Stafford hopes to unseat Estes in Dist. 30

Phil Riddle

editor@weatherforddemocrat.com

Charles Stafford wants to be your senator.

The Denton realtor/developer is hoping to unseat District 30 incumbent Craig Estes in the March 4 Republican Primary.

Tops among his reasons for pursuing the office is Estes’ perceived inaccessibility to the majority of his constituency.

“I talk to people all day long,” Stafford said. “What I hear is, ‘he hasn’t done anything to hurt me, but he hasn’t done anything for me either.’

“One of the main complaints I hear from families across the district is that Sen. Estes rarely gets out into their communities and listens to their concerns.”

Communications director for the Estes campaign, Jody Withers, is quick to defend Estes’ availability in his home district.

“He regularly travels across District 30,” Withers said. “We just had district dialog meetings in all 18 counties. He regularly travels to Parker County. He goes where he’s invited, for the most part.”

Withers added District 30 is geographically one of the largest districts in the state. It includes Archer, Baylor, Clay, a small portion of Collin, Cooke, Denton, Grayson, Jack, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Shackelford, Stephens, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger, Wise and Young counties.

In a press release issued Thursday, Stafford invited Estes to join him on a stumping trip through Dist. 30, where they could engage in a series of debates.

“Who knows,” Stafford wrote, “he may even learn a little something about the district he represents.”

Withers said the Senator is aware of the offer.

“We’ve heard about that,” he said. “We’ve been attending various candidate forums across the district, providing the opportunity for voters to see them side by side.”

In Weatherford to attend a party function recently, Stafford said the three top issues on his platform are immigration, transportation and its related issues of economic development and air quality, and education.

“Immigration has to be more of a priority,” he said. “We have to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming into our country. It’s a security issue.”

Stafford pointed the finger for failed immigration policies at the federal government.

“The state has put in a little money to help,” he said, “but Washington is not taking care of this issue for Texans.”

The senatorial hopeful also said recent issues with the Texas Department of Transportation need to be addressed.

“It could wind up being a very similar reorganization to the one we just saw with the Texas Youth Commission,” Stafford said. “But we have to come up with an answer so counties like Parker and Denton can continue to grow and not be stymied by a lack of roads or transportation infrastructure.”

He added transportation and air quality issues directly affect economic development, a hot-button issue in retail-friendly Parker County.

“They go hand in hand,” Stafford said. “If a business is going to relocate somewhere, these are issues that have to be addressed.”

About public education and funding in Texas, Stafford initially shook his head slowly.

“It is a crime we pay our teachers below the national average,” he said, adding, in his opinion, the current TAKS test for marking student academic progress needs to be done away with.

“It’s a sorry assessment tool,” Stafford, a member of the Denton Independent School District Board of Directors, said bluntly. What he envisions is a cooperative effort between the state and individual districts to help boost low achieving students and schools without placing blame on students, teachers or administrators.

The Dist. 30 Senate candidate, father of seven, including four who were adopted from Child Protective Services, is the president of the Advisory Council for the Denton County Children’s Advocacy Center, a founding member of the Denton Public School Foundation, a member of Denton High School’s booster club and a member of the President’s Council of the University of North Texas.

And he wants to be your senator.