With unemployment at 17.8 percent in Scotland County and averaging 13.3 percent in the district’s five counties, state Senate District 25 is awash in candidate promises to do something about education, work force training, and job creation.

But the emotional debate over fracking for natural gas and the controversial legal wrangle over relicensing of Alcoa hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River also are bubbling to the political surface as the May 8 primary approaches.

Incumbent William Purcell, D-Scotland, is retiring after seven terms representing the 25th District, comprising Anson, Richmond, Rowan, Scotland, and Stanly counties.

Rockingham Mayor Eugene McLaurin III and Daniel Lane Wilson of Ansonville, executive director of the N.C. Rural Water Association, are competing for the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, Stanly County Commissioner Fletcher “Gene” McIntyre is pitted against Albemarle small businessman and political newcomer Jack Benoy.

Primary winners will compete in the Nov. 6 general election.

Democrats

McLaurin, president of Quality Oil Company, believes 15 years as mayor and 33 years of experience as a small businessman, in addition to his community involvement and public service, position him well to be senator.

“I have a record of success, a proven record of being able to help businesses to grow. I know how to work with local companies to help them expand their operations,” McLaurin said.

“I’ve been a problem solver … in both local and state governments,” he said. “We’ve been able to broaden our tax base here in Rockingham, live within our means, and be a good steward of tax dollars.”

Wilson, who has served on the Anson County Board of Education, also touts his experience.

“I have also worked in Raleigh and Washington, D.C.” representing the Rural Water Association, he said.

“I know how the system works. I know how to get things done from both sides of the aisle. From day one I’ll hit the ground running,” Wilson said. Having worked in the textile, public utilities, and municipal government realms, “I’ve got the full spectrum of experience necessary.”

McLaurin repeatedly evokes the job-related themes.

“We’ve got to improve the work force training programs we’ve got in North Carolina to prepare our people for the future,” he said. “We’ve also got to make sure that we invest in our schools and be able to enable those young people to have the skills they need to enter the work force.”

While recruiting companies, “we need to be flexible about what they need in order to be able to invest in our state,” McLaurin said. Rockingham County has provided incentives to do that, and he is not opposed to state incentives, with conditions.

“We’ve got to be careful about doing that. We’ve got to be good stewards of local and state funds,” he said.

“I think government needs to provide the core services that our citizens expect, and that is something that is a constant process of evaluating,” McLaurin said. He said work force training programs should be reviewed for possible consolidation to free up overlapping bureaucratic dollars.

“I definitely plan on championing putting more teachers back in the classroom,” Wilson said. “I want to see not just the early college program excel and be funded, where we put high schoolers in the early college stetting, but I also want to see a vocational track” for high school students.

“You’ve got things such as fracking that are affecting our district,” Wilson said. “I’m not against harvesting natural resources for the betterment of the economy, [but] it begins with us setting policies and laws that protect our groundwater, our roadways, and everything that’s going to be damaged or used.”

He said he is “still in the middle of investigating the Alcoa situation” and has not formed a hard position on it because it is more complex than has been discussed publicly. The state and Scotland County, among others, are trying to prevent the Pittsburgh-based corporation from getting federal renewal of its license to operate hydroelectric dams. They want a multi-county public agency to assume the work.

Republicans

McIntyre said the state budget “was way out of whack” before Republicans took control of the General Assembly in the last session. He wants to see the small government approach continue “to make sure we’re not stifling business.”

One area to look for budget cuts is in education bureaucracy, he said.

“We need to look at how big our Education Department is over there. It is humongous. It’s 800 employees and they’re over there telling schools how to educate students” on a local level, McIntyre said.

“We need to go back to technical education [in high schools], preparing the work force,” he said. “The community colleges are there.”

“I’m all for the nursing programs and the other programs, don’t get me wrong,” McIntyre said. But he believes that when technical schools became community colleges they began a shift towards academic pursuits and away from the trades.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a plumber. Try to hire one sometime,” McIntyre said.

Benoy said state government “is outpacing the private sector in growth and that needs to be scaled back. Obviously the problem is where do you cut.” Although a proponent of education, he said, “I believe we have put together enough taxes. I believe cuts should be on the spending side and not in increases in revenue.”

He would like to see more support for community colleges and job training.

“Many of our residents, the kids grow up and have to leave here to find work, and that is an important issue to me,” Benoy said. “There were a lot of textiles in these counties, and those are gone. It’s been slow in replacing those jobs.”

He also weighed in on the Alcoa relicensing, saying McIntyre, as a county commissioner, is on the wrong side.

“We have incurred a sizeable legal bill for trying to block that,” Benoy said. “I just don’t feel like they have the expertise” to operate hydroelectric dams through a joint municipal coalition.

District 25 is majority Democrat but listed as a swing district by the N.C. Free Enterprise Foundation. Democrats are 51 percent of the registered voters, Republicans 30 percent, and unaffiliated 20 percent. Registered voters are 73 percent white and 24 percent black.

Voters favored Republican incumbent Richard Burr over Democrat challenger Elaine Marshall in the 2010 U.S. Senate race, 57 percent to 41 percent.

In 2008 they favored Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama for president, 57 percent to 42 percent, and Republican Pat McCrory over Democrat Bev Perdue for governor, 53 percent to 45 percent.

Dan Way is a contributor to Carolina Journal.