Questions:
1) Would you be open to a referendum vote for or against a state lottery in Alabama, and if so,
what areas of the state government do you think any proceeds should be directed toward?

I have long been a proponent of Alabamians being given the opportunity to vote on a
lottery. I also believe the proceeds of a state lottery would be best spent being
earmarked for education.
2) Your website mentions that part of your platform is to “oppose bills that threaten the viability
of public schools.” Do you think the Alabama Accountability Act is one of those bills? I ask
because that law has recently come under increased scrutiny and Baldwin County schools issued
a resolution last week officially encouraging the legislature to repeal it.

The State Legislature’s obligation is to provide sufficient funding for public school
systems across the state. Public schools have the huge responsibility of educating all
children, including providing special education and services to children who need such
services to learn. To meet the needs of all children, the State of Alabama needs to
provide greater resources for grades K-12. I also believe that teacher salaries must be
increased. Many teachers are leaving the profession, and college students are choosing
other career paths because of the challenges that teachers and administrators face
today, including substandard pay. The State Legislature should not take money away
from public schools in order to fund scholarships to private schools. I will continue to
oppose taking money away from public schools to pay for scholarships to private
schools under the Alabama Accountability Act. I understand that many of the
scholarships are used at schools that are not even accredited. That’s a double
standard, and it should be prohibited.

3) I saw you’ve been endorsed by fair pay activist Lilly Ledbetter recently. I wanted to ask about
that importance of that endorsement and your previous and ongoing efforts to ensure men and
women are compensated equally in the state of Alabama?

Lilly Ledbetter is the face of the Pay Equity Movement. Therefore, I am honored to have
her endorsement. Although she lost her own pay discrimination lawsuit against
Goodyear, she has worked tirelessly over the years to help close the gender pay gap
and ensure that all workers get same pay for same work.
I first introduced a Pay Equity Bill in the House of Representatives in 2016 because the
wage gap is very real and its impact is enormous. It is a blatantly unfair practice that
harms whole families and our greater community. While women are those most directly
impacted, this cannot be dismissed as a ‘women’s issue.’ It is an issue of fairness and
family and the consequences of allowing these wage disparities are far reaching.

 Women make up over 50% of our workforce, providing a significant amount of the family
income, or acting as the sole providers for their families. So, when employers pay
women less for the same work, they are not only cheating that woman out of fair wages,
they are cheating her whole family out of well-deserved income.
These are the reasons I was able to successfully build a bi-partisan coalition of 27 of my
colleagues who signed on as co-sponsors when I introduced the legislation again this
past session. The session was well underway when my Pay Equity Bill was placed on a
committee agenda. Furthermore, I requested a public hearing to ensure the committee
understood the need for and components of the bill. At the hearing, most of the
speakers spoke in favor of the bill. However, the legislative session ended before the
committee could meet again and vote the bill out of committee. Given the support I was
able to garner before the session ended and the enormity of the issue and its impact on
our families and communities, I am optimistic that the bill will be enacted in 2019.

4) You’ve publicly supported the expansion of Medicaid, but I wanted to ask what your thoughts
were on the increased costs that could generate for Alabama in the future. Could you give some
of the reasons why you do support expanding Medicaid?

I feel strongly that we must expand the state’s Medicaid program to build a healthier
Alabama. The failure to do so has already had a devastating impact on many families –
including working families – who cannot afford health insurance and communities
across the state. Sadly, several rural communities have already lost clinics and
hospitals. These closures have resulted in whole communities being cut off from
adequate healthcare and emergency healthcare services, and created more pressure
on our hospitals in the bigger cities without any additional funding for them. We must
address this crisis before it grows any more. An investment of state dollars in the
Medicaid program would yield much larger federal resources for Alabama, allowing us
to address these growing issues. The number of uninsured Alabamians would decline
significantly and the influx of funding would trigger economic development for the state.
Expanding Medicaid is the right thing to do for our citizens and for our state.
4B) Also, do you think the state will be able to handle any increased financial obligation in the
future because of that expansion?

This is a very important matter. The state must raise sustainable revenue to fund
Medicaid fully. One option that seems to have significant support is increasing the
tobacco tax. Whether we go with that proposal or another, it is important to note that
expanding the program will have a positive economic impact by creating a healthier
workforce and more jobs and, thereby, more income tax and sales tax revenue for the
state.
5) I don’t want to dwell too much on the redrawing of House District 97’s district map, but I do
think it’s important to mention. Do you think those lines were redrawn fairly to both parties?

 Every 10 years following the Census, legislative districts are redrawn. Legislators offer
input and, historically, the party that is in control redraws the districts to its advantage. It
is no wonder the Republican Party reshaped House District 97 in hopes that a
Republican would win the seat in 2018. My opponent is the first Republican to run for
the seat in decades. However, I believe a majority of the voters in House District 97 will
re-elect me based on my record and service to the community over the years.

6) Do you think the state legislature is doing enough to address mental health care in Alabama?
If not, do you have any thoughts on how the legislature could help improve the quality and
availability of mental health services throughout the state?

There is definitely more the Alabama Legislature and, frankly, all of our elected officials,
can do to address the mental health care crisis across our city and state. Unfortunately,
while my colleagues and I in the Democratic Caucus have advocated in this area, our
Republican colleagues have often blocked such efforts. This is one of those areas
where we could make real gains if only we had more balance in the State Legislature
rather than the current supermajority.
The truth is mental health struggles touch every part of our community – from our young
to old, our new mothers to returning veterans – and the failure to ensure adequate
funding levels and effective programs has a tremendous cost. These costs include
everything from emergency care to incarceration, not to mention the human cost in
countless lives devastated and families disrupted. I have advocated for a thorough
review of state-funded mental health services to ensure that such appropriations are
spent wisely and provide first-rate care as well as for additional funding for programs
providing evidence-based practices accessible to all citizens, family caregivers, law
enforcement personnel, and healthcare providers.
7) Given the struggles Alabama has had funding Medicaid, public education, mental health
services and the court system: Do you think there’s a revenue shortage in Montgomery? Do you
think new sources of revenue are needed for Alabama? If so, how would you address that?

The answer to both questions is yes. We need to ensure we are spending our current
tax dollars wisely and need additional revenue. Currently, we are spending tens of
thousands of dollars a year to incarcerate over 1,000 Alabamians for offenses dealing
with less than an ounce of marijuana. On the other end of spectrum, our state prison
system could any day be taken over by the Federal Government due to inadequate
mental health services, despite our having enormous contracts with private companies
to provide those services to prisoners. So, first, I believe we need to ensure our current
spending makes sense. As far as additional revenue, we have several options for this,
including a state lottery.
8) Your opponent has centered his campaign around this idea that Montgomery is forgetting
about the Gulf Coast and often refers to how the state’s BP Settlement was finalized. Would you

 agree with that? Also, could you talk about some of your efforts in Montgomery to make sure
issues impacting the Gulf Coast are addressed in Montgomery?

My opponent is clearly grandstanding and sadly mistaken if he believes for one minute
that he could have convinced a majority of the 140 members of the State Legislature to
vote to allocate the state’s first installment of BP Settlement funds to Gulf Coast
counties. The vote wasn’t even close. The Mobile-Baldwin County Legislative
Delegation consists of the No. 2 person in the House – Speaker Pro Tem Victor Gaston
– and other influential leaders, including committee chairs Senator Trip Pittman, Rep.
Randy Davis, Rep. Steve McMillan and Rep. David Sessions, and committee vice
chairs Senator Bill Hightower, Senator Rusty Glover and Rep. Chris Pringle. Our entire
delegation appealed to our colleagues in the House and Senate to allocate the BP
money to Gulf Coast counties. Our efforts to obtain a larger share of the funds for the
Gulf Coast were not limited to debate on the floor of the House and Senate. We also
appealed to colleagues individually and in caucus meetings. Ultimately, $74 million was
allocated for projects in Mobile and Baldwin County, while the majority of the Legislature
voted to use the rest of the money for other purposes.
There are various pots of BP Settlement money. For example, in out-of-court
settlements, Baldwin County was awarded $11.565 million; City of Mobile, $7.1 million;
and Mobile County, $1.8 million. For the record, Alabama will receive additional
payments from BP annually through 2033. During this time, our bi-partisan coalition will
continue to fight for funding for our region.