The DeKalb County Republican Party held a fall picnic meet-and-greet open to all who wanted to attend Saturday at Greenbrook Park in Smithville.

Guests were treated to lunch followed short presentations by candidates for state office who let voters know some of the issues and, if elected, what they wanted to do about them.

Former senator Mae Beavers was the first speaker, and the only gubernatorial candidate present. Beavers is running for governor after resigning her senate seat in August to dedicate her time to the campaign trail. Beavers’ key points Saturday included homeland security, education and jobs.

“I think it’s the governor’s job to help keep our state safe so homeland security will be at the forefront of my administration,” Beavers said, who continued with her concerns on education and common core classrooms. 

“I’m very concerned about education. I’ve heard from a lot of teachers with their concerns about having to teach to the test. They cannot exercise their God-given ability that they have to teach children anymore. I’m concerned about the pressure that’s being put on our children, so that’s something we’ll be addressing in my administration. 

Another thing with the teachers is that testing is tied to their evaluations and they’re very unhappy about that. The testing debacle we had recently... we’re paying $110 million to a company and they can’t even get the test scores back on time and this last time they scored some of them wrong. So teachers could get fired over tests that were scored wrong or students could have been given a failing grade so that’s something we’re going to look into,” Beavers noted.

Beavers said there was some legislation that was being introduced where school boards could decide on standardized or the ACT/SAT type testing which might be beneficial.

“You also have children who do not speak English that are being put in the classrooms without knowing a word of English. The teachers can’t understand them and they can’t understand the teachers and they expect them to learn.”

Beavers advocates immersion in the English language before being placed in the classroom so they know what’s going on.

“Remember their scores are tied to the teacher’s evaluations also. It’s not fair to the teachers or to them,” Beavers said.

“I’ve talked to employers across the state they tell me they can’t find people to hire because half of them are on drugs. That’s something we’re going to have to address. In Tennessee for a long time now, we’re one of the most drug-using states in the nation and that’s not something we should be proud of. We will put together a coalition of pharmaceutical companies, doctors, people that can make a difference.”

Beavers said when they took the limit off the number of Tenncare prescriptions was when the problem first came about in Tennessee and that we need programs to provide the help people need to get off drugs and back to work.

Following Mae Beavers was District Director Steve Allbrooks, representing the Marsha Blackburn U.S. Senate campaign, who also made remarks.

“Congressman Blackburn has been voted one of the top 10 most conservative members of Congress, is the top female conservative; she has 100 percent voting record for the national right to life and from the NRA,” Allbrooks said. “She is a staunch, long-time conservative. She is a leader in the fight against Planned Parenthood … fight against the selling of baby body parts. She got a lot of abuse for that but felt led to that and it was important to take on Planned Parenthood.”

Following Allbrooks, State Representative Mark Pody – who is running for State Senate – addressed the audience encouraging people to get out and vote and thanked local supporters for their help.

“I really wanted to get the word out about the election. It’s Dec. 19 just before Christmas. You could give me an early Christmas present. The problem is, most people are not aware there’s an election going on. So the smaller the turn-out the more likely they (opponent) could win. So, I encourage, help me get the people out to vote in December.”

Fortieth District State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver spoke to Saturday’s gathering as did her Republican opponent Chad Williams.

Weaver emphasized her commitment to transportation and the repair of roads in District 40, where almost all of the work has been done. She stressed the importance of doing it within the budget and funds already in place, punctuating that there should be no new taxes.

“It was a huge thing to do,” Weaver said about all the roadwork that has been accomplished on her watch. “Hurricane Bridge … if you remember there were holes in the surface where you could look down and see the water underneath.”

Williams also expressed concern about roads, education, small business and the infrastructure to keep up with the influx of new business to the area.

“Our teachers are overworked,” Williams said. “Our teachers are burdened by having to come forth every day and not being able to do their jobs as professionals and teach but rather rely on the state testing and not doing their job teaching. Our communities are growing at rapid rate with people moving in from Nashville and from out of state and currently we do not have an infrastructure system with the ability to move forward and not just a quick fix for one or two years but 15 years from now.”

Two GOP candidates, Clark Boyd and Menda Holmes spoke at Saturday’s picnic. Each is hoping to get the Republican nomination in the race to succeed Mark Pody in the state house.

DeKalb County elected officials in attendance were Sheriff Patrick Ray, Trustee Sean Driver, Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell, and fifth district county commissioner Jerry Adcock. Tom Chandler, a party officer, announced that he plans to seek the GOP nomination to run for one of two county commission positions in the 1st district in 2018.

GOP nominees for county-wide and local district offices will be selected by caucus to run in the August 2018 DeKalb County General Election.

Republican nominees for state wide and state district offices will be running in the August 2018 GOP primary. Winners will then run in the November 2018 Tennessee General Election.