Incumbent, former legislator and two political novices running for Senate, House races

Oct. 21--Medicaid, a lottery and preparing the workforce for the Mazda Toyota plant and other employers are among issues cited by candidates for Senate District 2 and House District 5, which both cover parts of Limestone County.

Incumbent District 5 Rep. Danny Crawford, a Republican, faces Democrat Brian Williams in the Nov. 6 general election. Republican Tom Butler and Democrat Amy Wasyluka are running for the Senate's District 2 seat.

Williams and Wasyluka are both political newcomers. Butler is a former longtime lawmaker attempting a comeback.

"I love the work," said Butler, a pharmacist who spent 28 years in the Statehouse as a Democrat before he switched parties and was defeated in 2010 by Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, who didn't seek a third term.

"Twelve members of the Senate -- a third of the Senate -- are leaving," Butler said. "That takes a lot of institutional knowledge out of the body. I decided I could take my experience and my institutional knowledge and be effective and productive for the district and the state as a whole right off the bat."

Among education issues Butler wants to focus on are school safety, a renewed emphasis on career tech to meet workforce requirements for new jobs coming into the area and support for the new Alabama Cyber and Engineering School in Huntsville.

"I want to take a leadership role in addressing health care issues in the Legislature including Medicaid reform," he said, "with a goal of trying to cover as many people as we can."

Butler said the area has critical road needs like widening Interstate 565 and improving Alabama 53 and U.S. 72 West, and he believes President Donald Trump's infrastructure plan could help in addressing those, if the state can come up with the required matching funds. He's working on a plan for that effort.

The president unveiled a plan earlier this year to turn $200 billion in federal funding into $1.5 trillion to help fix the country's infrastructure by leveraging local and state tax money and private investment.

Wasyluka, an appellate attorney, has worked in family law, bankruptcy and civil litigation, and believes her legal experience, including sometimes working with adversarial parties to reach a resolution, would be beneficial as a legislator.

Wasyluka supports the expansion of the state's Medicaid program, referring to Alabama Hospital Association estimates that about 300,000 uninsured Alabamians would receive health insurance coverage and 30,000 new jobs would be created as a result of the expansion.

Wasyluka, a childhood cancer survivor who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 17, said she was fortunate to have insurance coverage through her parents, both public school teachers, though she "aged out" of her parents' coverage during law school.

"There are too many Alabamians who don't have access to basic preventive care," she said. "That's one of the things we have the potential to impact with this election. We need to make sure Alabamians have access to the preventive care they need in order to learn and work."

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Wasyluka, who has never run for public office before, also wants Alabamians to have the chance to vote on a lottery referendum.

"I would love to see a lottery in Alabama," she said, to provide funding for the state's pre-K program and other education system needs.

She also supports the creation of a scholarship program that would be similar to one now in place in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Promise program, launched in 2014, provides free tuition and fees not covered by the Pell grant and other awards for recent high school graduates enrolled in a community college or technical school.

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House District 5

Crawford, an Army National Guard veteran who's now an independent crop insurance contractor, won a special election three years ago to fill the remaining term of the late Dan Williams, who had served a year of his second term when he died.

A priority for Crawford is ensuring the state is adequately funding job training and other vocational programs at its community colleges to meet the workforce needs of companies moving into the area, like the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA Inc. plant being built in a Huntsville portion of Limestone County.

Crawford said he was a sponsor of an incentive package for the Mazda-Toyota project.

"We've got to make sure we are training our young people for jobs in this economic development boom," said Crawford, who wants young people who aren't college-bound to have an opportunity for high-paying jobs.

"We've got to make sure we provide skilled workers or companies will quit looking at coming to north Alabama," he said.

There are a few bills that Crawford wants to reintroduce in the next legislative session, including a bill strengthening punishment against child predators, by reclassifying specific indecent acts from misdemeanors to felony status. He also wants to reintroduce a measure that would extend the window -- from 72 hours to 30 days following an infant's birth -- for its parents to surrender the baby to a "safe haven" without facing prosecution.

Brian Williams, Crawford's Democratic challenger, returned to his hometown of Elkmont after serving eight years in the Marines. He said he realized that if he wanted to help make improvements in education and other areas, he needed to be in a decision-making role to achieve that.

"I want to be part of bringing Alabama into a progressive future," said Williams, who's running for public office for the first time.

"I want to help bring a lottery to the state," he said. "I believe it would help our community," by bringing in more funding for education and mental health needs.

"You can stand at the borders of our state and see thousands of Alabamians" crossing into other states to buy lottery tickets, said Williams, the north Alabama representative for the Oklahoma-based marketing firm LegalShield.

Alabama is one of only five states in the country without a lottery, he said.

Williams also supports the expansion of Medicaid to provide the opportunity for more Alabamians to have health care coverage.

"I want to be an advocate for repealing the Alabama Accountability Act," he said.

That act provides scholarships and tax credits for students to transfer to private schools, designed as a way to help low-income students leave schools with chronically low test scores.

Williams called it a conflict of interest for Crawford to serve on the board of directors of the Lindsay Lane Christian Academy and be able to "represent our public school system."

Crawford said he had served as the board chairman for three years, but turned in his resignation two months ago. He said that, among other efforts for public schools locally and statewide, he had secured thousands of dollars in grant money for every city and county school in the district.

marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.

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