Voter turnout may be key to determining race

By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

The runoff for the 105th District seat in the state House of Representatives pits incumbent Dan Lakly, a mortgage broker, against challenger Kathy Cox, a teacher at Sandy Creek High School.

The Democratic Party has not fielded a candidate, so the representative will be chosen in the runoff Aug. 11.

Dan Lakly

Lakly said he is hearing from numerous constituents who didn't bother to vote in the July 21 General Primary thinking his reelection would be automatic.

"They just took it for granted that I would win because I'm doing such a good job up there," he said.

Getting out the vote is "always a challenge," Lakly said, adding he hopes his supporters will take the Aug. 11 runoff more seriously. "Im doing everything I can conceivably do to meet that challenge," he said.

Surprised by opponent Kathy Cox's strength in the primary a political newcomer, she received 34 percent of the vote Lakly said he is emphasizing his experience as the runoff nears.

"People are receiving good representation, and they don't want to have that representation diminished by someone who would have to go through the learning process," he said. Lakly is in his third term, and said, "It took me a couple of years to begin to understand what was going on."

He added, "I have never heard anyone say I didn't represent the district well. I have not missed a day of session."

Lakly, 55, is a native of Forest Hills, Pa. and was educated at Robert Morris Business College in Pittsburgh. He worked his way from trainee to assistant vice president at Household Finance over 13 years, and worked five years for Glazer Finance before going into business for himself. He owns Cannon Mortgage, a commercial mortgage brokerage firm.

Lakly moved to Fayette County 20 years ago and has served on the Peachtree City Council and County Commission.

"We've made great strides forward. We've passed the toughest crime legislation in the nation, taken the sales tax off food, taken the tax off of personal investments, and the minority party has been driving the issues," said Lakly. "The governor has turned into the best Republican governor we've ever had."

Education is the most popular issue among candidates for state office, Lakly said, but local school boards and parents have more to say about improving learning than the state government can have, he added. "The state puts 53 to 57 percent of its budget into education," he said. "We have to have more parental involvement, more personal responsibility and look at discipline in the schools," he said.

The Fayette County system should be a model for others to emulate, Lakly said. "We spend less for education in Fayette than they do in Fulton and DeKalb," and yet student test scores are better here, he said.

Teacher salaries are near the top in the Southeast, he said. "We have given teachers 24 percent in four years. It's time we went to demand some return on our investment," he added.

Gubernatorial candidates are promising an end to property taxes and ad valorem taxes, but they need to consider how to fund local governments without that money, said Lakly. "Without a solution for local governments, it's irresponsible," he said.

State income taxes should be phased out over the next ten years, he said. The revenue could be replaced partly through growth in the economy, partly through economizing and down-sizing, and partly through sales taxes, he said.

Lakly called for using military bases for barracks-type prisons for nonviolent criminals. "We must find money to build prisons," he said, "but we also need a two-tiered prison system. Almost half of the people in prison are in for drug abuse and other nonviolent crimes."

Prisoners in the barracks could be given remedial education in the mornings and learn a trade in the afternoons, he said.

With the state's new two-strike justice rules, "I think we have crime on the run in Georgia," he added.

Georgia's difficulty receiving federal highway funds due to air pollution problems is going to take multiple solutions, Lakly said. "Automobiles produce less than 25 percent of the pollution problem," he said. Hartsfield Airport is a major contributor, along with industry and various other sources, he said.

Among possible solutions, he said, are van pooling and increasing the gasoline tax.

But he said the problem is largely a political creation of the federal government. "To say that air quality has deteriorated to the point that it's comparable to Los Angeles... I think it's bogus," he said.

Both state and federal governments can take the lead by moving more departments outside of downtown so workers don't create such monstrous traffic jams, he said.

Kathy Cox

People are still enthused about her campaign going into the Aug. 11 runoff, said Cox, but she knows she has her work cut out for her getting her supporters to the polls. "We're trying to keep the interest and awareness up, but people aren't used to voting in August," she said.

"We're working very hard at that and it's going very well," she added. "Folks I didn't hear from the first time have been calling and asking what they can do to help."

Part of Cox's strategy in the runoff, she said, is pointing out to voters that she is not a one-issue candidate. A teacher at Sandy Creek High School, she has focused on education, she said, but she is not one-dimensional, she added.

"I want people to think of me as a person who can focus in on a whole area of policy," she said, "but that's entertwined with other issues like business, taxes and growth. What comes to mind is Sam Nunn. He was policy-focused in terms of defense policy, but that certainly didn't make him a one-issue senator," she added.

Cox, 34, grew up in Doylestown, Pa., near Philadelphia, but says her roots are in the Atlanta area. Both parents grew up in DeKalb County.

She came to Georgia to attend Emory University and has stayed, she said. She holds BS and MS degrees from Emory in political science and teaches government and history at Sandy Creek.

She and her husband, John Cox Jr., and two sons have lived in Fayette County for nine years.

If the voters choose Cox, they will get a person who is truly representative of them, she said. "I'm like them and I share their concerns," she said.

"And I will be a representative that is open and accessible. I'll be the type of representative that they feel they can pick up the phone and call me."

Shuffling resources so teachers can spend more time teaching is vital if education is to improve in Georgia, said Cox, who has taught school for 12 years and currently teaches government and history at Sandy Creek.

She called for more funding for alternative schools, and giving new teachers more time student-teaching before putting them into their own classrooms.

Ad valorem taxes on automobiles should be eliminated, said Cox. "If we could cut some of the waste, we could very easily do without it at both the local and state level," she said. "I would go with a straight flat fee for the tag."

She disagreed with some candidates calling for an end to the state income tax, saying it's not feasible.

In-house arrest, more supervised parole and other alternatives for nonviolent criminals would help free up more prison space to keep violent criminals incarcerated longer and thus reduce crime, said Cox. "We should also spend some of our resources making sure that people who get out [of prison] do not commit more crimes," she added.

Programs should be in place to help prisoners defeat alcoholism and other "root problems," she said, but those who are violent should be locked up, using work camps and boot camps only for those who can be saved.

The state's role in solving Atlanta's pollution problem should be to start discussion on a variety of alternatives, said Cox. "Mention public transportation and somebody says 'MARTA' and then, 'No.' But there are lots of other things we can do," she said.

"I do believe there is a problem," she added. "We can't just continue on the same course with blinders on."

Cox said she faults many in the legislature for being reactive rather than proactive. "Take the mess at Highway 74 and Kelly Drive [in Peachtree City]," she said. "Government officials and representatives have seen that problem coming. Somebody should have been working a long time ago to make that intersection safe.

"I want to be somebody who can think ahead," she said.