What Is Goin’ On?

It takes guts to take on the incumbent candidate of your own party, but that is exactly what Robert Nowak intends to do: challenge Jim Marshall for his seat in Congress! (By the way, you pronounce his name just like “Novak.” It’s Czech. Robert’s grandfather immigrated to America at the turn of the 20th century.)

Robert grew up in Vermont, but his mother is originally from Peach County, Ft. Valley. He has now lived in Macon for about 6 years. He has previously lived in Atlanta, and traveled around the world. Robert’s background is as an educator and he has taught all the way from second grade to college. It was math and computers in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. He has also been involved in international sales in the Middle East. He lived in Saudia Arabia for two years. With all of this experience in the world market, Robert feels more than prepared in the international arena.

This race is, however, his first effort at electoral politics.

Now why would anyone want to challenge the incumbent of their own party? Well, in this case Robert thinks Marshall is insensitive to the needs of the base of the Democratic Party, the working American. According to Robert, Marshall’s votes against the S-Chip Program (Health Insurance for Kids-Peachcare), Head Start and the Clean Air Act, have not benefited the people of the 8th District. He also points to Marshall’s support for the War in Iraq as being more in line with the Republican Party, than with the majority of Democrats.

He understands that Marshall is voting conservatively because it may take that to get re-elected in the 8th, but Robert believes it is time to have someone represent the 8th based on principal, not the practicality of re-election. He intends to give the people of the 8th District a real choice in November.

Of course, to get to November Robert has to get through the Democratic Primary to be held July 15, 2008. It will take work and, of course, money. Robert is trying to raise at least $150,000.00 for the effort to unseat Marshall.

The 8th District is 21 counties big, running from Newton County in the north to Colquitt County (Moultrie) in the south. (BTW, Moultrie is the home of GriftDrift.)

Robert’s believes there is a lot of dissatisfaction among Democrats in the 8th. A lot of them don’t even see the need to vote if the only choice is between Marshall and a Republican opponent. (With about an 18% approval rating for Congress in general, there must be a lot of dissatisfaction everywhere!) A lot of people, including Robert, disagree with Marshall’s support for the Iraq War, which is a totally different issue from supporting the troops who are over there doing the job they were given. My philosophy: Support the Troops, To Hell with the War!

The issues that concern the 8th are the same for all of us: the economy, immigration, health care, education, just to name a few. We did not have time to discuss these in much detail, but you can check out his position at his campaign website.

Since immigration is an important issue to me and since I think both the national Democratic and Republican parties are going to sell the American people down the river when it comes to immigration, I was very interested in Robert’s thoughts about immigration. He agrees that America, just like any country, has to be able to control who comes in. The first step is to stop the influx, and enforce work laws. He does recognize the need for an effective temporary worker program for industries, (like the Vidalia Onion harvest) that need them.

Robert believes it is time for a change, time to rejuvenate the Democratic Party and get back to basic values. Amen to that!