(L to R: Wright Gres, Wally Sapp and Leesa Hagan)
Candidates for the 156th District of the Georgia House of Representatives met in a forum Tuesday night at Southeastern Technical College. Hosted by Americans for Prosperity-Georgia, former Vidalia Communications/RadioJones on-air personality John Koon moderated and fielded questions to the three candidates: Leesa Hagan, Wally Sapp and Wright Gres.
Questions included topics of importance to most residence in the district including transportation, broadband education, the use of rail and workforce development. For the most part, all three concurred on most of the issues including when asked about the construction of a large reservoir to attract visitors to the area. For the most part, none of those vying for the seat supports the idea of the construction, but rather focus on the accessible rivers we already have available while at the same time, not damming or overdeveloping those resources.
One area in which there were some discrepancies, however, was when it come to the Federal Government expanding Medicare coverage and addressing the high cost of health insurance.
Candidate Wally Sapp said that expanding the federal program should only be done as a last resort, but he does agree that something should be done so that Georgians can obtain health care coverage that truly is affordable.
Candidate Leesa Hagan said she doesn’t believe expanding Medicare would be a good chose for Georgia because as a federal program, there is no guarantee how long it would available and once the feds pull funding, it would be up to the state to continue it.
On the other hand, Candidate Wright Gres says he does like the idea, and equates it to “leaving money on the table.” Gres added that other countries have a similar healthcare system, and he has personally been told by some under that those who utilize it are well pleased.
Early voting in the election ends this Friday with the polls for in-person voting opened in the 156th District next Tuesday from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
