At the recent Rowan County GOP convention, incumbent state Rep. Harry Warren celebrated the accomplishments of the Republican-led legislature during his tenure.

Among them were putting an end to forced annexation, removing the charter school cap, and introducing measures to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants for government jobs. Warren boasts that Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law 13 bills for which he was the primary sponsor. Gov. Beverly Perdue signed four of his bills before that.

His challenger in the race for the House District 77 seat, three-term county commission chairman Chad Mitchell, said that’s not enough. Mitchell’s main area of contention is that Warren is too soft on immigration reform.

“I am a firm supporter of fair, legal immigration — whether you believe we are a melting pot, or a salad bowl, which is what we’re teaching in school now,” Mitchell said. “Under no circumstances should we be giving an illegal immigrant a valid legal document.”

Barring a write-in or unaffiliated candidate in the general election, the winner of the Republican primary presumably would win the legislative seat outright because no Democrats filed to run in the district, which covers much of Rowan County.

The North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation lists District 77 as strong Republican, with a 39.6 percent to 34.5 percent Republican edge in registered voters. In 2012, Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory won the district with 71.5 percent of the vote; GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney got 65.3 percent of the vote.

Mitchell said he would advocate more strongly for education if he were sent to Raleigh.

“We should rethink our all-in policy on Common Core. Traditional high schools do not provide environments where many students will learn the best,” Mitchell told Carolina Journal.

He does not expect one grand program could fix all the problems with schools, but he advocates numerous steps — from changing the way teachers are paid to increasing school choice — noting the student must be the most important concern in any reform.

Mitchell said he would support a Taxpayer Bill of Rights if it incorporated the ideas that are working in other states. Commonly called TABOR, the proposal would limit growth of government tax revenue by tying it to a formula based on population increases and inflation, unless voters pass a referendum to raise them higher.

He is pleased with the direction the General Assembly is taking on tax reform, and would like it to continue toward a flat tax or fair tax system based on consumption rather than income.

Mitchell said he opposes Medicaid expansion “unless the federal government is going to impose some nasty requirement that is going to affect costs.” He would prefer tax reform that is fair to everybody rather than bestowing tax breaks on favored industries.

He said redrawing legislative boundaries will always be political “unless you get some computer to do it,” but there is a lot of room for improvement.

From his experience as a county commissioner, he believes the greatest reform he could enact would be reining in the legislature’s ability to be arbitrary with its revenue redistribution to counties. As an example, he cited the lottery.

“When they said they would make funds available for schools, the counties took out debt for school construction, and now that funding is all but dried up,” Mitchell said. Speaking as a teacher, he said, “That’s inappropriate.”

Warren said he knows from experience that good talking points can go south when legislation is actually drafted. He said he would wait to see the text of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights before lending his support.

Moreover, “the devil is in the details” with that and any proposal for legislative redistricting, he said.

He would support green energy subsidies on a case-by-case basis.

However, he said: “I don’t support teacher tenure in any capacity. I haven’t seen how it helps in any report on student achievement or teacher performance.”

Warren currently serves on legislative committees studying the Affordable Care Act and Common Core. He said the jury is still out on both issues.

He discouraged being “emotional” or an “ideologue” about Common Core. Although it has its good points, he said, “Common Core is rife with a lot of problems that need to be addressed before implementing it in North Carolina.”

Warren has served two terms in the General Assembly. Prior to that, he was a human resources specialist for Tar Heel Capital Corp., one of the largest franchisees of the Wendy’s restaurant chain. His campaign has $28,363 cash on hand.

Mitchell teaches at East Rowan High School, from which he graduated in 1994. He went on to get a dual degree in public administration and American history from Catawba College. He is serving his third term on the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. His campaign cash on hand was not available.

Leslee Kulba is a contributor to Carolina Journal.