us.  The coup de grace to the health of our national economy was the bi-partisan adoption of a list of selfishly motivated political earmarks benefitting everything from wooden arrows to the infamous "bridge to nowhere."' Unless and until there is sufficient new leadership in Washington to redirect the nation's economy, this freefall will continue.

David Boswell

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