Debbie Holmes: Why I'm running

I'm giving this address tomorrow to air on KTVB, and I thought I'd let you take a look at it first!

-Debbie

Hello, I'm Debbie Holmes and I am running for Congress in the Second District. I understand that to some of you I'm a new face. So let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm a trained chemist, mother of three and a real estate agent. We moved to Idaho 17 years ago. It seems like yesterday that my husband and I went past Mountain Home in my old Cutlass Sierra over those stark brown hills with a giant box of toys squeezed between our two young children, and saw the city in which we plan to spend the rest of our lives.

Since I moved here, I've taught chemistry labs at Boise State University, had my youngest child, volunteered in my community, and taken up a career in real estate to pay for college tuition. But mostly I have raised my three children. Real estate sometimes gets a bad rap, but it's a large part of what got me into this race. Throughout my entire life, I have always stood up for what I believe in. I believe that every American should have, if they work hard, a chance at the American dream. That every child should have a first class education from the slowest learner to the most gifted. That decent health care shouldn't be treated as a commodity but as the right of every citizen. That the people of this country need good paying jobs, and shouldn't be undercut by outsourcing. That we should only go to war for just causes. I have always believed these things.

But working in real estate, I saw the American Dream beginning to fade for my clients. Some were selling their houses because they couldn't afford their medical bill and the mortgage. Some had lost their jobs in layoffs and could no longer support their families in their own homes. I've seen people whose finances have collapsed, and who are trying to sell their houses to pay the bills, but can't get it off the market.

You have to ask yourself; why is this happening? I'll tell you why: Idaho Republicans, while promising to put money in your pocket and protect your individual well-being, have deregulated the financial sector to the point that these industries have gotten away with behavior that would once have been considered criminal, They allowed abusive loans to be given that never should have been offered. They've allowed health care reform to be pushed off the table, believing that the insurance companies would solve these problems in good faith, instead they take 31 cent of every health care dollar spent in this country. Mike Simpson and his colleagues are lock step with the Bush administration, working and voting against the people and for big oil and special interests

Mike Simpson will tell you of his record of bipartisanship, yet he called the leadership in Congress an "iron fisted dictatorship and prefers political grandstanding to compromise. He'll talk about his record on education, but Idaho's schools are crumbling, and our state is still tied for last in education spending." He has not been half as effective on the Hill as he claims. And he has been a part of the rubber-stamp Congress that is largely responsible for the disastrous war in Iraq. I would never have supported a war into which we went unprepared and with insufficient evidence. It is time to bring our troops, who have done an extraordinary job and deserve our utmost respect, home.

I've been all over this district during the campaign, and I understand the root of the problems that worry Idahoans, because I've been trying to solve them, not from the government, but on the ground. If you elect me as your congresswoman, I will be a strong voice to address these problems rather than another congressperson who ignores them or worse, causes them, as my opponent has done. It's time to give Idaho Democrats a chance to fix the mistakes of Simpson and the state's political establishment. Please let me help solve these problems by giving me your vote on Nov. 4.

Comments

[Julie in Boise]

Thanks for the sneak peek, Debbie. Do you know what time tomorrow this will be on KTVB?

[Jesse Holmes]

It won't actually be on tomorrow; that's when it's being recorded. We'll let you know when it will be on the air.

[Julie in Boise]

Thanks, Jesse. Yes, keep us posted.