Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

I grew up and was raised in the 115th District (House) through high school.  Next, I attended West Point (the United States Military Academy) and upon graduation, I was commissioned an officer in the United States Army. I served a little over ten years on active duty, including for years with the 82nd Airborne Division, with which I served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Subsequently, I have served almost eighteen years on Inactive Ready Reserve. 

After my active duty service, I put myself back through school and then returned full time to my hometown. For over a decade, I have worked in the realm of small business as salesperson/broker in real estate, before I shifted most of my emphasis to teaching at Western Carolina University. I just completed my fifth full academic years as an instructor, this spring.

Among my other services to the people of the state and my district include: serving in the NC House of Representatives in 2001-2002; twenty seasons of coaching middle and high school soccer in Western North Carolina; and, more than a dozen years on numerous local boards and a substitute teacher.

My top goals to fulfill, if given the honor of serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives include: helping create more and better jobs in the District and statewide; creating a better overall economic climate in order to sustain, grow and attract jobs to our state; continuing to enhance and improve our public education system; focus on cutting wasteful or inefficient spending by our State; and continue to preserve and cherish our environment.

Within the scope of these goals, I have also pledged to work to reduce the North Carolina sales tax and gas tax to logical, acceptable and more helpful levels. I will work to do the same for North Carolina individual and business income taxes - all of which should both bring more and better jobs to our state and help create a better economic climate. In the realm of education I will seek to reduce spending on the educational bureaucracy and focus appropriate spending at the classroom level.

I would be honored to serve again, after an eight-year hiatus, in the North Carolina House of Representatives.