Spotlight on the FL-02 Congressional District

• B.S. degree in Business Management from Troy State University
• A.A. degree in Mortuary Science from Jefferson State Junior College
• Florida Licensed Funeral Director and Florida Licensed Insurance Agent
• Current Co-Owner and President of Southerland Family Funeral Homes, founded in 1955
• Two term member of the Florida Board of Funeral Directors (Gubernatorial Appointment)
• Two term Chairman of the Florida Board of Funeral Directors
• Founding partner in Genesis Granite and Stone, LLC
• Founding partner in K & B Land and Timber Company, LLC
• Past Chairman of the Early Learning Coalition of NW Florida
• Past member of the Florida State Development Board,
• Past Chairman of the Bay County Chamber of Commerce

ISSUES:

• Fixing the Economy - The government does not create jobs.  Any politician who tells you differently is simply selling you a story.  The problem today is that government thinks it can fix our economy.  What government needs to do is get out of the way.  Free enterprise, small business and the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people will right this ship. As a small business owner, I understand firsthand the tough economic challenges facing our state and nation today.  Unfortunately, the policies coming out of Washington are making matters worse, not better.  Running a small business means meeting payroll, as well as providing employees with health care benefits and retirement support.  However, like small business owners all over Florida and our nation, I have felt the heavy boot of government.  As it has kept taking more and more, small business owners have had a reduced amount of capital and, therefore, an inability to keep their workforce employed. I have seen the devastation that Washington’s ill-conceived policies have created.  I know many of the people in Congressional District 2 who have lost their jobs and businesses.  I HAVE HAD ENOUGH of the government-can-fix-all mentality.  If I earn the privilege of serving the citizens of CD2, I will bring real world experience to our nation’s capital.  I will fight for lower taxes and less regulation and say NO to out-of-control and unnecessary spending.
  
   
• Lowering Taxes - If there is one area where almost all Floridians will join me in saying “ENOUGH,” it is the enormous tax burden we all face.  We must drastically reduce taxes in order to stimulate this economy. The problem with the politicians in our nation’s capital is that “government” has become their solution to all problems.  When faced with a problem, they believe they must tax American citizens even more to pay for yet another government program that isn’t a solution.  They are wrong. More government spending will not help our economy, and we certainly do not need Washington bureaucrats making decisions about how best to spend our money.  Your hard-earned dollars belong in your pocket.  The manner in which you spend them is your decision.  That’s what will generate economic opportunity. In Congress I will fight for families and small businesses that have been the target of crippling tax policies.  Too much has already been taken from people who have worked way too hard for a post-tax wage that is way too little. If we are to get real capital into our economy to stimulate job growth, then workers and small businesses should be allowed to keep their money and spend it as they see fit—not have it confiscated by our federal government for stimulus programs that are guaranteed to fail.
  
   
• Family - Without question, the basic fundamental unit of any civil society is the family.  Other than personal individual freedoms, no other issue is more critical than issues concerning the family.  America, let me be clear, I believe that no greater commitment can be made than the commitment between a husband and wife.  It is from that union that the family is birthed and the next generation of American citizens are born.  All children deserve the safety and security that is produced in a strong family environment where parents work together to provide both for the daily needs of their children as well as future needs.  We as Americans must be tireless in our protection of pro family values including, but not limited to, the rights of the unborn child.  On this subject,  I can’t help but think that as Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was divinely inspired as he listed our unalienable rights by first listing the right of life.  I can only interpret the order of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as a priority listing according to how critical those rights would be in the future of our fledgling nation.  So, if I’m correct in my interpretation of the importance of order, the right of life, trumps the right of liberty, and the right of liberty, trumps the right of pursuit of happiness.  All this to mean, that the right of life is the most important right we have in our society and that it must be protected and its sanctity acknowledged before anyone’s liberty or pursuit of happiness.  Life then, must be secured and no one has the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness by extinguishing the life of the unborn.
  
   
• Reducing Government Spending and Waste - Both Democrats and Republicans have failed miserably in trying to reduce federal spending.  Government waste has grown with the blessing of Congress.  Put simply, no more bailouts, no more stimulus packages, no more cash for clunkers, and no more government programs that take our money and redistribute it as deemed best by a politician. For generations our elected representatives have passed laws, written regulations and taken the hard-earned money of American citizens to fix problems.  Look at the mess they have created.I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.  It’s time for career politicians, who are all too happy to receive their salary, retirement and health care courtesy of the American taxpayer, to understand that the feeding frenzy is over.  When my company has financial troubles, we are forced to cut expenses and live within our means.  If elected, I will fight to make government do what families and small businesses all over northwest Florida have been forced to do in these hard economic times—live within their means.