Neal, Bales, Hart outshine foes in House races

MARY KIRKLAND VOWS to bring “change” to House District 70, Stanley Robinson vows to do the same for District 80, and Joe Brown promises to change back to the way things used to be in District 83.

All three Richland County challengers in the June 10 Democratic primary are likable, well-intentioned, level-headed people. But the first two have ill-defined reasons for wanting to serve, and Mr. Brown wants the office back for the same reason he wanted to keep it two years ago — to help constituents with local problems that should be handled by city or county council. And all three are challenging equally likable, well-intentioned, level-headed incumbents — all of whom demonstrate a much clearer desire to act as state policymakers.

With few significant policy differences, it is that focus on our state’s central problems that sets apart Reps. Joe Neal, Jimmy Bales and Chris Hart.

Mr. Neal has increased his community focus, working to create a local organic farming and energy cooperative and help bring a community health center to Hopkins. But that’s in addition to his role as the conscience of the House, where he uses his powerful preacher’s persona to demand equal educational opportunity for children regardless of their address, force attention to the medical needs of those too sick to care for themselves and fight for civil justice.

His depth of knowledge in education, health care and community-based economic development is impressive — one reason that, while he is often a voice in the wilderness, he has begun to put together the coalitions to make significant advances, particularly in addressing health disparities that hurt poor, minority communities.

Mr. Bales has not been a leader on policy, but his work as a high school principal gave him the real-life understanding of the challenges of educating poor children that most legislators clearly do not have; and he appreciates the need to overhaul our tax system, and to give the governor more control over state agencies.

His opponents’ main, stated reason for running is to give voters an alternative, but it’s not clear how.

Mr. Hart is still establishing himself, but is focused on the big picture that his challenger shows so little interest in, and he retains the sense of urgency to create a stronger public education system to use as a lever to transform our state. His willingness to work across party lines gives him the makings of an effective legislator in a body that places a high value on personal relationships.

All three incumbents offer much better reasons to re-elect them than the challengers give to replace them.