Mary Headrick offers progressive common sense

photo Mary Headrick

U.S. House Third District

Mary Headrick deserves our votes on Nov. 4 or in early voting beginning Oct. 15 to elect her to represent the 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is intelligent, thoughtful, honest and experienced in a number of fields. She has been a computer analyst, a math teacher and an emergency room physician. She is a wife, a mother and a grandmother. She studies every issue in minute detail. And she makes an informed decision -- not a political one.

"I'm a progressive. Progressive means I will be looking for solutions for problems and not looking behind us," she recently told reporters and editors at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Tired of our do-nothing Congress that would rather bicker than vote? Tired of our do-nothing Rep. Chuck Fleischmann who can't even support a user fee sought by users of the Chickamauga Lock -- barge companies -- because he signed a Grover Norquist no-new-taxes pledge? (And did we mention that Fleischmann says the Norquist folks told him voting for a user fee that users ask for is OK yet he still can't seem to commit to voting for it?)

Dr. Mary Headrick is the clear choice.

Here's Headrick on the crumbling lock: "The new Chickamauga Lock is under arrest" and requires about $150 million annually for five years for completion. "This could be done by combining monies from: a portion of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, local barge diesel fuel tax, local and temporary lock use fees, general federal appropriations and a local municipal bond that has no local citizen expense. ... The financing requires reaching across party lines, talking and negotiating and ignoring Grover Norquist."

Here's Headrick on Social Security: "Social Security is not broken. Protect this program. Do not allow privatization nor Wall-Street invasion. If needed, the cap on payroll deductions can be raised allowing a Social Security payroll tax above the current $117,000 value."

Here's Headrick on health care: "Tennessee has lost approximately $2.5 million dollars per day over the last eight months because of its failure to expand Tenncare [under the Affordable Care Act] and has put some of its hospitals in financial jeopardy." She calls Tennessee's inaction a "shameful moral failure" for "political theater."

Here's Headrick on the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling: "Workers earn their job benefits, including health insurance. This decision is the same thing as your employer withholding part of your earned paycheck. Hobby Lobby owners wish to interfere with the freedom to decide when to begin parenthood, when to enlarge a family and when to stop enlarging a family. ... It appears that religious freedom for corporations is now legally allowed to suppress individual workers' rights and their religious freedom.

Here's Headrick on the Supreme Court's campaign finance rulings: "Now we the people are even more vulnerable to 'bought elections' and 'bought elected officials.' This ruling (striking down the previous $2,600 personal limit) allows the multi-millionaires and billionaires to 'nationalize' every race, taking away our local control and representation ... we need to stop the purchase of our government."

And here's Headrick on the environment: "There is no 'Plan(et) B'. Climate change is happening and much of it is due to man-made activities, such as burning coal, oil and natural gas. We do not need to return to the 'horse and buggy' era, but we do need a national energy policy that addresses energy efficiency and energy production, incorporating renewable energy sources. ... Our energy policy should include electricity, transportation, food production and housing.

Headrick also supports a vote to raise the minimum wage. Concerning immigration reform, she feels we must pay attention to all of our borders, not just the southern one, and government must work with employers to eliminate cheap, under the table, arrangements by creating elastic employment programs.

Most importantly, she believes that representatives must work across parties to get things done.

"True patriotism means putting loyalty to country before loyalty to party just as in 1787 [during the "Great Compromise" when the U.S. Constitution was hammered out] it meant putting loyalty to country before loyalty to state," she said. "The founders gave us the bones and the marrow, but our ability to work cooperatively and respectfully together is the heart. We cannot keep that heart beating if we make politics a blood sport."

We strongly support Mary Headrick for Congress for the 3rd District congressional seat.


photo Eric McRoy

State District 27: McRoy

Both candidates for Tennessee House of Representatives District 27 seat are political newcomers, and each would do a good job.

But Eric McRoy's heart and political viewpoints are most in line with our Democratic, liberal and progressive bent.

And as a former health care technician and now a computer networking technician, he has demonstrated that he's a fast learner with plenty of ambition and determination. And he understands the life of every-day America: During his campaign he told the Times Free Press that his 62-year-old Signal Mountain mother is one of millions of Tennesseans who doesn't have health insurance.

"It's not just not acceptable to continue to let our middle class fade out," he says. "We (Tennessee) need to expand Medicaid. There's no question about that."

McRoy will advocate for the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and other efforts to support our country's fading middle class.

We support Eric McRoy.

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