Foggin and Butcher vie for the House 14th District
Dave Foggin
Crystal Butcher
Dave Foggin
Crystal Butcher
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PARKERSBURG - The race for the House of Delegates District 14 is between Republican incumbent Dave Foggin and Democratic challenger Crystal Butcher.
Foggin, 55, of Belleville is a retired teacher in Wood County Schools. He has served two terms in the House and is coming to the end of his fourth year and is looking to serve a third two-year term.
"I am just trying to help people in my community, my neighbors, friends and trying to help everybody," he said. "I'm trying to help people keep a little bit more of their money in their pocket."
"I want to make sure they keep their freedoms."
He wants to eliminate the property tax altogether. The state has rebated the personal property tax. He wants to work to make sure information gathered from license plate reading technology is used responsibly.
"I know around here they are already used responsibly, but I would like it put into state code with some guardrails like they do in Ohio where there is more accountability and punishment if you misuse license plate reader information."
Foggin said he would like to continue to work with the Division of Natural Resources to streamline rules and regulations and "make sure they make sense for West Virginians" as well as providing assistance to area farmers so they can keep doing what they do. He wants to continue to work with the Division of Natural Resources and others on issues related to gun rights.
"The big thing for me is people keeping more of their money in their pockets," Foggin said.
Butcher, 47, of Mineral Wells, is the executive director of a non-profit organization. This is her first time running for public office.
She wants to have transparency and accountability brought back to government.
"The government should be held accountable to the people," she said.
She said that the legislature should not be involved in school decisions, that should be up to the state Department of Education.
I want to bring back home economics and shop classes as well as financial literacy.
"Our students need to be ready to start life when they graduate," she said.
She wants to work on affordability in dealing with the rising cost of healthcare, food and gas as well as addressing infrastructure and broadband needs.
"We need cellphone service and we need the roads fixed in District 14," Butcher said.
Between Belmont and Elizabeth, people don't have internet coverage and don't have service.
"This causes a huge problem because people don't have an emergency line," Butcher said. "If their roads are bad and they don't have cell phone service, that is the way they get medical help, that is their way to get to school and get to work."
She also wants to work getting classes, like Home Economics and Shop, put back into schools but adjusting them for today's world. She wants to teach students how to change a flat tire, learn how to read a measuring tape, learn how to make a budget, utilizing coupons, learning how to patch a tear in a pair of pants, especially if that is their only pair and more. Many parents don't have the time to teach these skills with everything that is going on. Shop classes can provide a avenue to explore possible fields at the Wood County Technical Center.
"Once they turn 18, they have to know how to do things," she said. "I want kids ready for success by 16."
Butcher said she is pro-second amendment.
She has 11-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and she wants them to stay and have a future in West Virginia.
"I want to revamp the school aid formula and put guardrails up to protect the Hope Scholarship so we can insure that our public school kids are getting the education they need, deserve and are entitled to before vouchers are given out for dance lessons," she said. "We need to look at our district in a way to make it better, because our children deserve it."